Tablesaw Blade recommendatiion

[skysharks]

Chris it's funny that you said this.
For years I had always gone with raising my blade just above the cutting surface. Then a few years ago I had a woodworker school trained from Germany informed me that they always raise their blades up high.
His reasoning were the same as you indicated. 1 cooling and the other was better cutting as the teeth are coming down at more of a right angle than shallow angle.
It took me a bit to get use to this.
I do a allot of custom cutting on most hardwoods. the forrest blades have performed really well for me.
I use easy off oven cleaner to remove pitch build up, from my blades. works really good when I notice any burning starting to develop, caused by pitch buildup up right behind the teeth.

 

[kooshball]

Shoot over to Cripe Distributing's web site, and check out the pricing on the Delta 7657 (if they have any left.) While I own a couple WWII's, Freud LU84, some Oldham 40 toothers, the Delta stays on my saw except when cutting veneer ply (Birch, Maple, and Oak. It's my do everything blade.

This is the "cheap Delta blade" that I referenced in my post...

 

[blakeyon2asd]

Well as others here have eluded to, any blade will gum up, especially when you are ripping so much soft pine. One issue that you may be having is heat. If your blade while ripping is only 1/2 above the workpiece, its always in the workpiece and cant dissipate the heat. Ill bet you get alot of kickback as well. I know everyone here will villify me for this but I normally run my tablesaw blades at full height regardless of material thickness. This does 2 things, it allows the blade time to "breathe" above the workpiece, but more importantly, it keeps cutting forces down towards the table top and less back towards me as Im cutting.

No my blades are always higher than my work piece I was talking about another size of wood that we get in that I have to rip down to get it to be the right size. Although for as much framing lumber as I have to rip I've never really experienced any kick back but I've got a lot of experience on table saw to counter act them from binding on the blade, and releasing the internal stresses that they get from being so rapidly dried. But you have to remember ripping framing down is completely different than than say a board of yard dried walnut or something like that. I don't really get heat I've got a pretty good system for my blades when they start getting dull replace them. I don't have a whole lot of time during the day to clean them and sharpen them. But I do give them to a friend that does just that with them and gives me $10.00 bucks on the blade.

 

[blakeyon2asd]

Chris it's funny that you said this.
For years I had always gone with raising my blade just above the cutting surface. Then a few years ago I had a woodworker school trained from Germany informed me that they always raise their blades up high.
His reasoning were the same as you indicated. 1 cooling and the other was better cutting as the teeth are coming down at more of a right angle than shallow angle.
It took me a bit to get use to this.
I do a allot of custom cutting on most hardwoods. the forrest blades have performed really well for me.
I use easy off oven cleaner to remove pitch build up, from my blades. works really good when I notice any burning starting to develop, caused by pitch buildup up right behind the teeth.

I would much rather have a little heat build up than a fully exposed blade for a 12 foot 2x4 to bind to.

 

[nn4jw]

Don't have a Saw-Stop (I don't)? Raise the table saw blade about a tooth above the wood to be cut. Put a hot dog in the path of the blade on top of the wood. Make the cut. Stitches would likely be all that's needed to repair the hot dog. Now do the experiment again with the blade raised to full height. What's it going to take now to repair the hot dog?

While you're at it compare the chipout on the two cuts.

Table saw blades are designed with a hook angle such that 1/8 - 1/4" exposure above the cut is generally best for the cut as I understand it. In any case, safety is more important.

 

[blakeyon2asd]

Don't have a Saw-Stop (I don't)? Raise the table saw blade about a tooth above the wood to be cut. Put a hot dog in the path of the blade on top of the wood. Make the cut. Stitches would likely be all that's needed to repair the hot dog. Now do the experiment again with the blade raised to full height. What's it going to take now to repair the hot dog?

While you're at it compare the chipout on the two cuts.

Table saw blades are designed with a hook angle such that 1/8 - 1/4" exposure above the cut is generally best for the cut as I understand it. In any case, safety is more important.

Agreed!

 

[CrealBilly]

Chris it's funny that you said this.
For years I had always gone with raising my blade just above the cutting surface. Then a few years ago I had a woodworker school trained from Germany informed me that they always raise their blades up high.
His reasoning were the same as you indicated. 1 cooling and the other was better cutting as the teeth are coming down at more of a right angle than shallow angle.
It took me a bit to get use to this.
I do a allot of custom cutting on most hardwoods. the forrest blades have performed really well for me.
I use easy off oven cleaner to remove pitch build up, from my blades. works really good when I notice any burning starting to develop, caused by pitch buildup up right behind the teeth.

Hey there Mc Man - I too use "easy off" and a little brass bristle brush - works great... But man was I shot down here a few years ago when I mentioned easy off for cleaning blades (funny how Ma Man says basically the same thing and no trolls speak up ) If I recall it's something to do with wreaking the braising that holds the carbide tooth to the blade. I thought the "theory" was a little far fetched myself and I still continue to use easy off today - with no tooth problems I might add.

 

[chris_goris]

Hey there Mc Man - I too use "easy off" and a little brass bristle brush - works great... But man was I shot down here a few years ago when I mentioned easy off for cleaning blades (funny how Ma Man says basically the same thing and no trolls speak up ) If I recall it's something to do with wreaking the braising that holds the carbide tooth to the blade. I thought the "theory" was a little far fetched myself and I still continue to use easy off today - with no tooth problems I might add.

I guess I live on the edge.... Blade at full height and i too use easy-off!. But then again, I dont get my fingers anywhere near the blade.

 

[Matt Furjanic]

I do have a Woodworker II and several other blades. I do think the WW is the best combo blade, but I still like to use a ripping blade for ripping and a crosscut blade for crosscutting. Sure it takes time to change the blades, but the results are better - especially on crosscuts. Also, if you are working with really thin and small stock, you may want to try a DeWalt 7-1/4 thin kerf (1/16 kerf) blade. You can pick one of these at Lowes for about $15. This small blade is incredible - it gives you a glass-like cut in small material. Sure, it will not raise up very high, but it is great on small stock - especially when doing cross-cuts. And when working with some of the expensive exotics, like ebony at about $100 a BF, you save a lot of material with the ultra-thin kerf.

 

[blakeyon2asd]

I do have a Woodworker II and several other blades. I do think the WW is the best combo blade, but I still like to use a ripping blade for ripping and a crosscut blade for crosscutting. Sure it takes time to change the blades, but the results are better - especially on crosscuts. Also, if you are working with really thin and small stock, you may want to try a DeWalt 7-1/4 thin kerf (1/16 kerf) blade. You can pick one of these at Lowes for about $15. This small blade is incredible - it gives you a glass-like cut in small material. Sure, it will not raise up very high, but it is great on small stock - especially when doing cross-cuts. And when working with some of the expensive exotics, like ebony at about $100 a BF, you save a lot of material with the ultra-thin kerf.

Hey I've tried those dewalt blades and you are right they cut great for the money I bought 4 of them before Christmas at ace and only paid 20 bucks I haven't tried them on anything big but I put one on my old delta homecraft and it cuts good since the saw is only an 8inch so it actually works well.

 

[Rick M]

Put a hot dog in the path of the blade on top of the wood. Make the cut.

Raises a good point, don't put your hot dogs (or anything else you want in one piece) in the blade's path.

I have no set rule on blade height as long as the gullet clears I'm good.

 

[golfdad]

I also use the Freud Fusion as my preferred blade. But I also use the Irwin Marples for general tablesaw work such as shop grade stuff or for cutting pine and such...At less than 40 $ they are pretty good and it saves my good blades

 

[Ptofimpact]

Thanks again to all who have posted, simply by reading your responses, I glean a bit more needed information, much appreciated.