Blades for a slider?

[Bryan Hunt]

Whelp, I went and ordered a Hammer K4 and now I'm looking at blades. Right now, I'm using the following 10" Forrest blades: 20 tooth Woodworker II, 40 tooth Woodworker II, and 70 tooth Ply Veneer. Seems like I should get the 12" 30 tooth Woodworker II for rip and the 48 tooth Woodworker II for crosscut. Would I still need a 70+ tooth blade for plywood, or does the scoring blade make that unnecessary? For those of you with sliders, what has been your experience?

[Mark e Kessler]

Almost all my cuts on my slider are with a 48t atb, solid, ply, rip, crosscut, if i have a critical crosscut say a miter in solid I have a 120t atb and i also have a 28t atb if i was doing alot of ripping in solid but honestly the 48 does like 80-90 percent of it for me. I would start with a 48t I don’t know how much a Forrest costs but I have had good luck industrial Freud about $100-$120. I have the ridge carbide dado and it is super nice, it’s “bat ears” don’t protrude as much as the forrest or freud. And no you shouldn’t need a 70t blade with scoring all of your blowout woes will be gone...


mark

Whelp, I went and ordered a Hammer K4 and now I'm looking at blades. Right now, I'm using the following 10" Forrest blades: 20 tooth Woodworker II, 40 tooth Woodworker II, and 70 tooth Ply Veneer. Seems like I should get the 12" 30 tooth Woodworker II for rip and the 48 tooth Woodworker II for crosscut. Would I still need a 70+ tooth blade for plywood, or does the scoring blade make that unnecessary? For those of you with sliders, what has been your experience?

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

I own a K3 and am kind of envious of you now

With that being said, I had a traditional 3HP cabinet saw before and used the typical Freud/Forrest/What ever was cheap combination of blades. Once the K3 got here, I shopped around to have them rebored and around here, the reboring was more than half the price of new blades.

So shopping for new blades I went. I tried the Felder Silent Power, the Hammer, the Infinity tools, the Ridge Carbide, the CMT and finally the Tenryu.

I ended up buying the whole line of Tenryu blades and boy am I glad I gave them a shot. They come bored at no extra cost straight from the factory and they cut something fierce! I have been very satisfied with the factory sharpening and had them sharpened a few times by now and they just slice through the wood.

Even when pushing through 12/4 hard maple, the IW-30028CBD3 just makes it feel like the wood is not even there! The crosscut blade leaves a perfect glassy smooth finish with no chipout or splintering.

I don't use the combo all that much, I'd rather swap blade for the ATB 28T rip and the ATBR 100T for crosscut. For plywood I prefer the ATAFR 100T. (Why use a swiss army knife when you have a great tool doing a better job...)

The plywood blade will crosscut the worst splintery baltic birch with no problem without using the incisor.

I only use the incisor with melamine now and don't see the point with plywood. The HATB melamine blade do work good, but I still up the incisor to give myself a perfect chip free cut.

The combo is mostly used for unimportant stuff like 2x spruce and construction plywood. As soon as I work with hardwood or baltic birch plywood, I swap blades.

No affiliation just a satisfied customer.

They are not as common as Freud or CMT but Amazon and Carbide processors both carry them.

Hope this helps!

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

I wanted to add a few things blade unrelated.

The best addition I did was a a zero clearance insert. I copied the one from Hammer out of hard maple and it completely eliminated bottom tearout in all material. The bevel throat plate is so far away from the blade, it's not providing any support.

I also fabricated a block that goes at the end of the crosscut fences and that removed the slight chance of blowout at the end of a cut. I had to tweak it to be able to have it go under the riving knife's dust collection hood but it works great.

Fritz and Franz also help in that area.

I am planning to fabricate another zero clearance out of plastic just to remove the weakness on the wagon side of maple or I might just copy Marius Hornberg's idea of making it protrude under the wagon.

[Bryan Hunt]

Fritz and Franz also help in that area.

I'm for sure making a Fritz and Franz (my wife calls it the Hanz and Franz) jig.

[Mark e Kessler]

Sebastien brings up a few good things, here is what I did. This is a k700s but no reason can’t be done on any other slider

6FAD41DC-99C9-4039-B21B-3485058BEC55.jpg70C08B71-9B65-43B8-80A1-C3D6D59C6DE4.jpgEAE5AAFC-5009-46BE-B009-B954DD9D7D57.jpg

I wanted to add a few things blade unrelated.

The best addition I did was a a zero clearance insert. I copied the one from Hammer out of hard maple and it completely eliminated bottom tearout in all material. The bevel throat plate is so far away from the blade, it's not providing any support.

I also fabricated a block that goes at the end of the crosscut fences and that removed the slight chance of blowout at the end of a cut. I had to tweak it to be able to have it go under the riving knife's dust collection hood but it works great.

Fritz and Franz also help in that area.

I am planning to fabricate another zero clearance out of plastic just to remove the weakness on the wagon side of maple or I might just copy Marius Hornberg's idea of making it protrude under the wagon.

[Jeff Monson]

Sebastien brings up a few good things, here is what I did. This is a k700s but no reason can’t be done on any other slider

6FAD41DC-99C9-4039-B21B-3485058BEC55.jpg

Mark, I like this jig, is it your own version of the Fritz and Franz? Do you have any more pics of it?

[Pat Rice]

I use 12” Forrest blades on my FELDER sliding tablesaw. I have the 48 tooth WW II and Forrest Duraline Hi-A/T 12” x 80 tooth blade for sheet goods. For ripping I also have a FELDER rip blade I purchased with my saw. I have the option to put on a scoring blade but have never purchased one for my saw as I am very pleased with the results from the Forrest Duraline Hi-A/T blade on plywood and even melamine

I made my own Fritz and Franz jig which has proven to be extremely useful. 42335470-1A27-4D6A-899F-5777BFE34826.jpg

[Bryan Hunt]

I have the 48 tooth WW II and Forrest Duraline Hi-A/T 12” x 80 tooth blade for sheet goods.

What does the Hi-A/T do for you over the regular blade?

[Jim Becker]

What does the Hi-A/T do for you over the regular blade?

It's tooth pattern/design is optimized for cleanly cutting the veneers on sheet goods. WW-II does a great job, but for "hardcore" veneer plywood cutting, a design-for-purpose blade is a good idea.

[Bryan Hunt]

Thank you everyone for your input. I have a pretty good idea on what to buy now.

[Pat Rice]

Here is Forrest description: DURALINE HI-A/T saw blades are designed for chipless cutting of two-sided melamine (MCP board), vinyl, polyester, kortron and veneer plywood. No scoring blade needed! These blades are made with double-hard C-4 submicron carbide for longer life between sharpenings.

Recommended for thin, low pressure, two-sided laminates, plywood and fine cross cutting on all woods. For thin veneers on flakeboard - fire-retardant, laminated (1 or 2 sided), masonite, hard board, fibre board, etc. Also for plywood - veneered, lumbercore, glue-ups, hard and soft woods, chemically impregnated, etc.

The DURALINE HI-A/T eliminates the need for a small scoring saw blade on table saw work. The 40° points slice through thin bottom layers with no tears or chips. Reduced yearly sharpening costs - Less machine downtime.

My experience is it performs as describe

[Mark e Kessler]

I had one on my ts but to say it eliminates the need for a scoring blade is straight up marketing bs, it does perform well and is probably worth it if you do not have a saw with scoring but I found it degraded quickly, once even a little bit dull and it will chip that was my experience but I was using it in a commercial environment with employees so who knows how well it was taken care of plus it was loud ah...

Also if you have a saw with scoring it should be used when needed, not use a blade that claims you don’t need one. 48atb - 60atb with scoring performs well, if i was paranoid then maybe a TCG for HPL and/or Melamine.


Mark K


but for what ever reason it was unbelievably loud

Here is Forrest description: DURALINE HI-A/T saw blades are designed for chipless cutting of two-sided melamine (MCP board), vinyl, polyester, kortron and veneer plywood. No scoring blade needed! These blades are made with double-hard C-4 submicron carbide for longer life between sharpenings.

Recommended for thin, low pressure, two-sided laminates, plywood and fine cross cutting on all woods. For thin veneers on flakeboard - fire-retardant, laminated (1 or 2 sided), masonite, hard board, fibre board, etc. Also for plywood - veneered, lumbercore, glue-ups, hard and soft woods, chemically impregnated, etc.

The DURALINE HI-A/T eliminates the need for a small scoring saw blade on table saw work. The 40° points slice through thin bottom layers with no tears or chips. Reduced yearly sharpening costs - Less machine downtime.

My experience is it performs as describe

[Jim Becker]

For the largest part of the market of folks who don't have scoring blades, the HI-A/T is a nice solution to cut sheet goods with at least minimal tearing. I do agree that if one has a scoring blade, the end result should be better. My scoring blade is a good reason why I can "get away with" using the WW-II 48T nearly full time, honestly.

[Mark e Kessler]

Yes, my version. I cut down the kreg flip stops, here are a few more, let me know if you need more.

if you dig around on my instagram page i think there are some videos of me using it. https://www.instagram.com/kessler_woodworks/?hl=en

Mark, I like this jig, is it your own version of the Fritz and Franz? Do you have any more pics of it?

32FD4C33-6BE1-415F-9959-415FE71DB241.jpg0520E993-863B-421C-83BA-C679B03C12E2.jpg5BD689AF-F3E2-480C-9B71-2227EC97CF35.jpg2371053E-140E-4F3E-878F-7C9F16CE1D9F.jpgF9AA66D4-8A76-497C-9C83-951EFE749AAA.jpg