Shopsmith Forums

pennview wrote:You have a couple of choices from Forrest who make a blade capable of making a near flat kerf where every fifth tooth is a raker set at .010" below the ATB teeth. You need to order a Woodworker II with a #6 grind. They also make one that makes a perfectly flat bottom kerf, the Woodworker II with a #1 grind.

Forrest also sells a Woodworker II blade with the 1 1/4" hole that costs about $20 more than the conventional blade.

Thanks for the info, Art. Any idea what trade-offs there are in going with the #6 or #1 versus the standard (at least I assumed it was standard) grind that has no raker?

Al

I've not seen the #6 grind, but I'd expect that it would perform similarly to the standard Woodworker II blade because it is quite similar in design except for the raker teeth. The #1 grind is meant for finger/box joints, for cutting slots for feathers/keys, or skinny dados, so it's meant to only cut partially through the wood and it provided a very clean cut from what I recall seeing years ago from a guy making the woodworking show circuit. He sold a plastic jig that allowed you to make perfect 1/8" finger joints for box corners. I bought one of the jigs, but never bought the Forrest blade.

I have several blades that cut flat bottom kerfs. One is a Freud 10" 60 tooth thin kerf blade with a flat grind that I use for cutting slots for feathers/keys in box corners, but the writing on the blade is worn off so I'm not sure what the model number is. I believe the blade is out of production. I also have a Vermont American 7 1/4" ultra thin flat grind blade that was called a Lightening blade, but that too is out of production.

Slitting/slotting saw blades used on a milling machine for sawing slots in metal will make square-bottomed slots as well, but you'd need a special arbor to mount them. And, since they're usually small in diameter, cutting slots with them on a Shopsmith requires an unconventional set-up.

mrhart wrote:I hope it would be a good all around blade, mine is in Colorado headed this way. The blades I aquired have all had some use. I splurged and had to get at least one new blade, so based on that review and the e-mail, I ordered one.

My new SS Crosscut 60 tooth blade arrived this week and I got to make a couple test cuts with it. Wow, you dont realize what you're used to until you mount up a new one! I need to spend some time with it, lots of things planned the new few weeks. I'll post one more "after" review.

Maybe I need to buy a couple new blades.

These old ones are just not as exciting as they could be. A couple new blades would make real good Secret Sant gifts (and I do mean SECRET). It would be real hard to justify new blades with all the blades I have hanging around the shop.

But how will I ever know if I don't try out the new Shopsmith blade.