looking for a tablesaw blade

[scrollsawwoodart]

I'm looking for a tablesaw blade that will give me decent results for cutting segmented squares as well as knots and anything with pen blanks and stoppers. Would be used for wood and acrylic.

I am running a 10" saw. I would like something with a thin kerf cuts smooth.

Any thoughts
thanks
Jesse

 

[Whaler]

I use a Forrest Woodworker II and it's the best blade I have ever used.

 

[scrollsawwoodart]

Does it have a thin kerf?

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Yes they are available in a thin kerf. They are a darn good blade, but pricey. $125 or so. If you have a Rockler close by, I would wait until you can get a 25% off coupon. Forrestt will have a booth at the wood working show in Indy on the 21st thru the 23rd. They usually have a discount for their blades. I also have them sharpen and test my blades when they get dull. We have five of them and when we get down to the last one, we send the other four in.

 

[MAB11]

Have you checked Amazon?

 

[leestoresund]

Just a funny little aside. I had used a (dull) blade to cut some plywood this week. The smoke it generated set off the smoke alarms in the house.
Piercing noise really ****ed off the wife.
It wasn't a brand name blade so I just threw it away.

 

[hewunch]

You can run a 7 1/4" blade on a 10" saw no problem. This will allow even a thinner kerf. I have a friend who makes canoes ($100k+ canoes) and all he runs is a 7 1/4 blade. The name brand escapes me, but it begins with an "M" and sounds Oriental if I recall correctly.

 

[its_virgil]

Diablo thin kerf blade with 80 teeth, I founf one at Home depot.
Do a dood turn daily!
Don

 

[Jim in Oakville]

Forrest Woodworker II ....I have had one for 15 years, it's still awesome

 

[Padre]

I use a Forrest Woodworker II thin kerf. I also use a Freud Diablo 40 tooth thin kerf. Both, in my humble opinion, are great blades.

 

[jttheclockman]

Freud blades. Best bang for your buck. You start buying blades such as the Forrest blades you are now entering big money territory.

When you say thin kerf, you have to ask yourself how thin??/ You can get a thinner blade if as suggested to go with a 7-14" blade. You can get different thickness in a freud blade and other brands have different thickness also.

Now when talking about using thin blades on tablesaws some factors come into play. What type saw are you talking about, a cabinet saw, a contractor saw, or a hybrid or a table top. Some saws, a thin blade will help with the horsepower but are you using these blades for ripping thick stock, or for doing alot of crosscutting. Some tablesaws just need stabilizer or dampining plates because the vibrations make the blade vibrate too much to get decent cuts. If you are talking about just doing pen blanks then don't waste your money on a Forrest balde.

 

[livertrans]

Freud blades. Best bang for your buck.

Dewalt has an excellant combo blade that can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowes that wont set you back an arm and leg. Stay away from Craftsman blades, noisey and produce a bad cut

 

[scrollsawwoodart]

Thanks

Thanks for all the great responses. I am going to do some more research on the blades that are talked about in this forum to learn find the right blade.

Anymore thoughts keep them coming!
Jesse

 

[MesquiteMan]

Well, I am going to jump in here since I am known to be a tool snob!! I make my living with tools, especially saws and such and my favorite saying is "only a rich man can afford cheap tools". Basically spend the money and buy it once and not have to buy it over and over again. In the long run, you will save money.

I year or so ago, I was buying the most expensive blades that I could from Lowes or Home Depot. They were pretty good but not great. There is a state of the art sharpening shop (Cook Industrial Tool, Inc and yes, they do sharpening by mail)near by that I sometimes send stuff out to get sharpened or to get custom knives made for my moulding machine. One day I had to go there to pick up some custom moulding knives and I got a tour of the "plant" by the owner. Very impressive, especialy the $300,000 robot saw blade sharpening machine!) More impressive, however, was Tim Cook's (owner) knowledge of saw blades. I received so much education from him it was unbelievable!

His advice...don't waste your money on the blades at Home Depot and even though the Forrest Woodworker II blades are good, they are way overpriced since they pend a lot of money advertising to the hobby market. He is a Forrest Dealer so there was no bias there. His recommendation was to buy a quality industrial blade without all the hoopla. The pro cabinet shops MUST have top quality blades and do not want to spend and arm and a leg.

His recommendation was an Everlast or one of the Freud Industrial series blades. You will not find these at Lowes or Home Depot and may even have a hard time buying them online. They are only available through certified saw shops. The big advantage is the price is good but also, the carbide is MUCH better and MUCH thicker, allowing for many more sharpenings before having to toss. You also want to look for micro lazer cut cooling slots and especially a tension ring. The tension ring is a very slight raised or indented area about 1/16" wide about 1/3 of the way in from the tooth edge of the blade. This is there to stabilize the blade when it is brought up to speed. ALL good quality blades have a tension ring but not all blades with tension rings are good quality.

I ended up buying 2 Freud Industrial LU84M combination blades and ABSOLUTELY love them. They are the best blades I have ever used and I am ready to buy a couple more. The nice thing is, they were only around $70 each or so. They are every bit as good, if not better, than the Forrest WoodworkerII blade that I had that cost nearly double.

Another REALLY GOOD suggestion for those that have a saw shop near them...visit the saw shop in person. Most all of them have unclaimed blades that they took in for sharpening and the person never picked them up or paid for the sharpening service. I also picked up a used Tenryu Gold Medal freshly sharpened with lots of life still in it for $25!! This is an $80 blade on Amazon and is also an EXCELLENT blade.

 

[soligen]

I have the forrest as well. Might want to consider the version that leaves a flat bottom kerf. You dont need teh flat bottom often, but when you do its nice to not have to look for another blade.

 

[mg_dreyer]

I do not post to often but I did find a blade that might work for you. As a member of a local woodworking club I worked the Chicago woodworking show and the booth next to me was selling tables saw blades with sandpaper attached to it. I was skeptical at first but watched him used it and looked at the results – they were great. I got one and it works great. The miters I cut for a box were perfect (clean and smooth) – really I did not need to sand them anymore. The blades come from Final Cut (www.finalcutblade.com). I have not tried to replace the sand paper yet (no need to after the cuts I made), but it looks easy. I will use this blade for all my fine cuts – sincerely it really worked.

 

[jttheclockman]

I do not post to often but I did find a blade that might work for you. As a member of a local woodworking club I worked the Chicago woodworking show and the booth next to me was selling tables saw blades with sandpaper attached to it. I was skeptical at first but watched him used it and looked at the results – they were great. I got one and it works great. The miters I cut for a box were perfect (clean and smooth) – really I did not need to sand them anymore. The blades come from Final Cut (www.finalcutblade.com). I have not tried to replace the sand paper yet (no need to after the cuts I made), but it looks easy. I will use this blade for all my fine cuts – sincerely it really worked.

This goes to prove that a better mousetrap is out there. I have never seen this application. I am sure it will be making the woodworking shows. I will be on the lookout for it. I like the idea. It would be a huge seller to those segmenters in the turning field. I am going to inquire more on some turning forums as to if anyone has tried this. Thanks for the link and you do need to post more often.

 

[sbwertz]

We have the Freud diablo rip blade. It leaves a surface smooth as glass. I make inside out ornaments and my husband cuts me perfectly square smooth blanks that make such a difference. We have both the Freud rip and crosscut blades, thin kerf. Got one at Woodcraft, the other at Woodworker's Source. The thin kerf maximizes the number of blanks he can get from a piece of wood. (Although if it is a very small piece, I use the bandsaw for the thinnest kerf.)

LOML went out and got the code number off the rip blade ...LU87R010

 

[Texatdurango]

Diablo thin kerf blade with 80 teeth, I founf one at Home depot.
Do a dood turn daily!
Don

Keen minds think alike!....... This is the blade I settled on to make the smoothest, thin kerf cuts for segmenting work. It's 7 1/4" diameter and works beautifully with the Incra miter setup to make very accurate cuts.

 

[jttheclockman]

I do not post to often but I did find a blade that might work for you. As a member of a local woodworking club I worked the Chicago woodworking show and the booth next to me was selling tables saw blades with sandpaper attached to it. I was skeptical at first but watched him used it and looked at the results – they were great. I got one and it works great. The miters I cut for a box were perfect (clean and smooth) – really I did not need to sand them anymore. The blades come from Final Cut (www.finalcutblade.com). I have not tried to replace the sand paper yet (no need to after the cuts I made), but it looks easy. I will use this blade for all my fine cuts – sincerely it really worked.

OK I put this idea out there on a couple forums and especially a segmenters forum because I thought it might be the answer to a segmenters process of getting pieces ready for glue ups. The concenses is that is does not work well. The idea is good but the downfalls are many. First the sandpaper wears too fast thus causeing burned cuts. Second sanding at that high rate of speed is a no no. Third if cutting woods with oil such as purpleheart or bacote and other rosewoods the paper loads up too fast and again causes burning. This is not a product for me. Just wanted to make people aware of some of the downfalls to this idea.

For true segmenters a perfect joint is always strived for. Sanding is a necessary step. In segmenting pens you can get away with cuts straight from a tablesaw or mitersaw blade. The main reason for this is you are glueing both the joints and also the backside of the material to secure to the tube. In true segmenting gluing cross grain to end grain is a definete no no. Again it can be done on a pen but subject to also fail. Must keep that in mind when dealing with woods as segments. Metals and acrylics not a problem. Good luck.

 

[jttheclockman]

Well, I am going to jump in here since I am known to be a tool snob!! I make my living with tools, especially saws and such and my favorite saying is "only a rich man can afford cheap tools". Basically spend the money and buy it once and not have to buy it over and over again. In the long run, you will save money.

I year or so ago, I was buying the most expensive blades that I could from Lowes or Home Depot. They were pretty good but not great. There is a state of the art sharpening shop (Cook Industrial Tool, Inc and yes, they do sharpening by mail)near by that I sometimes send stuff out to get sharpened or to get custom knives made for my moulding machine. One day I had to go there to pick up some custom moulding knives and I got a tour of the "plant" by the owner. Very impressive, especialy the $300,000 robot saw blade sharpening machine!) More impressive, however, was Tim Cook's (owner) knowledge of saw blades. I received so much education from him it was unbelievable!

His advice...don't waste your money on the blades at Home Depot and even though the Forrest Woodworker II blades are good, they are way overpriced since they pend a lot of money advertising to the hobby market. He is a Forrest Dealer so there was no bias there. His recommendation was to buy a quality industrial blade without all the hoopla. The pro cabinet shops MUST have top quality blades and do not want to spend and arm and a leg.

His recommendation was an Everlast or one of the Freud Industrial series blades. You will not find these at Lowes or Home Depot and may even have a hard time buying them online. They are only available through certified saw shops. The big advantage is the price is good but also, the carbide is MUCH better and MUCH thicker, allowing for many more sharpenings before having to toss. You also want to look for micro lazer cut cooling slots and especially a tension ring. The tension ring is a very slight raised or indented area about 1/16" wide about 1/3 of the way in from the tooth edge of the blade. This is there to stabilize the blade when it is brought up to speed. ALL good quality blades have a tension ring but not all blades with tension rings are good quality.

I ended up buying 2 Freud Industrial LU84M combination blades and ABSOLUTELY love them. They are the best blades I have ever used and I am ready to buy a couple more. The nice thing is, they were only around $70 each or so. They are every bit as good, if not better, than the Forrest WoodworkerII blade that I had that cost nearly double.

Another REALLY GOOD suggestion for those that have a saw shop near them...visit the saw shop in person. Most all of them have unclaimed blades that they took in for sharpening and the person never picked them up or paid for the sharpening service. I also picked up a used Tenryu Gold Medal freshly sharpened with lots of life still in it for $25!! This is an $80 blade on Amazon and is also an EXCELLENT blade.

Curtis

The company you mentioned in the post about sharpening, are they that good and reliable??? I am looking for a new place since the one by me has closed and the one I am looking at I don't trust. Been to the shop and they do not look setup for some of the higher grade blades out there. It takes the right equipment to sharpen some of these blades today. Especially with the different carbides used today. Thanks.

 

[chrisk]

+1 on Freud blades. For cutting acrylics and PR the more the teeth (that is blades for crosscutting) the best.

 

[bobleibo]

I have Forrest and Freud blades and have always been happy with both. For segmented cutting I use a Freud Diablo 7.25" 0760R 60T that I picked up at HD for about $30. It is supposedly the mirror of the 0760x. Either way, I bought it for the thin kerf which I mic'd out at .063" taking into consideration the off-set of the teeth. I would not recommend using it for any heavy duty cutting due to the thin kerf but for pen blanks and small cutting it does just fine. I get it sharpend at the local tool supply when needed.
Hope this helps a little....
Cheers
Bob

 

[MesquiteMan]

John,

I have complete confidence in them. They do all of my sharpening and custom knife grinding for my moulding machine. They also do the sharpening for all of the Woodcraft stores in Texas as well as most of the pro cabinet shops around. I know the owner personally (he even carries one of my pens) and even have his cell phone number. They run a pretty tight ship and have a fairly large shop with around 15 employees I believe.

Every blade gets hand inspected for warp, balance, and missing/chipped carbide. It then gets cleaned up and repaired as needed. Then it goes into the robot sharpener stack and gets sharpened. This step is EXTREMELY cool! An arm picks up the blade and installs it in the cutter. Then a camera and laser system reads and tests the geometry of the tooth. Then the sharpening occurs under a constant bath of some special cooling fluid. Once sharp, the robot picks the blade back up and puts it on the sharpened spindle. It then gets the familiar waxy plastic protective material of the teeth and it ready to go. This robot runs 24/7.

I am completely happy with them and they go above and beyond. I had a set of moulding knives ground by them when I first started. I ran a number of feet of IPE moulding and the knife edge wore prematurely so I called Tim at 4pm. I took them in to him and he agreed they should have lasted longer and said they would try their best to have the ready by noon the following day. He knew I was in the middle of a large production run and needed them. I ended up getting a call from him at about 6pm that same evening saying my knives were ready. He personally stayed after hours and got them re-ground with a different angle. Of course there was no charge for this and they worked perfectly for the remained 1,500 feet of IPE moulding I ran.

Absolute top notch in my opinion!