TS blade

[Brian Keith]

Does Sears or Home Depot carry any decent general purpose blades. I need a new blade for my Craftsman 21829 cause the blade it came with is junk. Id like to get locally and not order. Looking to spend around $50 if possible. Thanks

[Lee Schierer]

Almost any of the Freud blades are good. I think you can also buy Oldham blades. For your craftsman saw you may want to consider a dedicated thin kerf rip blade to allow you to make full height rips in hard woods. Go with a 24 tooth blade. Stay with a 60 tooth blade for crosscuts.

[glenn bradley]

Brian, as Lee states, dedicated blades are going to do better for their appropriate task. If you are going to go for a combination blade, HD carries the Diablo model of Frued blades, Lowes carries the Avanti. their pro blades (if available at HD or Sears) will break the budget.

I have used the Diablos on my skil-saw with good result but cannot comment on the larger blades. I use 60 and 80T Frueds for x-cut and 24T for ripping. Some Irwin-branded blades were made by Lietz and are quite good but I believe that relationship fizzled and I don't know how to tell which are which.

Charles at Freud is a member here and often chimes in on discussions (I think he has a secret SMC trigger program that reacts to any discussion of cutting tools). I would take his advice if offered as far as Freud items go and perhaps blades in general.

BTW, do an 'advanced search' at SMC in the classifieds. There are deals to be had.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Amazon currently has DeWalt #7640, 50 tooth combo blade for $36.99 delivered. Hard to beat that price, and it's a good blade.

[glenn bradley]

This might help:

Freud LU83R010 10'' x 50T Thin Kerf Combination Blade (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=16430)