Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone! This is my first topic. I have really enjoyed reading all the posts here. Thanks!

So,...I'm thinking about buying a table saw blade for frets. The three that are readily available have; 100, 110 & 190 teeth. Would it stand to reason that the more teeth there are, the less cutting each one would do and the longer it would last?

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Pat

Yes, unless the blade overheats. The more teeth, the smoother the cut as well.

Hi and welcome. I haven't been here to much recently but it always the first place I think of when I'm in a guitar building mode.

If I had the choose I would pick 190 teeth. I don't think wear would be a big factor based on teeth. It will most likely depend more on the quality of the steel. Fret cuts are shallow and always cross cuts, the easiest on a blade.

Don't forget to get the right kerf for the wire you intend to use. (usually .023" or .025"). Good luck!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Mark and Joe both make good points about this. I am not familiar with these very narrow-kerfed blades but I suspect they behave and wear much like any other blade. Normally, you'd always be striving for a balance between smoothness and ease of cut. More teeth, well set, do indeed produce smooth cuts with less tear out. But fewer teeth with bigger gullets clear sawdust better, thus keeping the blade and the wood cooler. I have a full sized planer blade that uses both of these principles at the same time--several small, finely gulleted teeth and then a big gullet, then several more fine teeth and so on. I have a hunch that with the shallow cross cuts as produced in fret slots you'll be just fine with a very fine-toothed blade. You might want to run it between two stabilizers just to stiffen the blade--and practice to get a feel for the speed of your feed on the cross cut. Stabilizers might even be packaged with these blades. Probably best to check on that. Others with tons of experience will advise better than I can.
Good luck with it!
Patrick

100 teeth on a 6" blade is going to give a pretty fine cut. I've got a 14" 98 tooth blade that leaves a glass like cut.
Does anyone besides LMI sell a fret blade for a 1" arbor?


Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Thanks guys! Not too concerned about a smoother cut. But since the LMI blade has nearly twice as many teeth as the others, shouldn't it stay sharp nearly twice as long?

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Pat

Could get dull twice as fast too. Heat is your enemy and the teeth need to clear the chips

The number of teeth doesn't necessarily mean it'll stay sharp twice as long. As Tim says, it could result in more heating, which could warp your blade, gum it up with resins, etc. (See my previous post about dust clearance) Or....maybe you won't have those problems. Much will depend on your use of the blade. Like I said earlier, you need to develop a feel for the feed rate of your cut. You will probably be okay, but you're just going to have to experiment. Or, wait until someone who has cut a couple hundred fret boards with various models of these blades can chime in and give you some personal experience, and I just can't do that. But I can definitely tell you that twice the teeth doesn't necessarily equate to twice the tooth life. Could be, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The number of teeth doesn't necessarily mean it'll stay sharp twice as long. As Tim says, it could result in more heating, which could warp your blade, gum it up with resins, etc. (See my previous post about dust clearance) Or....maybe you won't have those problems. Much will depend on your use of the blade. Like I said earlier, you need to develop a feel for the feed rate of your cut. You will probably be okay, but you're just going to have to experiment. Or, wait until someone who has cut a couple hundred fret boards with various models of these blades can chime in and give you some personal experience, and I just can't do that. But I can definitely tell you that twice the teeth doesn't necessarily equate to twice the tooth life. Could be, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Hmmm....has anyone encountered a fret saw overheating while cutting frets? I never considered that might be an issue.

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Pat

Pat,

If you want a saw blade that will last longer, the material it is made from makes more difference than the number of teeth. The number of teeth have more to do with depth and direction of cut and the desired finish. Lots of people wind up using fret saws for more than fingerboards because of the smaller kerf. The deeper you cut the fewer teeth you should have to allow the chips to clear. Too few teeth and you can have problems with overfeeding, too many and you can start packing dust in the gullet which causes overheating.

Does that make sense?

Tim

Are all the blades of the same diameter? Teeth per inch?

190 teeth on a six inch blade ?? .. to cut thin slots in ebony and rosewood ??? .. thats too many IMO, the gullets will clog up with resins, then the blade will heat up even more, and not cut very well. Get the 100.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"