Table Saw Blade Selection.

[NoOne N Particular]

I have several table saw blades in my "collection". I have Combination blades, "Satin Finish" blades, plywood blades, and rip blades. I have carbide tipped and plain steel blades. I have blades with anywhere from 24 to 80 teeth, and plywood blades with 100 and even 200 teeth. Almost all of them are the ATB variety with one or two TCG grinds. And none of them leave a flat bottom standard width kerf.

I have looked at blades in the orange and blue borgs and they are practically all ATB grinds that will not leave a flat-bottomed kerf. I have not been able to find any ATBR grinds at all. From what I have read, ATBR still doesn't leave a FLAT bottomed kerf, but better than ATB

I guess what I am after is a blade with a FTG grind, but it appears that these are mainly blades used for ripping (the only ones that I have found so far), generally have around 24 teeth, and a hellashous rake angle that would be bad for crosscuts. I am looking for a blade with more teeth (60-80) and a reduced rake angle that I can use for cross-cuts. Things like cutting tenons on the table saw, 1/8" wide groves for keyed or splined mitre joints, etc.

Anyone know of a good quality (doesn't have to be Forrest quality, but good)

10" blade that will leave a nice, clean, flat-bottomed, 1/8" kerf on a cross-cut that only goes part way through the wood?

Wayne

[max]

I too had a collection of blades, until I bought the Forrest WW11. I found that I no longer changed blades. I used that blade for everything. It is the best blade I have ever used. max

[Leon]

CALL FORREST... They will build and grind the teeth on a blade just about any way you would want it.

[Leon]

Except that it leaves a "V" bottom and the OP wants a flat bottom. Check the last sentence in the first paragraph.

[bridger]

you likely will have to have it made. it's no big deal, and the cost will not be as bad as you think. look first for a local sharpening shop near you. if your town doesn't have one or they don't get it about building blades like that, look on the web.

[max]

They will grind your blade any way you want.

[Nova]

I would think a good sharpening service should be able to grind and set the teeth any way you'd like?

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[BobS]

Surprised no one has suggested using the end blades form a dado set like the Freud 508. It has two 8" x 1/8" outer blades that leave a nice flat-bottom groove and I use those. You may not need or want an 8" dado set so drop back to the Freud (or whoever) 6" set and you'll have solved the problem and end up with a nice dado set at the same time.

Bob S.

[Prometheus]

It's been a good long while since I worked in the sharpening business, but you might talk to your local sharpening service about the "triple chip" style blades. They're basically an alternating tooth set where the high tooth has the corners knocked off at 45 degrees on each side, and the low tooth (.01" lower) is flat. While that's not going to give you a *perfectly* flat-bottomed kerf, it'd be a lot closer than the standard crosscut tooth set. IIRC, these saws were for mitre cuts, but like I said, you'd want to talk to your local sharpening service before jumping on it- they make the suckers for a living, so they're usually a fount of information.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[mac davis]

one side of a dado set?

[mac davis]

I think HF calls that a "novelty" blade...

[Lawrence Wasserman]

If you have a decent sharpening service in your area, you can have them grind an ATB/raker combination blade so all the teeth including the rakers are the same height. I'm just guessing here that this will give better results than having all the teeth on an ATB or general purpose blade ground flat accross the top.

[Charlie Self]

And the raker will probably be a triple chip grind (TCG) to clean up the middle of the slot.

There are a few of those out there. Checking the blade manufacturers' sites might help the OP find what he wants without a regrind. I know that Infinity has such a grind, in their combination blade, with what they call a chamfered raker tooth that doesn't have quite as distinct a tombstone shape as do most TCG tips.

Freud has a flat top grind raker blade in some of their LU84 series blades. Bosch has a new series of blades that is not yet shown on their web site. Amana seems to me to be another with that type of configuration. Most seem to be in the combination blade arena, NOT the general use blade area, all with fairly agressive tooth angles--14 degs. up to about 18 degs.

Charlie Self "Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." Ambrose Bierce

[robdingnagian1]

Now that you bring this up, can someone please shed some light on their different series'

I have a Freud LU84R011 10" x 50-Tooth Combination Blade on my table saw and love it.

I also have a 12" Freud Diablo for my Bosch CMS and a 7 1/4" on one of my circular saws. They are both very solid performers.

I also have a Forrest WWII thin kerf which I have yet to use.

I have searched for rip blades and crosscut blades and have shopped what seems like dozens of different red, chrome, black, metal colored, etc. Freud blades. They seem to be all over the place in pricing. In shopping for Freud blades, what is the pecking order in the different series? I don't suppose that I want to put a Diablo on my table saw. Any light on the subject would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric T

[J]

Since you already have a Forrest WWII, why not put it on the saw and be done with it?

-j

[Charlie Self]

Eric T asks:

Best bet: check

and look over the woodworking and contractor grade blades.

The Diablo will work decently on a table saw, but IME, it's not made for that. You're better off with one of the other series. I've got a couple of their Premium series blades, which I find fantastic. I've got the 12" Hyper waiting for the blade on my Bosch 4412 SCMS to wear down a bit, but so far that looks like outlasting me.

Charlie Self "Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." Ambrose Bierce

[robdingnagian1]

Thanks Charlie. I'll check it out at freudtools. I've been trying to figure it out from Amazon. Price doesn't seem to be the answer. FWIW, I also love their router bits.

Eric

[robdingnagian1]

As I said, I haven't used it yet. I wasn't too gung ho on getting the thin kerf, but thats all they had in stock and I had a coupon only good that weekend. It was a good deal. I might see if they'll swap it when a regular kerf comes in. Otherwise, I'm gonna buy their stabilizer.

Basically, its just too damn cold and my garage is just too overcrowded to get any more projects in this winter. Therefore, I don't think that I'm gonna find out how I like it for a while.

I do like the Freud combo. However, it isn't the greatest for ripping through Oak. I think that I would like to get a good rip blade to hog through it. I probably don't really need a crosscut blade as the Freud works great. I assume that the Forrest will too. I'm also assuming that it won't be the greatest at ripping.

Eric

[Prometheus]

They may call them that, but Cadillac used to use them to saw aluminum intake manifolds, so I imagine they're fairly functional. Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[igor]

I made a long search for a truly flat top blade about a year ago and what I found is that if that is what I really wanted I would have to have it made/altered. I am having a brain freeze at the moment but I think you want a "box joint" blade. I vaguely recall in my research that one company rep told me that "no one" actually makes one anymore because they have added anti-kickback/clearing attributes to every blade.

As Leon noted, Forrest will do that for you -- and I did check with them and the prices was not so much more than their off-the-shelf blades. A digression about Forrest: I sent them a few blades to sharpen and they called to say that one was not really dull. I figured it was already there so I had them sharpen it anyway, even though the difference would be marginal.

You might try CMT blades. You say that 24 teeth are not enough, but if you reconsider you might try this:

am not sure what the final result is on this other CMT blade, but you can call the store and ask. (When I was researching, I found them helpful.) Here is the description: "The 10" x 60 Tooth CMT Cabinetshop Blade is sure to become a "standard" in the shop. The CMT Cabinetshop Blade, with alternating Triple Chip - Flat Top Grind and deeper gullet design, allows you to rip or crosscut with splinter free results in both hard and soft wood. Performs well also in laminates and plywood. The all-around performance of the CMT Cabinetshop Blade guarantees it will be an excellent value in a shop of any size." Not sure if this is what the wrec god Prometheus was referring to. HTH. -- Igor