So I’m at Woodcraft, about to buy my first WWII blade that I keep reading so much about, and as I’m asking the guy for advice between the 30T and 40T blade, I let on that I’ll be doing a decent amount of plywood cutting, at least since my next few projects will be cabinets and such with plywood construction.
At that point he says “I almost never recommend against the WWII, and the WWII will certainly do a great job of cutting your plywood, but I would hate to do that to such a nice blade.” He went on to say that the glue in plywood greatly accelerates the wear on a blade, and I should instead by a cheaper plywood blade, saving the WWII for solid wood only.
He told me about another customer who jointed a plywood edge and then a solid board, only to find that the jointer blades left ridges where the plywood glue had grooved the blades (not carbide).
So, any recommendations on a good plywood blade? I’ll be cutting oak/birch veneer plywood, so I’d like minimal veneer tearout (will tape and use zero clearance as req’d). From time to time I’ll want to rip solid wood edging, rails/stiles, etc., so it would be nice if the same blade could be used for both.
Right now I’ve got a Freud Diablo thin kerf combination blade, pretty new, pretty sharp.
Thanks for your advice!
proje
Replies
Forget the combo blades. They don't do a good job on either ply or solid stock.
For ply, get a good 80T blade like the Freud LU98.
For ripping, get a thin kerf, like the Freud LU87 or 88.
Generally, you can get exellent sharp edged rips in ply with your rip blade. Use the 80T on cross cuts and tape the kerf.
Get some blade stabilizers too.
forrest also just came out with a new plywood and lam. blade, here's the link to their web site. pricey thought. http://www.forrestblades.com/hiat.htm
I'll second Tom's suggestion of getting a Freud plywood blade. It won't be as expensive as a Forrest, and it'll work great.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I have used the Forrest WWII exclusively on on my Unisaws since 1989. I have ripped & crosscut 100s of sheets of cabinet plywood & ripped thousands of feet of lumber. The only time I change to a different blade is when I am cutting used lumber. Even with all that cutting I have never had a blade sharpened more than once in a year. If you do get a Forrest blade, always have it resharpened by Forrest.
Chris
That may be true for jointer blades, but I think carbide saws blades would not have this problem.
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