I made a wooden burr puzzle the other day and noticed that the blade doesn't cut a square-bottomed groove. An exaggeration of the cut looks similar to this:
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I looked at the blade tips and sure enough they're not squared, but angled. I thought it was maybe the crappy stock blade I got with my TS, but a trip to HD showed me that all blade have tips like this.
So what gives? Do any blades cut a square-bottomed groove like this:
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Mike
upand_at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:1157822199.316386.260210 @i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
Square bottomed cuts are useful for various boxmaking joints as well. I had a square-sharpened blade done for me by my local sharpener - about $60 for a good quality blade. I use it for nothing else.
Some folks have indicated that a rip blade would work. Mine doesn't, though.
ATB and ATBR blades are there to give crisper edges to the cuts. The shape of the 'bottom' matters very little in a through cut.
Patriarch
Any blade with flat top teeth; i.e., a rip blade. Yours is alternate top bevel and is meant for crosscutting.
You blade is has the ATB profile which is intended for through cutting. What you need for a flat bottom cut is FTG which are used mostly for ripping. Jim
The saw blade you have has teeth ground to what is called Alternate Top Bevel, which leaves the distinctive kerf bottom you see. This is common for general purpose, crosscut blades. Only rip blades have teeth ground flat-topped, and rip blades are no good for cross-cutting, especially for the burrs you are trying to make. A blade with an ATB+R grind has a combination of the ATB teeth and the flat teeth, and could be what you are looking for. A well sharpened blade will leave a nearly flat bottomed kerf, but the little wings at the outside edges of the cut will probably still be noticeable. Since you are making burr puzzles, I'll assume you are really cutting wider grooves, using multiple cut of the saw blade. For this application, you really want a good dado set to get a wide, flat bottomed cut.
Have you seen
You might be able to find a rip blade that does, or a decent sharpening shop could grind one that way. Of course, it would be prone to splintering the wood when used to crosscut.
Thanks for the link. A couple jigs on there I want to build.
Mike
JeffB wrote:
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