DIY level Flat top blade

[PaulT]

Hi. I'm a newbie here and hope there is someone who can help me worth a bit of a problem I have.
I am venturing into box making and my first attempt is to have mitred corners reinforced with mitre keys or splines. All of the blades I have for my bench saw are ATB types and these leave small notches at the bottom of the cut so I really need a Flat Top grind blade (250/254mm dia x 30mm bore). These seem to be somewhat rare in the UK as a search of the internet does not reveal anyone that stock this type of blade. I did find one company who offered to grind one up for me but it was then £100 so somewhat more expensive as this blade will get little use, I really was thinking of a DIY level of blade at a price of £40/£50.
Anyone know of a source for such a blade or indeed could someone offer another method of cutting the key slots?
Thanks, Paul

 

[Cordy]

Recent thread may be helpful
Look Here

 

[Alpha-Dave]

As per the thread Cordy links, Cutting Solutions are excellent.

I have been using one of their flat tooth blades for box joints.

 

[marcros]

I went with the CMT. The advantage of a saw blade is potential use on a finger/box joint jig later.

alternatively you could use veneer as the splines and cut with a handsaw (gents saw or dovetail saw). veneer splines mitre box for some pictures (some of the pictures are not relevant). Match the kerf to the veneer. there are tricks to cutting it double width so you can have contrasting veneer as the spline (I haven't done this but have seen it used)

or a jig and a router. again, in some cases, you could use that for finger joints.

 

[C64]

Doug at Cutting Solutions supplied me with a flat toothed blade that worked well for my table saw. It was 250x3.2/2.2x30 Z=20 FTG blade i.e. 250mm diameter, 3.2mm kerf, 30mm arbor, 20 teeth and flat tooth configuration. I paid £46 including p&p 18-odd months ago.

 

[Peri]

I bought a 200X30 4.0/2.5 Z=32 FLAT TOP just before Christmas - including vat and delivery it came to £69.60



This is Doug's blade compared to a £25 Freud - you can see what the extra money gets you

 

[Hornbeam]

I spoke with the guy who sharpens my blades/cutters today (Priestner Saw). They will regrind a an ATB to flat top grind at no extra cost. Works out at £10 for a 300mm 72T blade. This might work out a lot cheaper, repurposing an old blade for this as it wont see a lot of wear.
Ian