Dewalt “Melamine and Veneer” 60T blade
Yesterday I was at the Black & Decker/ Dewalt service center looking around and I bought a 10″ 60 tooth blade that I thought was an all-purpose fine cut-off blade. I had my kindergartener with me and she was pretty hyper so I guess I mis-read the package. So when I got home, I realized that what I have is a “Melamine and Veneers 60 tooth (H-ATB)” blade. The price with tax was like 21$. I just had a few questions: Is this blade suitable for all-purpose crosscutting? Would this be good for crosscuts in any hardwood plywood? Should I return the blade and exchange it for the Fine Cross Cut one with the same number of teeth?
Thanks for your help.
Sprocket (a.k.a. Bill C.)
p.s.: I think ATB means Alternate Top Bevel but what does the “H” signify?
Replies
Bill, I'm a bit confused by your description. I generally consider an "all-purpose" crosscut blade to be a different beast than a "Fine Cut" crosscut blade. You mention hardwood plywood -- are you mainly wanting a blade that will make clean cuts in nice, veneered plywood?
forestgirl Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I would keep the blade at $21, may not be for the job you were thinking of, I know you going to need it!
Whick service center were you at?
the Dayton Ohio service center
sprocket, H-ATB stands for high alternate top bevel. I'm not any kind of 'font-of-all-knowledge' regarding saw tooth geometry being merely a woodwhacker not a saw blade manufacturer, but what you've got is basically a cross cut tooth pattern saw with an extreme tooth rake. The extreme rake is intended to create a fine slicing action so that the downward chop, particularly on the unsupported bottom face of brittle faced boards, e.g., melamine, cut on the table saw limits spelch (US breakout) to the minimum.
The best analogy I can think of is to compare the possible angles of attack you might use with a chisel or knife on such material. Whack at it with the cutting edge perpendicular to the face and you'll chip the melamine. Slice at it and you'll get a cleaner result.
With all those teeth there's not much space in the gullets to carry sawdust away efficiently but for board materials which are generally fairly thin that shouldn't be too much of a problem. At $21 I'd hang on to the blade and use it for cross cutting solid wood and for dimensioning board material. The high rake means the cutting edge is comparitively brittle because of the low bevel angle and it will tend to blunten fairly rapidly and chip fairly easily.
The blade would be hopeless for ripping solid wood because the tooth geometry is all wrong-- for efficient ripping you need a FT (flat top) grind which 'chisels' shavings which are carried away in spacious gullets-- but enough of that. Slainte.
sprocket,
Hang on to it! I just came back from looking for the exact blade you own and the cheapest I could find was $59. I don't want to spend this kind of money on a blade that I will use once. Now $21 I can live with.
Carlos
I have that blade but I bought it to cut ONLY plywood (veneers) and melamine and it excells at this. But if you want to get a general crosscut blade go for the Freud.
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