Cove cut on a table saw

[Scott Rollins]

Which blade do you use for a cove cut on a table saw? I have to cut about 1-3/4" high and 6" across at about a 15 deg angle to get the cove I want. I was prepping to cut this tomorrow and I put my 24 Tooth ripping blade in, but then I thought about it and thought a 50 tooth combo blade might be better. Would a higher tooth count help the finish or just cause more feed resistance? I plan on scraping and sanding the finish cuts. Also the wood for the finished parts is walnut. I have a 3HP sawstop so power is not a problem except from the operator end.:D

[Carroll Courtney]

CMT makes a cove cutting set design by Lonnie Byrd.The blade that he uses only has 6 teeth on a 6" HD blade.I think that a slow speed feed rate will give a good smooth finish on the wood.Still alittle sanding will be needed.Good Luck Carroll

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Which blade do you use for a cove cut on a table saw?

I did my first cove over 30 years ago. I had no clue what I was doing . All I knew was I wanted a certain curved concave shape on some privacy doors I was making.

I used an old school non carbide (they didn't have 'em then) combination blade that I had been sharpening by hand for a while. It worked find but made for plenty of sanding. No two teeth were the same height.

If I had to do it now I'd use one of my 80 tooth non-ferrous metal blades because of the tooth geometry. They are flat on top. But, any conventional wood blade will do fine. The deal is you gotta take shallow cuts raising the blade into the cut a little each pass and more teeth is always better.

Just bear in mind that they aren't made for side cutting so you gotta attenuate your depth of cut to the blade's ability. Power as you said you have is not the important factor.

[Justin Leiwig]

everything I have researched has said to use a higher toothed blade in the 50 tooth or above range. They also suggest using a stacked dado to remove as much stock as possible beforehand since you should realistically only take off a 1/16th at a time doing the cove cut.

[Joe Scharle]

When I make bracket feet, I use a 40 T combo @ 30/45. A 4 foot piece takes < 30 min and leaves minimal scraping/sanding on walnut. I tried the dado option once and it took longer, but I only am cutting a 1" swale on the feet. BTW, I recently bought the Rockler jig (on sale-free shipping) and really like it. Far better than 2 sticks clamped to the table.

[Lee Schierer]

A blade with Raker teeth will yield a smoother cut than one with pointer top teeth. The more teeth the smoother the cut, but as others have said there will still be sanding required.

Do a search of the archives for cove cutting as this topic had a rather lengthy thread a couple of months ago.

[Ryan Sparreboom]

I recently did some cove cutting on my table saw in hard maple and bubinga. I had very good luck with my 50T combo blade and experimented with scrap to get the angle correct. Light passes on such hard wood worked good for my and I had to do minimal sanding. I also found that a zero clearance insert was a must.
Let us know how it goes.

[Mike Henderson]

Cove cuts are no problem. Rig up some guide boards (I like to use two, one on each side) and just take a small amount off at a time - that is, start with the blade sticking up just a tiny amount and push your board through. Then raise the blade a small amount and push it through again. As you get closer to the final cove, you'll be able to see how close you're getting. You can make adjustments to the guide boards if you need to, to adjust the position of the cove.

If your cove is not symmetrical, you need to hike the blade over some amount to get the non-symmetrical cove you want. There are articles that give guidance on how much, or you can use some scrap and experiment.

A regular general purpose 40 tooth blade works fine but a higher toothed blade gives a bit better final surface - you might not have to sand as much (and it is hand sanding).

It's really not hard to do.

Mike

[Rick Potter]

Try the two main blades of your dado set. Nice and thick for side thrust.

Rick Potter

[Ryan Sparreboom]

The only problem with using the dado blades is they are typically smaller in diameter (mine are only 6"). This means a smaller radius cove. That may or may not be an issue for you.

[Glen D. Huey]

I've cut nearly all my cove moulding at a table saw since I began woodworking. I've notice very little difference due to the number of teeth on my blade. I use whatever saw blade I have installed to make the cove. The secret, if there is a secret, is to make small steps as noted and to make the last pass moving very slow. The slower the movement over the blade, the smoother the cut.

[Scott Rollins]

Well I used a 60 tooth finish blade and went slowly and a little sanding and scraping and it worked great. Thanks for all your advise and my wife loves it:

[Mark Smith, too]

Real nice. Attractive looking.