What blade sits on your table saw on a daily basis?

[JoeSheffer]

Hi all,

I know we have different blades for different tasks, especially when cutting sheet materials, flat top, ripping etc. What blade sits on your table saw blade on an every day basis though, for general cuts.

Thanks
Joe

 

[Chippymint]

It depends on what you do and how you work the wood. For me I use my table saw for medium to fine work using my cross sled and have 80 Tooth ATB blade . Sometimes I'll remove the cross sled for normal use but still use the same blade. I use my large bandsaw for most other tasks (ripping/resaw) and then machine or plane wood using hand plane or planner thicknesser. I don't use a table saw for dado work as I use my router table. For trenching I'll use my radial arm saw. If I need to cut down a 8x4 sheet I'll use my track saw.

Others will use the table saw for lots of different cutting requirements and are happy to change blades for a particular purpose. Some just have a general purpose blade in all the time and achieve what they wish to do.

There is no wrong or right with any particular way, you just have to think through how you want to work wood and apply it but doing some experimentation along the way is not a bad idea.

 

[RobinBHM]

A rip saw blade or combination blade will be perfectly fine for 80% of work.

For example, a sharp rip saw blade will be perfectly fine for most cross cutting or even plywood or mdf.

And a combination blade is fine for ripping solid timber....up to say 2"


In my experience a sharp rip saw blade gives a better finish on plywood or cross cuts than a slightly blunt fine tooth blade.

The amount of break out, top or bottom can be altered by blade height.

 

[johnnyb]

I'm like Robin and much prefer a coarse blade generally. maybe 20 teeth or so. it will easily rip 3 inch without a load of pressure. but can crosscut as well. I tend to rip on the table saw as long as its got 2 straight edges.

 

[Inspector]

Forrest Woodworker II 40 tooth blade. I have rip and crosscut blades when more appropriate. Saw is 3 hp.

Pete

 

[TRITON]

40t Axcaliber 250mm blade and it produces a fairly good finish.

Keeping it sharp helps, as does feed rate as does lack of vibration and a square fence to blade, so it doesnt run out at the back giving space for the timber to move, which causes big tooling marks.

 

[doctor Bob]

2 saws.

300mm, 96t, triple chip on sliding panel saw

400mm, 24t, AB on rip saw

 

[harryc]

40t blade from Cutting Solutions on Kity 419.

Not the best for rip cuts but can’t be bothered changing it.

 

[Rorton]

40t Freud, use it for most stuff, when I have something thick or I need to do a lot of ripping I swap it for a 24t freud. 254mm

 

[Sachakins]

Freud 24 tooth. Always ripping timber for laminating blanks, use mitre saw for 95% crosscut, it has 60 tooth normally.

 

[Robbo60]

I'm looking to buy a new blade for my table saw as the one that came with it a year ago is burning hard wood when ripping. Current one is 255 X 30. Kerf is 2.8 and riving is 2.5. I went on CMT website and am just more confused. Guess I want a combination, general purpose. How many teeth? Need to be 2.8 kerf because of riving knife. Can someone make my mind up for me?

 

[recipio]

I use the Freud range of blades as they are not too expensive and great choice. Generally I keep a 40 tooth general purpose blade installed. However I don't begrudge the time to change out blades to suit the material being cut. One little known secret are hollow ground blades. They give a a completely chip free cut on laminates - a zero clearance saw insert also helps. Mine is an Armana blade 'cos I have an American saw.

 

[Spectric]

Two blades from Sheffield industrial saws. Circular Saws — Sheffield Industrial Saws - Saw Blades and Saw Blade Machinery They now own Atkinson Walker saws.

315 mm 60t (T1260DW-5) & 315 mm 48t (T1248P)

 

[Barlow]

Two blades from Sheffield industrial saws. Circular Saws — Sheffield Industrial Saws - Saw Blades and Saw Blade Machinery They now own Atkinson Walker saws.

315 mm 60t (T1260DW-5) & 315 mm 48t (T1248P)

Just ordered some table saw blades from them. Very helpful on the phone, good prices and made in Sheffield. Looking forward to using them.

 

[Hornbeam]

I always try and change the blade to suite what I am cutting. I use a Casadei panel saw with 300mm blade with anything between24T and 96TCG
Range of blades, OMAS, CMT. Freud and unknown. OMAS seems to be the best
Sharp and less teeth is always safer than too few. Find a good saw doctor sharpening works out around £10 a go

 

[custard]

It's a 300mm blade with 48t ATB on a Felder sliding table saw. I have a about five or six of these blades and they get cycled through the saw doctor on a regular basis.

Like most furniture makers that I know I don't actually do all that much ripping on the table saw. I do some, just not as much as you might expect.

I mostly work with waney edged hardwood boards and saw cut veneers, the wane generally gets knocked off on the bandsaw. Sometimes I'll rip a fraction over width on the bandsaw and then finish the width dimension with an edge pass through the thicknesser. Obviously all my veneers are ripped on the bandsaw, and I almost always use the bandsaw to rip laminations, finishing them on the drum sander. Sometimes I can go through two or three complete projects in succession without making a single rip cut on the table saw.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I have two saws, a Hammer and a Felder both 315mm Dia. We swap the blades depending on the work being done. Most of the time it's a 48 tooth general purpose blade, swapped out for a 14 tooth rip blade or a 72 tooth fine blade for finish cuts and veneered work.

 

[giantbeat]

Freud 80T for 90% of my stuff

 

[JBaz]

I've had a Felder table/panel saw for many years now and have tried a number of different Felder blades, which I found to be less than impressive given their cost.

For the past few years I have been using Freud LP70M 003 315mm Dia 24T for just about everything from very hard oak to polystyrene. They are reasonably priced and have performed well for me.

I do get them sharpened regularly, though I'm considering buying a sharpening machine (Chinese ~ £180ish) to do this myself. Does anybody have any experience with these KATSU Heavy Duty TCT Circular Saw Blade Sharpener 5056156000277 | eBay ?

 

[Robbo60]

The blade that came with my Scheppach hs105 has become a smoke machine ( even ripping soft wood) so after looking at advice I'm picking up a Freud 250 x 30 60t from Screwfix tomorrow £41.99. OK? is it worth getting my other one sharpened? or bin it. Will the Freud one re-sharpen? If so, where? I'm in East Midlands.