Choosing the right blade for your table saw can be tricky business. There are numerous brands and within those brands you have various blade configurations, angles and tooth counts. It’s no wonder emailer Pat was confused when he went blade shopping. Here’s what he had to say:

I am shopping for a blade for my used TS-3650 I just bought and will be buying a Dado blade also. I’m on a budget but good blades and safety are a must. Any light you can shed will be appreciated. I am still confused as to why some blades have fewer or more teeth than others. To which, the DeWalt #DW7647 has 80 teeth; the DW7646 has 60 albeit with the same Hook Angle. Wherein lies the advantage of one over the other?

As I write, I have five new blades in front of me, purchased this evening. Welcome to ‘Blade City’! Four will be returned unopened but I wanted all specs in front of me. The differences astound me. All are 10″:

– FREUD 80T “Ultra Fine Crosscut”
– FREUD Combination, 50T
– CRAFTSMAN Carbide C300, 80T, “Fine Finish Trim”
– DEWALT DW7647, 80T
– Oldham 40T Combination

But why the variance in quantity of teeth? What I am gradually picking up here is that some blades are better at Crosscutting, others at Ripping. My needs will be both. I am not a professional woodworker by any means but in due time I’d like to get into cabinetmaking. For now, until my skills are honed, it’s going to be lots of pine boxes, plywood, small items such as outdoor planters, indoor planters, jewelry boxes, bookcases, shelves, etc. You get the idea. Maybe just having one blade isn’t going to suffice for what I need to do. And on top of it, I want a clean, neat cut. The Forrest Woodworker-II claims to cut a finish where sanding isn’t required. How much do I believe that? Well common sense tells me it’s probably cleaner than most but also a bit of advertising embellishment. Or is it actually THAT good?

Like most things in life, having too many options leads to confusion and paralysis by analysis. So let’s simplify! Higher tooth counts (50 – 80) equate to smoother cuts. Because there are more teeth doing the cutting, you have less tearout but more heat build up and motor strain. Lower tooth counts (24-30) equate to rougher cuts. But because there is a lot more room between the teeth, dust is ejected efficiently and there’s less of a chance of heat buildup. That means less strain on the motor and an easier time plowing through thick boards. It also means you have a higher chance of tearing out wood fibers.

Now let’s think about the two cuts we make at the table saw, rips and cross-cuts. Rip cuts are made with the grain of the wood and are typically long in nature. This is the ideal situation for a low-tooth count blade. The aggressive cut won’t cause tearout because it’s cutting with the grain and the decreased friction and high efficiency make it physically easier to push the wood through the saw.

Would that same blade do as well on a cross-cut? The blade would have no trouble making the cut but the major issue has to do with tearout. An important part of making fine furniture is making clean cuts right off the saw, so getting tearout on our cross-cuts is never a good thing. This is where the higher tooth-count blades come in handy. The increased number of teeth results in a smoother cut. But what about heat and friction you ask? Well because cross-cuts are nearly always short in duration, there usually isn’t enough time for that to be a factor. So if you’re looking for a good blade for your miter saw, a tool that exclusively cross-cuts, you probably want a nice 80-tooth blade like this one.

Where you’ll run into real trouble is if you decide to use a ripping blade for cross-cuts or a cross-cut blade for rips. You’ll get tearout and burning, respectively, so avoid doing that if possible.

Now there is one more thing to consider, and that’s the beast known as plywood. Plywood has a tendency to tearout a lot, especially on cross-cuts. That thin veneer layer just doesn’t stand up well to sawing. So when cutting plywood, a high-tooth count blade is a must if you want a clean crisp edge.

In the ideal world, we would all have both ripping and cross-cut blades in our shop and we’d change the blade according to the activity. But let’s be realistic here: changing blades sucks. And frankly, I am just too lazy for that. So what I opt for is a combination blade, usually 40-50 tooth like the Forrest Woodworker II (for Pat’s saw specifically, I’d recommend the thin-kerf Forrest Woodworker II) A high quality combination blade is capable of giving you excellent results for both rips and crosscuts. Is it as good as using high quality separate blades? Nope. But for the convenience and savings in time I will deal with what little tearout I experience, if any at all. And after about 10 years of working with a Forrest Woodworker II, I can honestly say I have never once thought to myself, “Boy, that cut would have better with an 80 tooth blade.”

Is it capable of producing finish-ready cuts? In my opinion, no. The finish is incredibly smooth by table saw standards but I wouldn’t call it finish ready. That doesn’t bother me since I always prep my materials by hand before finishing.

In summary, 30 tooth and below for rips, 40-50 tooth for combination, and 60 tooth plus for cross-cuts.

Keep in mind there are lots of other options and features associated with table saw blades like tooth configurations, angles, and coatings. But in my opinion, nothing impacts the results of the cut more than tooth count. Perhaps in the future we can dive into some of these other details.

The post Which Table Saw Blade Should I Buy? appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.

Choosing the right blade for your table saw can be tricky business. There are numerous brands and within those brands you have various blade configurations, angles and tooth counts. It’s no wonder emailer Pat was confused when he went blade shopping. Here’s what he had to say:

I am shopping for a blade for my used TS-3650 I just bought and will be buying a Dado blade also. I’m on a budget but good blades and safety are a must. Any light you can shed will be appreciated. I am still confused as to why some blades have fewer or more teeth than others. To which, the DeWalt #DW7647 has 80 teeth; the DW7646 has 60 albeit with the same Hook Angle. Wherein lies the advantage of one over the other?

As I write, I have five new blades in front of me, purchased this evening. Welcome to ‘Blade City’! Four will be returned unopened but I wanted all specs in front of me. The differences astound me. All are 10″:

– FREUD 80T “Ultra Fine Crosscut”
– FREUD Combination, 50T
– CRAFTSMAN Carbide C300, 80T, “Fine Finish Trim”
– DEWALT DW7647, 80T
– Oldham 40T Combination

But why the variance in quantity of teeth? What I am gradually picking up here is that some blades are better at Crosscutting, others at Ripping. My needs will be both. I am not a professional woodworker by any means but in due time I’d like to get into cabinetmaking. For now, until my skills are honed, it’s going to be lots of pine boxes, plywood, small items such as outdoor planters, indoor planters, jewelry boxes, bookcases, shelves, etc. You get the idea. Maybe just having one blade isn’t going to suffice for what I need to do. And on top of it, I want a clean, neat cut. The Forrest Woodworker-II claims to cut a finish where sanding isn’t required. How much do I believe that? Well common sense tells me it’s probably cleaner than most but also a bit of advertising embellishment. Or is it actually THAT good?

Like most things in life, having too many options leads to confusion and paralysis by analysis. So let’s simplify! Higher tooth counts (50 – 80) equate to smoother cuts. Because there are more teeth doing the cutting, you have less tearout but more heat build up and motor strain. Lower tooth counts (24-30) equate to rougher cuts. But because there is a lot more room between the teeth, dust is ejected efficiently and there’s less of a chance of heat buildup. That means less strain on the motor and an easier time plowing through thick boards. It also means you have a higher chance of tearing out wood fibers.

Now let’s think about the two cuts we make at the table saw, rips and cross-cuts. Rip cuts are made with the grain of the wood and are typically long in nature. This is the ideal situation for a low-tooth count blade. The aggressive cut won’t cause tearout because it’s cutting with the grain and the decreased friction and high efficiency make it physically easier to push the wood through the saw.

Would that same blade do as well on a cross-cut? The blade would have no trouble making the cut but the major issue has to do with tearout. An important part of making fine furniture is making clean cuts right off the saw, so getting tearout on our cross-cuts is never a good thing. This is where the higher tooth-count blades come in handy. The increased number of teeth results in a smoother cut. But what about heat and friction you ask? Well because cross-cuts are nearly always short in duration, there usually isn’t enough time for that to be a factor. So if you’re looking for a good blade for your miter saw, a tool that exclusively cross-cuts, you probably want a nice 80-tooth blade like this one.

Where you’ll run into real trouble is if you decide to use a ripping blade for cross-cuts or a cross-cut blade for rips. You’ll get tearout and burning, respectively, so avoid doing that if possible.

Now there is one more thing to consider, and that’s the beast known as plywood. Plywood has a tendency to tearout a lot, especially on cross-cuts. That thin veneer layer just doesn’t stand up well to sawing. So when cutting plywood, a high-tooth count blade is a must if you want a clean crisp edge.

In the ideal world, we would all have both ripping and cross-cut blades in our shop and we’d change the blade according to the activity. But let’s be realistic here: changing blades sucks. And frankly, I am just too lazy for that. So what I opt for is a combination blade, usually 40-50 tooth like the Forrest Woodworker II. A high quality combination blade is capable of giving you excellent results for both rips and crosscuts. Is it as good as using high quality separate blades? Nope. But for the convenience and savings in time I will deal with what little tearout I experience, if any at all. And after about 10 years of working with a Forrest Woodworker II, I can honestly say I have never once thought to myself, “Boy, that cut would have better with an 80 tooth blade.”

Is it capable of producing finish-ready cuts? In my opinion, no. The finish is incredibly smooth by table saw standards but I wouldn’t call it finish ready. That doesn’t bother me since I always prep my materials by hand before finishing.

In summary, 30 tooth and below for rips, 40-50 tooth for combination, and 60 tooth plus for cross-cuts.

Keep in mind there are lots of other options and features associated with table saw blades like tooth configurations, angles, and coatings. But in my opinion, nothing impacts the results of the cut more than tooth count. Perhaps in the future we can dive into some of these other details.

The post Which Table Saw Blade Should I Buy? appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.

Collecting dust from sanders should be a priority.  Sanders do their job incredibly well which means they generate large clouds of dangerous fine dust particles in a hurry. If you aren’t collecting that dust at the tool, you’re risking your health.

Douglas wrote in with a good question about collecting dust from his sander.

I have a Delta 2hp dust collector with the HEPA bag and it works great, but (you knew there was a but), sanding is an issue. I generally hook up my shop vac to the portable sanders. They clog up quickly and then leave dust all over. I have yet to find a way to hook these smaller tools up to the big delta. Any thoughts?

It’s only logical that someone would want to use a big dust collector to pull dust from smaller tools, right? They are powerful and have a lot of capacity. If they work well on tablesaws, jointers, and planers, they should probably work just as well on sanders. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Although the suction seems pretty strong in 4″ piece of flex hose, performance take a huge dump when the pipe is reduced to the size of a typical sander’s dust port.

The big dust collectors are meant to move large volumes of air. If you restrict the 4″ hose of a dust collector down to the size of a sander dust port, you’ll very likely restrict the airflow so much that dust collection is ineffective. Furthermore, you could wind up starving your collector of air which puts extra wear and tear on the motor. A portable dust extractor, or a shop vac, moves small volumes of air but does so in a way that is still quite effective when using small hoses. The biggest shop vac hose I know of is only 2.5″ so you don’t have much further to go when reducing down to a dust port size.
The key to getting the shop vac to work better for Douglas lies in filter bags. Most shop vacs have filter bags that you can install in addition to the primary pleated filter. In my opinion, these bags are a REQUIREMENT for woodworkers. If you don’t use a bag, your filter will clog up in a hurry. Not only will it kill the air flow but you’ll shorten the life of your shop vac due to excess dust finding its way into the motor. I went through two shop vacs before I came to this realization. The bags aren’t cheap, but it’s better than replacing an entire shop vac. You’ll get better performance from your tools and your lungs will thank you!

There is one additional thing you can do to make your shop vac more effective at collecting dust and that’s to use a cyclone separator. But that’s a whole other ball of wax! If you’re interested in learning more about cyclone separators, check out this review on some of the common brands on the market.

The post Collecting Dust From Sanders appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.

Collecting dust from sanders should be a priority.  Sanders do their job incredibly well which means they generate large clouds of dangerous fine dust particles in a hurry. If you aren’t collecting that dust at the tool, you’re risking your health.

Douglas wrote in with a good question about collecting dust from his sander.

I have a Delta 2hp dust collector with the HEPA bag and it works great, but (you knew there was a but), sanding is an issue. I generally hook up my shop vac to the portable sanders. They clog up quickly and then leave dust all over. I have yet to find a way to hook these smaller tools up to the big delta. Any thoughts?

It’s only logical that someone would want to use a big dust collector to pull dust from smaller tools, right? They are powerful and have a lot of capacity. If they work well on tablesaws, jointers, and planers, they should probably work just as well on sanders. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Although the suction seems pretty strong in 4″ piece of flex hose, performance take a huge dump when the pipe is reduced to the size of a typical sander’s dust port.

The big dust collectors are meant to move large volumes of air. If you restrict the 4″ hose of a dust collector down to the size of a sander dust port, you’ll very likely restrict the airflow so much that dust collection is ineffective. Furthermore, you could wind up starving your collector of air which puts extra wear and tear on the motor. A portable dust extractor, or a shop vac, moves small volumes of air but does so in a way that is still quite effective when using small hoses. The biggest shop vac hose I know of is only 2.5″ so you don’t have much further to go when reducing down to a dust port size.
The key to getting the shop vac to work better for Douglas lies in filter bags. Most shop vacs have filter bags that you can install in addition to the primary pleated filter. In my opinion, these bags are a REQUIREMENT for woodworkers. If you don’t use a bag, your filter will clog up in a hurry. Not only will it kill the air flow but you’ll shorten the life of your shop vac due to excess dust finding its way into the motor. I went through two shop vacs before I came to this realization. The bags aren’t cheap, but it’s better than replacing an entire shop vac. You’ll get better performance from your tools and your lungs will thank you!

There is one additional thing you can do to make your shop vac more effective at collecting dust and that’s to use a cyclone separator. But that’s a whole other ball of wax! If you’re interested in learning more about cyclone separators, check out this review on some of the common brands on the market.

The post Collecting Dust From Sanders appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.

When I first started woodworking, chisels were one of those tools I owned because I was supposed to. All the cool kids had them so I did too. Over the years as I became better at sharpening and using them, chisels quickly became an absolutely essential shop tool that I’d be lost without. In fact, in answer to one of those silly “stranded on an island” questions, chisels would be on my short list of tools to bring with me because they are just so versatile. Not only could they help me build my new hut, they would also be quite handy for defense and hunting my daily dinner.

Like many tools, chisels come in an incredible variety of brands, styles, and sizes and it can be incredibly confusing to a new woodworker. The question of size, specifically, is what was on emailer Eric Johnson’s mind when he wrote this,

“I am really falling for those Japanese chisels you like from Hida Tool. If I were only to buy four of these to start out with; can you recommend what sizes you use most and would be good to get for a set of four? I am a typical hybrid type woodworker.”

So the quick and dirty answer, in my opinion, is 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2” and 3/4”. Of course having a 1” wide chisel is a nice treat too but I don’t consider it essential to a basic set. Let’s dig in a little deeper!

Eric mentioned two important things in his email that will guide the rest of this discussion. He says he’s interested in Japanese chisels and that he’s a “hybrid” woodworker, implying that he uses power tools for the grunt work and finesses with his hand tools. A lot of woodworkers adapt this “best tool for the job” approach and you can read more about it in my book titled Hybrid Woodworking (How’s that for a sales pitch?).

In case you weren’t aware, Japanese chisels are sized in metric and you usually can’t just pick up the standard sizes recommended above (at least I’ve never seen them). Fortunately, the slight difference between imperial and metric is a blessing in disguise, especially for the hybrid woodworker. Here’s one scenario to consider. You just created a 1/2” mortise with your router. You know the mortise is 1/2” because you used a quality 1/2” bit. You want to square the ends of the mortise so you reach for your western style 1/2” chisel.

Perhaps I’m just ham-handed but when I try do do this, I nearly always mangle the end of the mortise. Trying to fit an exact 1/2” chisel into an exact 1/2” mortise is a bit tricky. Cleaning the bottom of the mortise gets dicey too as any accidental side to side movement can cause dents in the mortise sides. Of course we all know that most mortises are hidden from view in which case it doesn’t really matter. But what about through tenons? The squareness and crispness of the mortise edges and ends matters a great deal! Another example to ponder is a stopped dado or groove. In some cases, the stopped area will be visible in the final piece and if you mangle the end, you’ll certainly be able to see it.

This is precisely why I prefer metric chisels as they are typically just a tad narrower than their imperial equivalents. The metric version of a 1/2” chisel is 12 mm. 12 mm = .472″ or slightly less that 1/2″.  So whenever I am squaring anything cut by a standard imperial piece of tooling, I have a very easy time putting my chisel in position and chopping without mangling the previously-established areas of the joint. This same situation holds true for the other metric chisels.

So ultimately, my recommendation for Eric is the following set:

6mm (approx. 1/4”), 9mm (approx. 3/8”), 12mm (approx. 1/2”), and 18mm (approx. 3/4”)

Keep in mind this is just my opinion based on what works for me. Whatever you do, don’t go out and replace your Western chisels in favor of Japanese style. The issues I presented concerning Western chisels are minor and picky at best. But this is what happens when you dissect a detail in woodworking and you should be used to that by now! This article is really only intended as food for thought for folks who are just now deciding on what chisel sizes they want to add to their arsenal.

One last tip for anyone looking to purchase some of these expensive Japanese chisels. Put your set together over the course of a few years. I find it helps avoid marital strife! If you have thoughts on this topic I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment below!

The post Chisel Sizes for the Hybrid Woodworker appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.

When I first started woodworking, chisels were one of those tools I owned because I was supposed to. All the cool kids had them so I did too. Over the years as I became better at sharpening and using them, chisels quickly became an absolutely essential shop tool that I’d be lost without. In fact, in answer to one of those silly “stranded on an island” questions, chisels would be on my short list of tools to bring with me because they are just so versatile. Not only could they help me build my new hut, they would also be quite handy for defense and hunting my daily dinner.

Like many tools, chisels come in an incredible variety of brands, styles, and sizes and it can be incredibly confusing to a new woodworker. The question of size, specifically, is what was on emailer Eric Johnson’s mind when he wrote this,

“I am really falling for those Japanese chisels you like from Hida Tool. If I were only to buy four of these to start out with; can you recommend what sizes you use most and would be good to get for a set of four? I am a typical hybrid type woodworker.”

So the quick and dirty answer, in my opinion, is 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2” and 3/4”. Of course having a 1” wide chisel is a nice treat too but I don’t consider it essential to a basic set. Let’s dig in a little deeper!

Eric mentioned two important things in his email that will guide the rest of this discussion. He says he’s interested in Japanese chisels and that he’s a “hybrid” woodworker, implying that he uses power tools for the grunt work and finesses with his hand tools. A lot of woodworkers adapt this “best tool for the job” approach and you can read more about it in my book titled Hybrid Woodworking (How’s that for a sales pitch?).

In case you weren’t aware, Japanese chisels are sized in metric and you usually can’t just pick up the standard sizes recommended above (at least I’ve never seen them). Fortunately, the slight difference between imperial and metric is a blessing in disguise, especially for the hybrid woodworker. Here’s one scenario to consider. You just created a 1/2” mortise with your router. You know the mortise is 1/2” because you used a quality 1/2” bit. You want to square the ends of the mortise so you reach for your western style 1/2” chisel.

Perhaps I’m just ham-handed but when I try do do this, I nearly always mangle the end of the mortise. Trying to fit an exact 1/2” chisel into an exact 1/2” mortise is a bit tricky. Cleaning the bottom of the mortise gets dicey too as any accidental side to side movement can cause dents in the mortise sides. Of course we all know that most mortises are hidden from view in which case it doesn’t really matter. But what about through tenons? The squareness and crispness of the mortise edges and ends matters a great deal! Another example to ponder is a stopped dado or groove. In some cases, the stopped area will be visible in the final piece and if you mangle the end, you’ll certainly be able to see it.

This is precisely why I prefer metric chisels as they are typically just a tad narrower than their imperial equivalents. The metric version of a 1/2” chisel is 12 mm. 12 mm = .472″ or slightly less that 1/2″.  So whenever I am squaring anything cut by a standard imperial piece of tooling, I have a very easy time putting my chisel in position and chopping without mangling the previously-established areas of the joint. This same situation holds true for the other metric chisels.

So ultimately, my recommendation for Eric is the following set:

6mm (approx. 1/4”), 9mm (approx. 3/8”), 12mm (approx. 1/2”), and 18mm (approx. 3/4”)

Keep in mind this is just my opinion based on what works for me. Whatever you do, don’t go out and replace your Western chisels in favor of Japanese style. The issues I presented concerning Western chisels are minor and picky at best. But this is what happens when you dissect a detail in woodworking and you should be used to that by now! This article is really only intended as food for thought for folks who are just now deciding on what chisel sizes they want to add to their arsenal.

One last tip for anyone looking to purchase some of these expensive Japanese chisels. Put your set together over the course of a few years. I find it helps avoid marital strife! If you have thoughts on this topic I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment below!

The post Chisel Sizes for the Hybrid Woodworker appeared first on The Wood Whisperer.