Thread: Thin kerf blade

G'day Leon,

Like you I have gone down this track. But like most things there are two sides to the coin.

I would think the 'wide' kerf blade you have would be 3.2mm.

Now depending on how well your table saw is set up, I think has a lot of bearing as to whether you go to a thin kerf blade, as in my experience a thin kerf blade can more easily run out of true, and are more flexible If you are doing a lot of cutting they will heat up quicker.

Run a bit of MDF though your saw and look closely at the cut. Look for any burr on the top side of the cut - you may have to look close. If this is evident on one side of the cut or the other it shows the blade is not running true or the fence is not parallel to the blade. Both sides of the cut should be clean with no burr showing.

Now if the blade is thin and of not good quality and it is not running dead true the timber can start to push the blade around a bit and if you are not wise to this you will spend many hours of frustration tracking the problem down.

Now if my memory serves me right I think a thin kerf blade is 2.8mm so you do save .6mm of timber in each cut.

Having played with thin kerf blades I have gone back to standard, for I think overall they perform better, particularly if you are cutting hard timber.

If you do go for the thin kerf trip buy the best blades you can. I currently use Stehle blades available from Peacock Saws - www.peacocksaws.com.au

Have fun

I reckon the reason your saw is working harder than it needs to is that you're using a general purpose blade rather than a purpose made ripping blade. I reckon general purpose blades are a waste of time and money, they don't do anything well. Buy a rip blade, something with around 16 - 20 teeth and you'll slice through rather than creating dust and smoke.

Mick

Colin is right. Also with a thin blade you must remove your standard riving knife for the wood to get through but it can be quite dangerous.

Like Mick, I don’t believe in combination blades either. I have a cross cut blade (60 teeth) and a rip blade (24 teeth). Even though I have to constantly change the blade but it is well worth the effort. A rip blade rips timber easier and a cross cut blade give a much better cut.

Originally Posted by journeyman Mick

I reckon the reason your saw is working harder than it needs to is that you're using a general purpose blade rather than a purpose made ripping blade. I reckon general purpose blades are a waste of time and money, they don't do anything well. Buy a rip blade, something with around 16 - 20 teeth and you'll slice through rather than creating dust and smoke.

Agree 100%. If you are creating smoke this is clearly not right. Even going from a 36 tooth GP to a 24 dedicated ripping blade will make a very big difference but either way you should not be pushing a blade so that it smokes. If it still smokes after all this then your blade is probably blunt and/or the saw is not set up right.

Are you attempting to cut pieces more than 100 mm deep so that the saw does not penetrate through the wood? If so, this is not something that should not be done on a regular or extended basis because of the great load it places on the saw. Does the saw motor ever trip out? This is also a good indicator that the loads being placed on the saw are too great.

As for using a thinner kerf, two possible solutions are use a bandsaw, or if you can maintain enough depth of cut look out for for a smaller (8 or 9") blade with a thinner kerf rather than trying to do this on a 12" blade. One problem with smaller diameter blades is the arbor size tends to be smaller that that used in 12" machines

Cheers

Got to agree with Wongo, Bob C and JMM.

I use dedicated blades for dedicated jobs and always get good results.

Also with a thin kerf blade, unless you can re-zero the tape thats on your saw all your cuts are going to be out by .6mm.

Sorry I'm slow getting back to this thread, I've been away from the computer. Thanks for all the information, this has given me plenty to think about. I think I had better clarify things a bit. Firstly, I'm not overloading my saw to anywhere near the point where the motor trips or smoke is produced. The table saw I'm talking about is one I built myself at a time when I had access to good steel fabrication and machining equipment. When I get a chance I'll work on refining the setup of the blade and fence and see if this helps but I think it's quite good as is. A ripping blade is sounding like the way to go.

Thanks,

Leon.

If dust and waste is an issue, the you could make up a slide table/bench for a bandsaw, this would give you a cut width of approx 1.0 to 1.6 mm. The slower speed of the bandsaw would also prevent dust. However, you would need to lower the blade guides to just allow the timber to pass through, to stop any waining in the blade, causing crooked cuts.

The big catch to doing the above ...... cutting you stock will take longer.