Thanks for the info. I'm going to head out to the shop and Mic the blade to see if it is hollow ground. It didn't make sense to me that the teeth didn't have any set because that would cause the blade to rub. However your explanation makes perfect sense. I knew there needed to be clearance somewhere.
The 300 rpm you suggested. Is that for mild steel? If my calc's are right the sfpm for HSS on mild steel should be around 100 fpm and for a 2 1/2" diameter blade with 28 teeth that would be about 150 rpm and using a feed rate of 0.001" per tooth I would get a feed of 4.2" per minute and for 300 rpm a feed of 8.4" per minute would be right.
I did start producing amber chips but that was close to the end of the cut when I was trying a faster feed but by then the blade was already toast. Maybe because I was initially feeding too slowly. Man there is a lot to learn with this machining stuff. Seems like every day I find there is more and more stuff I don't know. I think I may be getting dumber.