On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:13:06 -0800 (PST), the infamous
scrawled the following:

On Feb 12, 5:34*pm, Doug White wrote:
"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:4b75bd1c$0$9307
:



"Doug White" wrote:

That's the plan, but my router is an old Porter Cable that works
fine,
but isn't up to hogging out a ton of maple. *My hope was to cut it
reasonably close (within a 1/16th of an inch or so) with the saw,
and
then just clean things up with the router.
snip

If that P/C router can't handle cleaning up at least 1/4" of maple per
pass, probably time to look at a replacement.

Haven't tried it yet, but 1.5 inches of butcher block maple isn't like
routing oak or walnut. *This stuff is HARD. *My Porter Cable is a 25 year
old 1 1/2 hp router. *It's a good router, but it's no match for the 3
horse monsters folks sell these days.

Having just shelled out for a new jigsaw, I don't think I can justify
getting a new router. *I'll just have to nibble away at it with my feeble
old Porter Cable....

Doug White

It would be more helpful, and save our time, if you just posted your
financial particulars. that way we could help you make good FINANCIAL
tool decisions as well - maybe even a whole new shop to go with the
new bench!

Crowbars everywhere are rejoicing (and wallets cowering) over your
suggestion here, Shelly.

--
No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up.
--Lily Tomlin

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.

Thanks for all the suggestions & info.

Doug White

"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.

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

Doug White wrote in
0:

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.

--
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace
will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will
blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
-- John Muir

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

On Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:29:45 GMT, the infamous Doug White
scrawled the following:

Larry Jaques wrote in
:
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.

It makes all the difference in the world.

--
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace
will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will
blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
-- John Muir