More about blades

It never hurts to try out different blades on the same piece of wood. Sometimes a smaller blade will cut more effectively than a larger one, or a particular tooth configuration will really make a difference, as with the Flying Dutchman polar blades.

When faced with a really dense piece of wood, like jatoba or ipé, or a thick piece of cherry, on a project that doesn't require tight turns, my go-to blade is the Flying Dutchman #12 reverse tooth (FD 12R).  Add some tape (clear or blue) over the wood or pattern to help with the cutting and reduce burning, and you should be able to handle almost any piece of wood.

A quick tip

Although it will take time to get the new shop up and running, I'll still be posting on the blog as usual.

The quick tip that I want to offer is that Flying Dutchman Polar blade is just super for Corian and for acrylic.  I had never used this blade before, and was absolutely blown away by how easy it was to work with these materials.

I used the #5, because that's what I had on hand, to cut both 1/4" acrylic and 1/2" Corian.  I took extra care to cut precisely, and slowed the speed on the acrylic to prevent melting.  Really opens up a whole new set of possibilities!

My poor shop!

Well, everything is packed up and ready for the move on Wednesday.  We'll try to get the new shop up and running in one bay of the two-car garage, then tackle preparing a basement shop at leisure.  It hurts to see things in such disarray, but there should be many new possibilities, including a drum sander (at last!) in our new location.  Of course, the basics (food, bedding, etc.) have to come first, but once that's done, we can get to work on the shop.  Won't have to worry about keeping busy this winter, that's for sure!