Using skillsaw blades in a table saw
Lately, I have been using small skillsaw blades in my table saw more often. The reason I have been using skillsaw blades in my table saw is that I can get a thinner kerf, and that the blades are relatively cheap. I can get over 2" depth of cut with a regular 7 1/4" skillsaw blade, so for most cuts the skillsaw blade is adequate.
At left you can see four sawblades. The leftmost is the blade that came with my
hybrid table saw. It's a regular blade, and doesn't
cut super clean. The next one is a Freud thin kerf blade. It has a 2.6 mm kerf.
The next one (yellow) is is a thin kerf skillsaw blade, with about 1.8 mm of kref.
Finally, the red blade is a 6 1/2" blade for a battery operated circular saw, with a 1.6 mm kerf.
Its the thinnest saw blade I could find.
Having a really thin kerf blade is handy in that it makes for less sawdust, needs less power,
and also leaves more wood. I'm also less likely to end up with burn marks, because the
teeth of the blade move slower, and with the thinner kerf I have more power left to push
the wood thru the saw more rapidly.
This can be handy when cutting many thin slices off a piece of wood, such as to veneer something. If cutting from both sides, I can rip slices off a piece of wood up to 10 cm thick.
Using a skillsaw blade is also handy when cutting up questionable wood where cutting into a
nail or a screw may happen from time to time. Sure, a carbide blade can cut through
a nail just fine, but I always wonder how much sharpness that takes off the blade every time
I do it. So it's best to do it with a relatively disposable blade.
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