Which blade

[NT]

Hi

I've got a basic table saw and have a choice of blades to fit: 20 teeth, 24 teeth and 40 teeth. I presume the 40 will cut finer for a given feed speed, are there any other pros/cons to the different teeth numbers? The blades look identical in other respects.

thanks, NT

[Roger Mills]

20 teeth will rip quickly through wood when you're not worried about surface finish - but would cause serious chipping of the laminates on kitchen worktops etc. - where you need a much finer blade, but need to go more slowly.

[Tim Watts]

NT wibbled on Monday 22 February 2010 12:19

Get the 40, unless you're chopping a lot of big timber, 40 will cut fast enough IME and will give a nice clean cut. I've just this very last week laid another wood floor using a 40 tooth blade in my sliding saw. With a little trick[1], it is possible to get zero splintering on the upper surface, which engineered wood is rather prone to doing, moreso IME than plain timber, which most of the time a 40 will do very nicely without further ado.

For the record, regarding a 40 TCT blade and vaneered materials: I slide the saw once over the piece cutting 2-3mm into the finished surface - this is guaranteed to be a clean cut. Stop the blade, move the piece 1/2mm left or right depending on which bit needs to finish clean, then restart the cut. No surface splintering on the top surface.

[The Medway Handyman]

The 20 tpi is likely to be a ripping blade for natural timber, the 24 tpi is a general purpose blade and the 40 tpi fine cut for veneered/melamine faced chipboard etc.

[NT]

thanks everone. I'll be going with the 40.

NT