Cabinet saw blade

[Kieran McCauley]

What kind of blade would you guys recommend for powermatic 66,
I rip a lot of finished ply and hardwoods. No cross cuts.
Thanks.

[Carroll Courtney]

There are blades that are made for ripping,and there are blades that are made for plywood which has many teeth. I have 60 tooth carbide tip blade that does good for me but I'm sure there is better out there. One of the other things that will help with tear out of bottom side is a zero clearance table insert.Which I also have 66 and I made my table inserts out of solid surface material,but don't forget to remove it if you need to tilt the blade I forgot once. Yrs ago a cabinet shop closing down due to owner passing is he use a lot of 10" blades for plywood. When he making a dado cut he would stack the plywood blades together,which was neat. I never tried it so have no experience with that.
There be others come along with better answers and provide good details,but either way invest in good blade its worth it.

[Andrew Seemann]

I normally have a Forrest WW2 on my Unisaw. I think it is a 40 tooth one. It works well enough for ripping, cross cutting, and plywood that I normally leave it on unless I need to do a lot of rough ripping, in which case I have a cheap thin kerf rip blade that I use. I got a good deal on my 2 Forrests about 15 years ago and have used them as my main blades since. There are probably cheaper blades that work as well that I'm sure subsequent posters will recommend. When I got mine, they were the main go-to blade at the time.

[Todd Solomon]

If you do a lot of both, seems like your best bet would be to buy two different blades, as Carroll eluded to. However if you're looking for a great blade that is a compromise and can do both, a Forrest Woodworker II 40 tooth would work pretty well. As a hobbyist, I do almost everything with a single blade and the Woodworker II fits that bill.

[Rod Sheridan]

60 or 80 tooth ATB for ply and a 24 tooth FTG for ripping....Regards, Rod

[Dave Sabo]

I'm with Todd, get two different blades, one optimized for ply and the other hardwood.

Rod , I totally disagree with your advice on an 80 tooth blade. That's crazy for ripping plywood. I can go either way on 60t. Not my first choice, but it'll work.

40 teeth are plenty for good clean and fast rip cuts in veneered ply. Lot of love here for Forrest, but not from me. I have a WW2, and Ridge Carbide 2000, and the Freud Fusion. The Forrest doesn't provide the best cut in anything I use it for. Good ,yes, but not the best. And when its price is considered , it's a loser. Freud Fusion wins that every day and twice on Sunday.

I'd get a thin kerf dedicated rip blade for the hardwood. Amana's mamba is pretty darn good for 35 bucks. Freud's glue line rip is better but costs $50-60.

[Bob Jones 5443]

I don't know, Dave. I always pull out my 80-tooth Freud for plywood, and I get a nice clean cut. If I'm cutting across the face veneer I do a 1/32" deep score before the cut. Scoring helps with any direction, though, I think.

For ripping hardwoods, do the anti-kickback blades make sense to anyone here? I rip with a 24-tooth Diablo.

My cuts are usually clean if my stock is well milled, but if precision matters, the part is going under the hand plane after the machines anyway.

Oh, yes, and keep the pitch off the carbide to prevent burning and sloppy cuts.

[Rod Sheridan]

I don't know, Dave. I always pull out my 80-tooth Freud for plywood, and I get a nice clean cut. If I'm cutting across the face veneer I do a 1/32" deep score before the cut. Scoring helps with any direction, though, I think.

For ripping hardwoods, do the anti-kickback blades make sense to anyone here? I rip with a 24-tooth Diablo.

Hi Bob, yes chip limitation design blades make great sense for ripping..................Regards, Rod.

[Robert Engel]

You want an 80 tooth or a melamine blade.

I pretty much use either CMT or Freud commercial blades (chrome not red).

[Mark Bolton]

We are running 20 and 24 tooth ripping blades for hardwood but its all feeder ripping. I like the 20's a lot and they are both affordable (55-60 bucks a piece). Ripping ply wouldnt require anything super fine. The cross cuts are where you'd need a serious ply blade. Id run the most aggressive blade you can or even a combination blade if your only ripping ply.

[Dave Sabo]

I don't know, Dave. I always pull out my 80-tooth Freud for plywood, and I get a nice clean cut. If I'm cutting across the face veneer I do a 1/32" deep score before the cut. Scoring helps with any direction, though, I think.

Sure you do. It will work. But maybe you missed what Kieran is looking to do.

Cross cutting isn't even part of the consideration here.

I rip a lot of finished ply and hardwoods. No cross cuts.

With that in mind, an 80 tooth blade is overkill, not really necessary, and has some drawbacks. So why pay for the xtra teeth, generate more heat , and shorter life for no real benefit ?

Melamine isn't on Kieran's list either. Which makes getting a melamine blade silly too. Sure , that will cut plywood too, but its drawbacks are even more than an 80t plywood blade.

[Todd Solomon]

Lot of love here for Forrest, but not from me. I have a WW2, and Ridge Carbide 2000, and the Freud Fusion. The Forrest doesn't provide the best cut in anything I use it for. Good ,yes, but not the best. And when its price is considered , it's a loser. Freud Fusion wins that every day and twice on Sunday.

Thanks Dave, I may not be current. 15 years ago when I bought my WW2, it was worth the price premium. Good to hear there are other options at better price points worth considering. I'd appreciate any advice you have.

I've been out of woodworking for 7 years. I'm about ready to buy blade(s) for my Hammer. For my next project, I'm gonna do ripping and crosscutting of hardwood (African Mahogany for this project), boards up to 3-1/2" thick, so I need a 12" blade for that (4" depth of cut). I was thinking of getting a 12" Woodworker II for this, as it'll be useful for other projects. It also helps that I can order blades with the funky Felder/Hammer 3-hole pattern directly from Forrest.

I also need to rip and crosscut veneer plywood. My Hammer C3 31 has scoring, but it only works with a 10" blade. The saw comes with a 10" Felder Silent Power 40 tooth combo blade. My guess is that blade with the scoring work ok for the veneer plywood. I haven't been that impressed with Felder blades in the past, compared to my WWII, but it should do the trick. Alternatively, I could use the 12" WWII with a zero clearance insert (gotta see if I can find one for the Hammer).

Anyhow, open to anyone's suggestions on blades for the above.

[Mark Daily]

To rip hardwoods I use the Freud 30T Glue Line Rip (Lm74R010) which gives very smooth edges and no tearout.

For cutting plywood I use the Freud LU80R10 Ultimate Wood/Melamine which gives very smooth edges and virtually no tearout.
Despite having 80 teeth I can feed wood as fast as I want with no burning.

As others have mentioned the design of the teeth and hook angle make a huge difference in how a blade cuts.

I don’t think you will get excellent performance in cutting plywood and solid wood with any one blade.

[Mark Bolton]

I don’t think you will get excellent performance in cutting plywood and solid wood with any one blade.

Mentioned in another response above, the OP stated no crosscuts. If they are not production ripping at high speed and only ripping ply, likely a good heavy carbide combination blade would do everything they want. It will rip hardwood a bit slower, it will rip ply fine. If he wants to really maximize hardwood ripping a 20 or 24 tooth full kerf rip would be an improvemet.

Hand feeding, there will likely be very little measurable difference. If cross cuts were in the mix the whole game changes.

[Rod Sheridan]

Todd, that's a very thick rip for a Woodworker II blade at 3 1/2" deep.

I would recommend a rip blade for that, 30 tooth maximum in a 12" blade.

I don't use the slider for real deep rips normally (I use the band saw) so I have a 315mm X 30T ATB which rips and crosscuts deep sections reasonably well.........Regards, Rod.