Ripping question

[Richard Hart]

OK, so the first thing after a push stick when the table saw is all set up is gonna be a lighter, thinner cutting board for my wife, alternating maple and walnut.
So I need to rip the lengths, maybe ~15 in. long, so you know the cuts have to be smooth and tight for the glue up.
For this, should I use a ripping/combination blade or (my thought) a 60 toother I have, just for this job?

Thoughts?

Thanks, Rich

[Mark Bolton]

My vote is for the rip or combo. 60 tooth would be the notion for a smooth cut but its too many teeth for ripping. A good quality rip or combo and a good setup and smooth feed speed and you should be left with a perfectly suitable glue line rip straight off the saw for a cutting board. Good heavy clamps (3/4" pipe clamps) and youll never bust it apart.

[Rod Sheridan]

Ripping blade followed by combination blade is my order of preference….Regards, Rod.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I've been really happy with the Freud Glue Line Rip blade LM74R010.

[Micah Puscheck]

I've been really happy with the Freud Glue Line Rip blade LM74R010.

+1. I have the same blade and with a properly set up table saw and fence, will create glue ready cuts.

[Lee Schierer]

I've been really happy with the Freud Glue Line Rip blade LM74R010.

Assuming your fence is properly aligned with the blade. I made a maple and walnut cutting board just a few months ago using that exact blade. I usually cut the pieces a bit longer than the planned finish dimension to allow for trimming the ends after glue up.

[Keegan Shields]

A quality rip blade is essential with hardwoods. I use Infinity saw blades but there are lots of great brands.

[Curt Putnam]

I would advocate for a rip blade. You can clean up the strips in your planer or with a hand plane if the cut quality is not acceptable.

[Prashun Patel]

+1 for Freud glue line rip. Pretty good blade

[Richard Hart]

Done... just ordered the Freud blade-had an Amazon gift card balance. 😁
Soon's I get the saw 'on the air' will let you know how it works out-thanks.

Rich

[Edward Weber]

+1. I have the same blade and with a properly set up table saw and fence, will create glue ready cuts.


One more in the club.

As long as you control your feed rate for the different species, you should be able to glue with no additional work.

[Stephen White]

I have a sawsstop contractors version (at 2k it was the best I could afford) and using the 40 tooth combo blade that came with it to rip a couple hundred so far 24" & 22" 1 3/4 and 1 1/2" (respectively) of black walnut, hard maple & cherry. I get a beautiful clean rip. I use a feather board to the outside of the blade to rip exactly the same size strips for edge grain and will use the growing stack of leftover odd sized strips for a batch of face grain boards. For edge grain of course the rip matters less because the rip surface it processed through planning and sanding. Looking forward to hearing how the freud blade works out for you as I was going to joint the leftover strips for my face grain boards on any that seemed to need it.

On the 15" strips, don't know how you are finishing, I use a sled to trim to size and a planner, drum sander & 3 grit progression on hand sanding. I cut away 3" on each side (24" strip makes 18" board) because I just have not been able to completely eliminate snipe from the planner and drum sander and It just takes too much labor to work snipe out when hand sanding and I worry about missing even a little snipe on a product I am going to sell.

Might go get that blade though :)

[Rick Potter]

Like Stephen says, the next thing to get is a couple feather boards. They will add safety as well as making more controlled cuts.

Buy or make, plenty of options for not much moola.

Oh yeah...I also recommend the Freud 24 tooth glue line rip. Nice cuts, I leave it on the saw most of the time.