Where do you get this nonsense from? Ever see a max kerf size on a motor rating?
Quite obviously a standard kerf blade will use 33% more power than a thin kerf. If the saw has enough power with a standard kerf blade, of course you won't see a difference. If it's marginal thin-kerf is a good idea.
That is with the assumption that the thin and thick are equal in quality and sharpness. A premium regular kerf will cut better and faster than a mediocre thin kerf blade on the same saw.
:
The rotating mass alone gives the thicker blade an advantage....and yes, assuming relative sharpness and quality of teeth.
"Robatoy" wrote
I like the thick blades too, but as far as momentum of the higher mass thick blade?
Naa. You can kill that momentum difference in a fraction of a second.
The key that everyone (almost) is missing is the number of teeth, as it is the KEY factor.
Each tooth uses some HP as it shears, and tears through the wood. If you have less teeth, it will use less HP to pull the fewer teeth through the wood.
Plus, fewer teeth means more space between the tooth and the body of the blade. You need that space for ripping, because the good sharp tooth will pull the wood fibers out in a longer chip, since it is with the grain. Cutting across the grain, the chips stay small because the wood separates between the summer and winter wood as it is sheared off. Ripping is like it says; it rips (more than shears) a long line of grain out of the stock.
But the key is the number of teeth. Less teeth = less HP required. Simple rule.
Tell you what. If you have never used an 8 tooth rip blade, find someone to buy one from that will give you a money back guarantee if you do not like it. My bet is that you will like it and you will keep it, and mount it and leave it, or change back to it when you need to rip a quanity of wood.
A plain high-speed-steel blade is fine, also. You can sharpen it yourself with a dremmel tool and a cutoff blade when it is dull, and re-set the stagger with a little ball peen hammer and a vice when you need to. It will be the last rip blade you buy for a long time.
You're doing a partial body diagram, and being mighty partial about it. Yes, the heavier blade has a greater rotational inertial force, but a heavier-as-in-wider blade also is cutting more wood, so it has more drag. There's no simple answer.
My take? Cut the least amount of wood you need to cut (thinnest kerf), and buy the best quality blade you feel you can afford (their thin kerf blades will be better than a lower quality thicker blade). The stop worrying about it and start cutting wood.
R
yes, assuming relative sharpness and quality of teeth.
------------------------------------ When the mass of the ass, equals the angle of the dangle, She is wise to the rise, In your Levis.
Mass is good, if foretells a comfortable ride.
Lew
As someone said here a few years back: "I don't change my blade until I can't see the wood through the smoke."
I have to agree with robatoy about hearing and seeing the vibration and oscillation even with a stabilizer on a thin kerf blade. And this is with a Forrest blade and a Forrest stabilizer.
True, that assumption was implicit. Why would you favor a dull thin-kerf over a sharp standard kerf? ...or verse visa.
I'm not buying that at all. The only way this is true is if the feed rate is proportional to the number of teeth. That is, the amount of work done by each tooth is the same on different blades. This obviously isn't true because a blade with more teeth (all else equal) will leave smaller scores in the cut (smaller bites).
Now you're comparing totally different operations. Apples and oranges.
Not buying it.
If you're sawing raw planks, perhaps.
If you work on a British Leylands car every night, you might be able to drive it to work each morning.
No there isn't a simple answer, but everything else being equal, the increased mass of a blade assists in the cutting action, like a bigger hammer. Surely nobody is interested in too much geek detail, hence the Readers Digest version of my statement. Not only is a more massive rotational force advantage provable on a physical level, it is well supported by personal observation and what industrial cutter heads show to be most effective in their respective environments. A set of solid 'stiffeners' on a table saw not only 'stiffens' the blade, the added mass contributes to a better cut as well.
Apples and oranges, mon ferret. The stiffeners add rotational mass, but no additional cutting resistance is added. Not the case with a wider blade.
R
How is blade life on a thin kerf? Don't they heat up and dull a whole lot more quickly? I don't have but a couple cuts on the Diablo I bought for the skilsaw, maybe 5' in total, so I don't know yet.
-- We're all here because we're not all there.
JFC! I can't stand it any more. FEWER!, not "less".
I've ripped nicely with a B&D 18T Piranha blade. They're great for demo work, too; tough li'l suckahs.
-- We're all here because we're not all there.
There's your proof that thin blades wobble:
Even _Forrest_ makes stabilizers.
-- We're all here because we're not all there.
For sawblades kinds of masses, the inertial effects would be minimal at best and the blade stiffener mass is concentrated near the shaft, anyway. Besides, the inertia contained in the motor rotor, etc., is multiples of that of the blade owing to the mass differences. Hence, even though the blade mass may be sizable fractional difference between the two, the system mass is essentially constant; ergo, so is the total inertia.
I have to concur w/ the dominant issue (for equivalent sharpness, tooth geometry, etc.) being that of amount of material cut per tooth far overriding any of the other effects.
--
Right. Except for the stiffeners and blade, the whole system is a constant, and as you say, the bite size is the predominant, essentially only, variable.
R
I have a blade that's wider at the hub than the kerf. Sort of a built- in stiffener, I suppose. It's a PITA if you forget it's on the saw and the hub bottoms out on thicker wood (I think it's maximum cut is about 1-1/4".
Only if you have live horses hitched to the saw.
If anything, I'd expect less wear on a thin-kerf. They use less power to cut, so they shouldn't get as hot. Less mass, too, but the surface area is the same (and any dissipation through the hub, trunion,....
I have a Diablo for my 6-1/2" 18V Dewalt cordless circular saw. Nice blade.
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