RAS blade

[Rick Potter]

Time for a new blade on my 12" DeWalt 7790 RAS. I cut either sheet goods or red oak most of the time. 2" thick max, and seldom that. I am leaning towards forrest, but wonder about others, like Carbide Processors. I have been using a 100 tooth DeWalt blade for several years, but want a negative hook blade this time.

Any suggestions?


Thanks

[Charlie Velasquez]

The general consensus on the Dewalt RAS forum:
"The LU83is the suggested Freud blade to use or the Forrest WW1 TCP or the Forrest WW1 48T Router Tooth for ripping."

The WWI is special order by phone to Forrest.

Although the 790 says 12", I would stay with a 10". I often switch to a 7.25" when doing construction cutting, especially on treated.

Negative hook is nice, but low angle is more important. I think the WWI is a +5*, and the LU83 is positive, also. The key is to keep it sharp and clean, and the stock well confined.

[lowell holmes]

I haven't used my radial arm saw in a while, but it has a high quality carbide tooth blade made with the proper hook angle for radial arm saw use. It really is something of a safety factor as well as superior cutting. IIRC, mine is a Forrest.

[scott spencer]

Forrest and Carbide Processors are both great choices. I'd also add Infinity (http://www.infinitytools.com/12-Mitre-Saw-Blade-90T-1-Arbor-110-Kerf/productinfo/012-190/) to the list....never been less than totally impressed with every cutter I've used from them.

[Erik Christensen]

Ridge Carbide - they can do pretty much anything and custom costs very little extra. I send them all my blades, regardless of manufacturer, for sharpening and have always been happy with the service. When i got my 12" RAS blade I needed a 5/8" arbor vs typical 1" and a negative hook angle - when I asked for that they said "oh that is custom" and when I asked about extra time they replied "2 days" and as I remember it the custom charge was negligible.

They make blades from scratch including making the blanks - all US made, great quality, cost competitive with other premium brands and great customer service. Highly recommended.

[Cary Falk]

I believe I am using a Freud LU91M010 10-Inch 60 Tooth ATB Crosscutting Miter Saw Blade with 5/8-Inch Arbor

[Tom M King]

There was a 12" WW1 with 5/8" arbor in the classifieds here a week or so ago....don't know if that's the right size arbor hole though.

[Keith Hankins]

When I had my RAS, I used the Forrest WWI and it was perfect. Someone else recommended it and they were not wrong!

[Don Jarvie]

Forest Chopmaster is what you want. Excellent blade.

[Rick Potter]

Thanks guys

I forgot about Infinity. I am a customer, and will check it out also. I remember talking to the Ridge guy at a show a few years back. Heard lots of good about them too.

Charlie...what do you mean when you say negative hook is nice, but low angle is more important?

[Earl McLain]

There was a 12" WW1 with 5/8" arbor in the classifieds here a week or so ago....don't know if that's the right size arbor hole though.

It was for me!! Quite a nice blade, and is a noticable step up from the Freud mentioned by Cary--but in fairness my Freud did a lot of cutting this year, including a fair amount of Ipe, so it was due to come off for a sharpening. Being able to rotate between those two is as good as anything i'll ever notice.
earl

[scott spencer]

Thanks guys

I forgot about Infinity. I am a customer, and will check it out also. I remember talking to the Ridge guy at a show a few years back. Heard lots of good about them too.

Charlie...what do you mean when you say negative hook is nice, but low angle is more important?

I can't speak for Charlie reliably, but it's been my understanding that a blade for RAS or slider doesn't necessarily have to have a negative hook angle, as long as the angle is low....ie: +3°. It just shouldn't have a steep positive hook angle...ie: +20°,

[Tom Deutsch]

Hi Rick - A few months ago I bought the "Popular Tools" brand 12" from Carbide Processors for my old DeWalt GP RAS. I think it has a slight negative hook, which I would definitely recommend. The carbide is very thick and the brazing looks really strong and well shouldered to the blade. This is one of those rare brands that really doesn't try to promote itself very much, if price matters at all to you (you can probably hear my pockets squeaking from here!) I don't think it is the most perfectly damped blade in the world, but it is a LOT quieter than the old Craftsman that my saw came to me with.

[Charlie Velasquez]

I can't speak for Charlie reliably, but it's been my understanding that a blade for RAS or slider doesn't necessarily have to have a negative hook angle, as long as the angle is low....ie: +3°. It just shouldn't have a steep positive hook angle...ie: +20°,Yes, this.
edit- probably <10

[Roy Turbett]

Yes, this.
edit- probably <10

I just ordered a 12" "Wally Kunkle Special" Woodworker 1 with a TCP from Forrest. Its a 5 degree positive hook.

[Rick Potter]

I feel like an idiot (village idiot?).

After all the helpful answers to my question, which I really do appreciate, I remembered I had bought a new blade for the RAS maybe 3 or 4 years ago. I went searching, and found it in that nice safe place where I promptly forgot it.

It is an Onsrud 12", 96 tooth, atb, -6*, thin kerf blade. Got it off E-bay at a good price, and it is made in Germany. It does not look at all like the Onsrud blades I could find on the internet.

Anyway, I installed it, double checked my saw setup, which remains perfect, then installed a new zero clearance insert in the table and cut off a piece of double melamine 12" long using my home made stop, and it also came out a perfect 12". I could not believe it making the cut. It did not throw tiny chips to the DC, it was dust. and you could feel almost no resistance while cutting. Wow, I wish I had bought a couple more. The cut was perfect with no chip out on either side of the melamine. The only downside is that it is a bit of a screamer, much louder than the old blade, so I use my ear muffs.

I always thought my old blade was great. It was a USA DeWalt 80 tooth, with an unknown forward hook, and at five years old, it still cross cut red oak leaving a polished edge, but it did leave some chip out on the bottom side of double melamine. I cut a bunch of shelving units with it, and set up a false table for zero clearance, which solved that problem. It is still sharp, and I will just take a bit of pitch off of it before putting it back in the blade drawer.

I will try to post a shot of the zero clearance insert I made for the saw. I highly recommend it, if you only cross cut like me. This is the old blade and insert. I made several spares when I built the table. You can see this one is getting a bit sloppy.



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[Jeff Ramsey]

Time for a new blade on my 12" DeWalt 7790 RAS. I cut either sheet goods or red oak most of the time. 2" thick max, and seldom that. I am leaning towards forrest, but wonder about others, like Carbide Processors. I have been using a 100 tooth DeWalt blade for several years, but want a negative hook blade this time.

Any suggestions?


Thanks

I just ordered a Forrest CM12806115A for my Delta 12" RAS. I only cut hardwood, and once in a while softwood; never sheet goods. You might want to ask Tony Ferrato at Forrest what he recommends, given your sheet goods interest. I use Freud blades on other saws, but decided Forrest was worth the extra $ for my RAS. Good luck.

[Phillip Gregory]

I got an old DeWalt GE (one of the ~900 pound 3 phase ones) not that long ago and after rehabbing it, had to find a blade as the very well used 60 tooth blade was somewhat dull, a little too coarse, and WAY too loud. Despite being a very positive hooked blade with a 15-20 degree hook, I could not get it to climb even when test cutting some ugly warped pressure-treated pine 2x12s. A properly set half-ton saw with a 125 pound motor + carriage will do that :D

Since I do fine woodworking vs. rough sawing, I picked CMT's 219.100.15 "Radial Arm and Miter" blade for this saw as it was a thinner kerf blade (0.126" vs. 0.165" typical for a 16" blade) that took less time to coast to a stop since my saw has no brake or VFD, was quiet, had a relatively fine quality crosscut with its 100 tooth 4xATB + 1xTCG profile, was a "proper" -5 degree hook angle, and was relatively inexpensive at $140, vs. $250ish for most 15-16" blades. I am pretty happy with this blade and would recommend it for this saw as a less-expensive decent blade. The RAS gurus on another forum recommend only three blades, the Freud LU91, the Freud LU83/LU84, and a semi-custom Forrest WWI TCG unit, particularly the latter. The CMT unit is pretty similar to the Freud LU91 although a thicker kerf, particularly in smaller sizes as the 10" 219 is the same 0.126" kerf as my 15"er, and 0.126" is definitely a full-kerf blade on a 10" saw.

My experience with both blades on my saw is that it doesn't matter that much what blade you use on your saw, other than you need to get your saw properly adjusted in all three axes and use a solid enough saw that the arm won't deflect and cause the saw to obviously climb cut. Then just pick the correct number of teeth for the thickness of stock you are using and avoid the most aggressively-hooked blades out there such as rip blades. Note that I do NOT rip at all on my saw; I have a cabinet saw to rip things 3" and under and a steel-spined bandsaw to rip/resaw things up to a foot thick, so a zero or negative hook blade is no detriment. The guys that rip on their RASes do like a small amount of positive hook (10 degrees or less in a TCG profile blade) to help this along.

[Rick Potter]

Well, since this thread from last year came up again, I will give a quick report on that Onsrud blade I put on it.

The blade is cutting really well, with clean cuts and little to no chip out. It is a great blade with only one problem. It's a screamer. I keep my earmuffs on the saw most of the time now, a hassle but the blade does so well it's worth it. I have a collar that is supposed to help but doesn't. The blade has not tried to climb at all yet.

Rick

[Rick Potter]

Well, since this thread from last year came up again, I will give a quick report on that Onsrud blade I put on it.

The blade is cutting really well, with clean cuts and little to no chip out. It is a great blade with only one problem. It's a screamer. I keep my earmuffs on the saw most of the time now, a hassle but the blade does so well it's worth it. I have a collar that is supposed to help but doesn't. The blade has not tried to climb at all yet.

Rick