A woodworker made cove molding with his table saw but got a lot of ridges. Should he have used a rip blade or crosscut blade?
Rick White: A rip blade wouldn’t have enough teeth to do a good job, so a crosscut blade would probably be better. There are a lot of things that could be causing the ridges including pushing it through the blade at the wrong angle, feeding it too fast, or the wood could be too wet. You should also do this in multiple passes for best results.
Ellis Walentine: You get ridges in cove cuts because you’re using the corners of your saw teeth to make the cut. The trick is to use a molding head with bullnose cutters on it. This type of cutter will do a much better job of smoothing out the cut. Slower feed speeds also help, even with sawblades.
Michael Dresdner: Use a crosscut blade or more specifically, one of the ‘all purpose’ ATB blades such as a 10″, 40-tooth sawblade. More importantly, watch your feed speed. Ridges can come from feeding the wood too fast.
