Best Saber Saw Blade for 1.5" Maple Bench Top?

[smandel]

aioe.org:

get a blade w/lotsa teeth, and go slowly. Put a piece of plywood under the bench to avoid tearout on the bottom. get a 3" blade

shelly

[smandel]

It would be more helpful, and save our time, if you just posted your financial particulars. that way we could help you make good FINANCIAL tool decisions as well - maybe even a whole new shop to go with the new bench!

shelly

[Nonny]

I have the 18v DeWalt jigsaw and use the Bosch blades. It's one fine combination.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:13:06 -0800 (PST), the infamous [e-mail] scrawled the following:

Crowbars everywhere are rejoicing (and wallets cowering) over your suggestion here, Shelly.

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

[Doug White]

Doug White wrote in news:Xns9D1CCCADBEADFgwhitealummitedu@69.16.186.50:

Well, I _finally_ got time to finish this job. I bought a new Bosch saw, and got some of the new "clean" blades to go with it. I used the biggest blade I had for extra rigidity.

The results were very good, but not exactly perfect. Crosscutting was a dream. Nice stright cuts, no blade wander, and a smooth, accurate, vertical cut.

Ripping was a different story. The blade bogged down a LOT. The sawdust blowing on my left hand (which was guiding the front of the saw) was HOT, and dark brown. I tried varying the speed & pressure, but never came up with a combination that cut especially well. The resulting cut was smooth & accurate, except that the blade flexed in the cut (fortunately, _into_ the material to be removed) so that the cut wasn't vertical. Despite the hot sawdust, the cut was not particularly burned. Maybe "lightly toasted" is a better description. I'm going to clean it up with a router & template, so it's no big deal.

All in all, the new saw is quite a success. Ripping 1.5" hard maple is definitely a chore, even for this puppy. I can't imagine what it would have been like trying to use my old Black & Decker saw with conventional blades. I'd probably still be at it.

Thanks for all the suggestions & info.

Doug White

[Lee Michaels]

Two thoughts.

That is a pretty small saw for cutting a maple bench top. So, the saw did pretty good. Even if it was difficult on the rip cuts.

And now that you got that job out of the way, you got a great little saw for a hundred other jobs! And those cuts will propbbly be much easier.

I haven't broke down and bought that saw yet. But I do make sure I have a sharp blade in the saw for anything I do.

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:42:28 GMT, the infamous Doug White scrawled the following:

Were you using a RIP blade? If not, it'll cut very slowly and you'll get hot, brown sawdust on you. Oh, sometimes it smokes, too. ;)

-- Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn. -- John Muir

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------- Bosch makes a blade specifically for rip cuts.

From memory 5"-6" long, 3-4 TPI.

Problem probably solved.

Lew

[Doug White]

Larry Jaques wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That sounds about right. I was cutting out a couple rectangular indents in one edge of the bench top. I hadn't expected to have to swap blades back & forth in the middle of things, so I didn't use a rip blade. Sounds like I should pick up a couple.

Doug White

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:29:45 GMT, the infamous Doug White scrawled the following:

It makes all the difference in the world.

-- Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn. -- John Muir