Larry Jaques wrote in
:

On Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:42:28 GMT, the infamous Doug White
scrawled the following:

Doug White wrote in
. 50:

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

Were you using a RIP blade? If not, it'll cut very slowly and you'll
get hot, brown sawdust on you. Oh, sometimes it smokes, too.

That sounds about right. I was cutting out a couple rectangular indents
in one edge of the bench top. I hadn't expected to have to swap blades
back & forth in the middle of things, so I didn't use a rip blade.
Sounds like I should pick up a couple.

Doug White