Caught myself using the wrong blade for plywood for years

I was building some kitchen cabinets last week and kept getting chip-out on the show faces. I figured it was just the cheap plywood I bought from the lumber yard. Then a guy at the shop asked why I was still running a 40-tooth combo blade on cabinet grade stuff. He pointed out that I was getting tear-out because the blade angle was wrong for crosscuts on veneer. I never even thought about blade geometry for different materials. Now I switched to a 60-tooth triple chip grind blade and the cuts come out clean as can be. Has anyone else dealt with this where a simple blade swap fixed their plywood problems?

2 comments

2 Comments

valgibson1mo ago

Wait, is it really that simple of a fix?

smith.anna1mo ago

Come on @valgibson, people love to make things sound way more complicated than they actually are. Half the time you see someone posting about some "life changing fix" and it's something basic like drinking water or taking a walk. It's probably not that serious unless there's some hidden catch nobody's mentioning yet. Maybe it works for some people in specific situations but calling it a simple fix for everyone feels like a stretch. I'd wait and see if more people chime in with actual results before getting excited.