Bill wrote:
Leon wrote:

All in all you can't foresee what is going to be best for you. You
cannot foresee all possible problems. You cannot foresee any gotcha's.

Like Swingman indicated, until you actually start using the saw, shop,
over blade guard/dust collector you have no clue what you are going to
actually want to end up with.

You can way over think all of this, and possibly put a lot of work
into something that you may end up not liking. Better to make a
decision from actual experience vs. a preconceived notion of something
you have read or think you wold prefer.


Okay. But having said that, what do you think of this choice of blades:

(Freud)
LU74R (30-tooth, "glue-line rip")
LU-85R (80-tooth, "ultimate cut-off")


All probably good blades. I have bought a lot of good blades through the
years, going back to the early 80's,
In 1999 I finally switched to the Forrest WWII 40 tooth Regular kerf blade,
For all cutting I have used nothing else, I do probably more woodworking
than most that post here so my blades see a lot of work compared to most.
Probably at the most I send the blade back to Forrest every 2-3 years to be
brought back to factory spec's.

FWIW I do not give the Forrest blades much thought, I don't long for
something better as I am never disappointed in the smoothness or quality of
the cut. Additionally I don't baby the blades or save them for special
projects, they are tough and stay sharp for a very long time even when
cutting through the occasional finishing nail.

I use this particular blade for "all" off my cuts regardless of the type of
cut I am making. The only exception to this is when I have my Forrest Dado
King mounted or my 15 year old WWII that I had reground to a flat cut for
cutting flat bottom groves

Many swear by switching out to use a dedicated rip blade, I used to do that
but really don't see the advantage over the Forrest WWII unless I plan to
rip a bunch of wood that is over 2" thick. I will say that Forrest now
offers a rip blade, the first ever IIRC.. I don't know if it is better for
ripping or simply to satisfy the customers desires.

Anyway to sum this all up, you will most likely be money ahead if you
simply start off with a Forrest WWII 40 tooth regular kerf blade and not
worry about babying it for any cutting shy of cutting through a bunch of
nails and or cutting material that may have a bunch of grit embedded in it.
Read that as be particular with where the wood comes from, don't cut wood
that the neighbor brings over that has been used out in the street as a
skate board ramp.



and possibly LU80R ("Ultimate plywood"--so that LU85R above, doesn't get "abused").

I use my WWII for cutting plywood, even the $120 a sheet stuff. I will
share a hint though when cross cutting plywood.
I first make a shallow scoring cut on the bottom of the plywood and then
rise the blade and run the work through again. The result is no tear out
using a WWII blade.



I know there are a lot of Forrest WW-II fans, but the reviews were not
very overwhelming, so it's sort of a tough call (but you can see which way I'm leaning).


I suspect that most are on a budget and don't need the longevity that the
Forrest affords you. Most any new blade will cut well, the test is how
well does that blade cut after 18 months of weekly and daily use.


According to my measurements, my Biesemeyer Blade spreader is .105-.107
inches. I'm not sure how small of a kerf I can go down to (and was not
able to find further direction). Two of the blades above have kerfs of
.116 and .118. We talking about a 1/100" of an inch, and "blade runout"
(however much there is) is on my side here, so it doesn't seem like a
problem. FWIW, I have no plan to cut anything thicker than 3/4" for now.


You really don't want to use a thin kerf blade. Thin kerf blades are
marginal problem solvers for saws that are WAY underpowered. The can cause
less than flat cuts in particular when cutting angles and or compound
angles. FWIW I was talked into buying a good quality Regular kerf
Systematic combination blade to use on my "1" hp craftsman TS. That blade
cut better than any thin kerf blade that I had previously used.



As Jeff suggested, I'll surely buy a lesser blade (if I can find any full
kerf ones) to practice on. The Freud-Diablo's, IIRC, seem to have kerf around .91.

Bill

Again, I don't think I would practice on anything other than a Forrest.
Lessor blades are going to yield lessor results.