Table saw blade for ripping thick stock

[Simon B]

I need to rip some hardwood upto 3" thick, and its hard going with the general purpose blade that came with my table saw.

I have been trawling the interweb looking for a 10" rip blade for a 5/8" arbor, but the only ones I have found are the Freud LM71/LM72 blades, and these only seem to be available in the states.

Are there any similar blades available in the UK?

 

[Karl]

You can buy reducing bushes to bring the bore of the blade down to 5/8 - so you could choose any 30mm bore blade.

What saw are you using?

And welcome to the forum!

Cheers

Karl

 

[wizer]

Try these

http://workshopheaven.com/cgi-bin/cp-ap ... AWCSB:AWPT

I'm sure they'll do the size you need and they are extremely good blades. Easily as good as Freud.

 

[Simon B]

Thanks for the replies

My saw is a SIP (model no. is 01321)

I was trying to steer clear of reducing bushes, as I don't know enough about them to be confident as to their safety. maybe I am just being over cautious?

The Protrade blades all seem to be general purpose rather than dedicated ripping blades. Will it make much difference?

 

[wizer]

I have always used 40t blades for ripping and never really had a problem. I think the 30t blade will be fine. These are very sharp blades.

I'd not use a reducing bush for ripping.

 

[misterfish]

I was trying to steer clear of reducing bushes, as I don't know enough about them to be confident as to their safety. maybe I am just being over cautious?

My TS has a 20mm arbor and I mainly use blades with a 30mm bore along with bore reducers. This has never been a problem - the bore reducer is a snug fit.

Misterfish

 

[RogerS]

There's nothing wrong with bore reducers as they simply hold the blade centrally. What stops the blade coming loose and decapitating you is the friction of the washer and nut that bears down on the blade surface.

 

[Woody Alan]

There's nothing wrong with bore reducers as they simply hold the blade centrally. What stops the blade coming loose and decapitating you is the friction of the washer and nut that bears down on the blade surface.

I agree I've used them in the past on previous sawbenches and never had any issues...hard to see how you could. One thing though would be to just make sure there isn't enough space in the washer for the reducer to drift into thus losing support for the blade, unlikely I know but one of my old saws had quite a bit of relief machined into the flange washer.
I would always recommend anyone doing a lot of ripping to have a dedicated rip blade, once you get one then you wonder why you struggled/got by/managed without. A 24t would be good especially if you're ripping 3 inch hardwood.

Alan