Official Luthiers Forum!

No blade is any good if it isn't sharp.

Which is why I love these. Sharp, and cheap enough that when they go dull, I toss it and reach for a new one(on average, maybe every 30-40 guitar's worth of work). Like Todd, I use the older, dull ones in the Skil saw, but the blade that's in there is still goin strong after something like ten years, despite once cutting into my cast iron vise. Not all carbide is created equal, and these dudes have some nice carbide for their price range.

Todd, yeah, it can wander a bit, especially if you're used to a 10" blade, and don't adjust your feed hand accordingly. Just feed a bit lighter, and let the blade do its thing, and it's very reasonable. Push it a bit, and it'll wander...

The cuts are clean enough that the 3 sides of my headstocks are done with it, and I go right to fine sandpaper before finishing. The Unisaw's arbour was really sweet right from the get-go, but my old Craftsman saw(my Dad's orginal table saw, a 1948 model that still gets used today!) had a bit of wobble, but that was easy enough to true up as you say. Another big help was when I set my fence dead-square to the blade, and not skewed to the rear a bit like we're always told to do. This change was huge, in fact....

I just measured the depth of cut on the Unisaw, and it's 1-3/4". A bit less than I remembered, so I checked the old Crafstman, and that one sneaks nearly 2-1/4" from the same blade. The arbour goes much closer to the table on that guy!

In the end, everyone, if you want to ultimate-smooth cut, yes, go to a Forrest or whatever. But if you want a $10-$20 blade that does 99% of the work extremely well, give the little Diablo blades a try. They changed how I view, and use, the table saw, which is now my most valuable tool, by a long shot.Mario38671.4673263889

OK Mario, You've sold it to me! The only thing I need a bigger blade for is scarfs, and I'm going over to V-joints anyway! 30-40 guitars worth will last me 6 or 7 years.

Thanks

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Mario,
Which Diablo blade has a .051" kerf?? The smallest I have seen is a .059". Not that the small difference matters, I was just wondering if I have overlooked one of their blades.

I tried the 7 1/4" Diablo blades upon Mario's recommendation and haven't looked back. These are great little blades and I can get them at any Home Depot for about 14 bucks. They seem to last forever too, as long as you don't try to crank the saw to a 45 degree angle while you have a zero clearance insert in there. Don't ask me how I know this.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Which Diablo blade has a .051" kerf??

Ah, these are secret! <bg> There was a run of them, early on, with this really thin kerf, but they upped it to the .059" we see today for one reason or another. I bought a handful of the .051" ones. I'm saving one in case I ever get into bar frets....

I've used "El Diablo" for several years. They definately have thier place in a shop. One day while at the HD, I saw that they had them in a packaged set of two. "Buy one get one free". Two for $10. So I bought 5 packs of them. Turns out they are the "old" .051 blades. Must have been blowing them out or something.
For my really fine cutting I use Everlast blades. I've got two combination blades and one cross cutt blade (lots of teeth 80 I think). What I like about them is their weight. They sort of act as a fly wheel and it seams like the saw works less hard when cutting. Startup is a different story.

Freud does make a 10" Diablo blade. I bought one about 2 years ago. They had a gold 40 tooth and a red 60 tooth. They are pretty nice blades. About $30 for the 40 tooth and I think about $10 more for the 60. I don't know if they are still available or not. The little ones do cut better though.Jimmie D38672.6035532407