"Doug White" wrote in message
. ..
Doug White wrote in
:

I'm building a special work bench, using one of Grizzly's 1.5" thick
"butcher block" bench tops. I need to cut two irregular pockets into
one edge of the bench to mount equipment.

The top is 25" x 48", and way too big (and heavy) to manuever around
my bandsaw. I'm assuming the best approach is to use my trusty
ancient B&D saber saw. I'm wondering which the best sort of blade
might be to A) minimize the load on the saw, and B) minimize the risk
of scorching the maple. I was planning on drilling out the corners to
start, which will keep most of the cuts fairly straight. That way I
can use a moderately wide blade. I've had good luck with a "fleam"
ground blade on softer wood, but I have no idea what it will think of
the maple. The saw uses the the old style blades with a hole, not
thenewer Bosch T style.

Alternatively, should I use this as an excuse to buy a super-duper new
saber saw? If so, what should I look for?

Any ideas, warnings or suggestions would be appreciated.

Well, I _finally_ got time to finish this job. I bought a new Bosch saw,
and got some of the new "clean" blades to go with it. I used the biggest
blade I had for extra rigidity.

The results were very good, but not exactly perfect. Crosscutting was a
dream. Nice stright cuts, no blade wander, and a smooth, accurate,
vertical cut.

Ripping was a different story. The blade bogged down a LOT. The sawdust
blowing on my left hand (which was guiding the front of the saw) was HOT,
and dark brown. I tried varying the speed & pressure, but never came up
with a combination that cut especially well. The resulting cut was smooth
& accurate, except that the blade flexed in the cut (fortunately, _into_
the material to be removed) so that the cut wasn't vertical. Despite the
hot sawdust, the cut was not particularly burned. Maybe "lightly toasted"
is a better description. I'm going to clean it up with a router &
template, so it's no big deal.

All in all, the new saw is quite a success. Ripping 1.5" hard maple is
definitely a chore, even for this puppy. I can't imagine what it would
have been like trying to use my old Black & Decker saw with conventional
blades. I'd probably still be at it.

Two thoughts.

That is a pretty small saw for cutting a maple bench top. So, the saw did
pretty good. Even if it was difficult on the rip cuts.

And now that you got that job out of the way, you got a great little saw for
a hundred other jobs! And those cuts will propbbly be much easier.

I haven't broke down and bought that saw yet. But I do make sure I have a
sharp blade in the saw for anything I do.