Customer Reviews

Forrest STIF05 5-Inch Saw Blade Dampener and Stiffener with 5/8-Inch Arbor

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I use this with my Forrest Woodworker II blade in my Jet 5hp table saw. It makes an already great blade work fantastic. The only thing you have to watch is that it does diminish your depth of cut on the table saw. I still have over 2" of cut which is satisfactory for most of my applications. If I need to go deeper, I just take it off.

I was skeptical of any added benefit that a stabilizer would add to my Woodworker II blade - it cuts great by itself. I bought the stiffener as an "insurance policy" - similar to another reviewer.

I immediately noticed a difference - a ring that the blade made when I used a zero tolerance insert dissapeared when I added the stiffener. Clearly some vibration was removed and some incidental contact with the insert was prevented. It it too early to say if this will clearly make a difference in a ripped board, but any reduced vibration is a good thing in my book.

I gave this 4 stars only due to the price - I don't see a justification for the price. I think this could be offered less expensively or offered (at a discount) with the blade in a package.

I am currently using this on my table saw. It lays up against the side of your blade, and helps to keep it true. Once in awhile I need to make a deeper cut, and it can get in the way for those cuts. I made some passes 2 1/2" deep and the edge of the Forrest stiffner stopped the piece. It is the first time I have had a problem with that.
Initially I installed this stiffner on a Sears Radial Arm saw because I was getting a good deal of wobble with it. Oddly enough, when I tried mounting a blade, then testing the trueness, only to loosen the nut, spin the blade slightly to a new seat, then retighten, and after a few tries, I hit it right, and the wobble disappeared. So whenever I replace a blade on that saw, I tweak it until it is right. Oddly enough, it runs so true when I do that, that I moved the Forrest over to the table saw.
I mated this stiffner up to the Forrest Woodworker II on my table saw, and I am getting cuts so smooth, you don't even have to sand the edge. It is finish quality perfectly smooth. (The Incra TSIII-32 table saw fence helps, giving me a true exact paralell line with the blade.)
So get the stiffner, make sure your fence is perfectly true, and you can forget about having to make your cuts a little bit oversized and having to finish up the edge on the jointer.
Highly recommended. The Forrest name is synonymous with the best in quality.

I can't complain about this dampener too much, except to say that it will diminish the depth of your cut... you won't be able to raise your blade as high as before (it'll hit your throat plate). That's the only complaint.

Now... on the positive side... well, gee... if you're using a Forrest blade and you haven't warped it or something, the blade's cutting wood like hot butter anyway... So why use this? I've noticed no perceptible difference when the dampener is attached, yet still... I leave it on. I guess it gives me a little more security knowing that my blade is more rigid than without it. But does it improve the quality of the cut? Not as far as I can tell, and I cut a lot of hard, white oak.

Still, if it protects your blade at all, it's worth having... if nothing else, for the extra peace of mind.

Not much to say on something so simple other than: Do not skip on this product. If you get the Forrest blade, get this. My blade is great, but sometimes would get a little vibration thing going. This helped settle things down greatly.

In twenty-plus years of using these things, I've learned that they definitely DO improve cut-quality and blade endurance while reducing noise, but only on certain types of saws: American style cabinet saws and modern "hybrid saws."

As the name implies, it dampens blade-vibration. All saw blades have slight imbalances that produce vibration at high speeds. Anything that reduces that vibration, improves how well your saw cuts.

Obviously, if you don't care about precision, that's not a big problem. There are legitimate reasons why some users do not need this thing. Construction carpenters must work FAST and don't need extremely fine tolerances. Some hobbyists are just making decks, lawn furniture or garage shelves. They do not need or care about precision within one-thousandth of an inch.

Many hobbyists have inexpensive contractor-style saws. SOME of these saws ARE capable of precision with enough tweaking, but this thing cannot fix a two-hundred dollar "home-center" table saw. If your saw fits into a car or costs less than $300, then any improvement will be negligible.

Some reviewers didn't detect much improvement with this thing. It's likely they don't know how to detect the improvement, how to measure for it or that their machines just aren't capable of delivering high precision.

NO SINGLE DEVICE like this will fix a cheap machine, bad bearings or sloppy adjustment.

EVERY expensive table saw has blade-stiffeners like these as STOCK equipment. Superb saws (>$10,000) have stiffeners / dampeners for a reason: Their engineers understand the importance of keeping blade-vibration to a minimum.

Cabinet saws are better than contractor saws, but lack the engineering refinement of high-end Euro machines. So the owner / operator is left to improve his cabinet-saw with every available device and trick he knows. Along with accurate adjustment, good blades and the other "best-case" elements, this inexpensive add-on is one more weapon in your arsenal that fights imprecision. It's like a single soldier in the war against slop... With his comrades, he can help keep the enemy at bay, but he can't win all by himself.

What it does and HOW it does it...
The "Stiffener / Dampener" reduces blade-noise like a drummer gripping a cymbal. It "chokes" or dampens those "singing" vibrations. Even on a cheap saw, you will HEAR that difference, especially if you stop the machine mid-cut. When machines run smoothly and quietly, they are more likely to work well. When ANY machine is LOUD, it means there is a source of vibration: enemy of precision.

It adds mass near the CENTER of the blade so that tiny weight-discrepancies at the edge of the blade produce less wobble. Less wobble = better cuts.

It "spreads" its grip over a larger area of the blade (like a big nut-washer) so the blade is clamped closer to the cutting-edge. That keeps blade-rotation near a theoretical "ideal" in a single plane.

The larger clamping-surface and precision-machined arbor-hole reduce chance for misalignment on the arbor.

Increased mass acts as a "heat-sink," drawing heat away from the cutting-edge. That improves cooling, which reduces pitch-build-up and increases blade-life.

When you understand all that you can see; though incredibly simple, this device functions on several levels, all cooperating with basic principles of physics.

The CRUCIAL FACT is: This thing is an inexpensive improvement to any decent American-style table saw. It helps produce cleaner cuts and promote longer blade-wear, thereby saving you money and improving your quality of work.

If you have a fancy European-saw, you don't need this because your saw already has one. If you are a rough-cut construction carpenter or homeowner-hobbyist with a cheap saw, it won't improve your saw significantly and you don't need such high-precision.

This is an ideal tool-upgrade for the dedicated woodworker with a 2 to 6 thousand-dollar cabinet saw. (Powermatic, Saw-Stop, General, Steel-City or top Taiwanese saws.)

It will offer SOME improvement even on decent hybrid or contractor-saws.
(Bosch, Makita, DeWalt. Those saws are made well-enough to notice.)

However, it cannot fix a cheap saw, a dull blade, a poor set-up or a careless operator.

This is for woodworkers with good American-style saws who wants to protect investment in machinery, wood and blades. It is for woodworkers who care about precision but don't have the luxury of twenty-thousand dollar European saws.

For these woodworkers, it is worth the cost MANY times over.

It seems to be well made and ground to a fine finish but I can not see much improvement on my table saw. It seems to help more on my 12" chop saw and might help more if used with a thin kerf blade. I will continue to use it but cannot say for sure if it helps.

standard stiffener, less vibration but with the quality of the new saws and blades I dont know how neccesary a stiffener is anymore. Dont forget you loose some blade height with this on...

This is a good idea for a underpowered saw with thin kerf blades.

This didn't really do anything for me. Of course, my old makita table saw was totally stable before I put it on. It just didn't add anything. Maybe if you had some kind of problems with your blade wobbling, you might appreciate this.

This is a great product, especially for the thin kerf saw blades. The cuts are super smooth. However, it does limit the depth of cut and it must be removed to use the entire available depth of the saw blade for deeper cuts.