Help choosing a new saw blade please

[martlewis]

Hi guys,

Can anyone help please.

Until now I've always used the standard blades that came with the saws I bought. I need to replace the standard blade that came with my SIP 10" t/s. I have some money in paypal so I'm looking at ebay but honestly don't have a clue which to get.

Mostly will be ripping and crosscutting ply, and cutting pine too. Can anyone suggest which blade to go for on ebay, any sellers you recommend too?

Also need to do some work with melamine so could do with advice on the right blade for cutting that too please?

One last question, I don't think the SIP has a standard arbor, it says it is 25.4mm, most blades I've seen are 30mm i think. Any suggestions on this too.

Cheers all,

Martin.

 

[Slim]

Hey Martin,

Axminster have reducing bushes for blades here. I have used them on my SIP quite successfully. You need the 30mm-1" one. Also make sure you order the 1.4mm thick one if you plump for a thin kerf blade.

As far as blades go, I you are looking for a combination blade, I have just bought a 60 tooth thin kerf CMT blade. It does a fantastic job on crosscuts, and if you take it slow and steady it does a good job of ripping.
I think it would do a reasonably decent job on melamine laminates, but normally you would go for an 80+ tooth for this purpose.

Freud also get a good write up.

Hope this helps

 

[engineer one]

certainly in my experience, and on my dewalt 744, the cmt blades i have used are magic, and work well on mfc.

paul :wink:

 

[jonny boy]

Hi,
I have alway's used the Dewalt blades. The series 40 or if you can stretch the extra cost, go for the series 60. To buy from a shop will set you back £40-£60 depending how many teeth you opt for but I have bought 4 off ebay for only £10-£20 each. Keep an eye out on ebay as they are always comming up for sale and I promise you that the noticable difference in quality and ease of cut is staggering. Oh and for a general use blade you want something like a 30 or 40 tooth for both ripping and general crosscutting.
cheers,
jon.

 

[Joe90]

Hi
I've been making do with very cheap Perform blades from Axminster on my table saw and mitre saw... they are very cheap but I have wondered if I'd notice the difference with a higher quality blade, I was looking at getting a thin kerf CMT blade from Axminster so I'll keep an eye on this thread, comments above seem to suggest that the good blades are worth the money.

In my experience the Perform blades work adequately but I have no experience of expensive blades.

I work with pine panels all the time so I use a 40T (or so) blade on the table saw and a 60T to 72T on the sliding mitre saw.

first post complete whoo hoo. :wink:

Cheers
Joe

 

[johnnyb]

freud are the blades i have used the most and they are very good. dewalt blades are not great though in my experience. if you have a 1.5 to 2 hp saw dont bother with thin kerf as there is no point and you limit your choice of blade and need to change your riving knife(essential) 3.2 mm tips also have more ginding on them i think and vibrate less giving cleaner cuts. only use on underpowered saws.

 

[DaveL]

Hi Joe,

Welcome to the forum.

I have used the Axminster Perform blades, they are quite good for the price they charge but the quality of the cut from a Freud one that I bought on ebay is much better.

 

[mailee]

I at the moment use blades I bought off E-bay from a company named Summit sawblades and I have found them fine so far. I have a sixty tooth one on my Radial arm and a twenty four tooth one on my table saw for ripping. They cut very well and cleanly, only thing I have found negative is they make a whine when running, no real problem though. :wink:

 

[Scrit]

Hi Joe and welcome to the forum (beat ya Newbie Neil! :wink: )

The main difference between cheap blades and better ones is that the better ones generally have more and better quality carbide tips and brazing - so you'll get less tooth chipping/loss and a longer period between grinds (i.e. they hold their edge better). They also tend to be quiter although that said I have a Leuco which has always "rung" like a bell when not in cut (something to do with tensioning) - cuts beautifully, though :roll:

Martin

If you want a good quality blade I'd start looking at the better quality makers. One of the things I've found is that over the life of a blade the cost of regrinds and repairs will normally exceed the original cost, so buying a blade with a better quality plate and design does pay dividends, for me at least. For that reason I've settled on Ernest Bennet (British), Leuco and Oppold (German) and Freud and Omas (Italian) all of whom produce good quality blades. There are other good makers out there - these are merely the makes I use and trust, and can buy locally. I've avoided manufacturer's own blades because saw making is a specialist activity and I'm maybe old fashioned in thinking that a specialist area like tooling requires a tooling specialist to get it right. Almost as important as finding a good saw is finding a good saw doctor because it's his skill that will keep your saw blades productive.

In terms of combination blades I've had success with both Omas and Freud blades, whilst for plywood I've found Bennett's triple chip designs to be just about unbeatable, although the German makers do come awfully close. If you do a lot of ripping I would suggest that you invest is a ripping blade - even a low cost rip blade will be able to match the performance of a combination blade, providing you don't use it for crosscutting.

For melamine I normally use a machine with a pre-scorer, so my experiences there are less relevant, although I've recently been pleasantly surprised to find that a Freud Diablo negative rake mitre blade will do a very passable job (i.e. minimal chip-out) with MFC on my W/Master OP-201 (small 10in saw), albeit at an increased risk of kickback, so watch out if yo go this way (this tip brought to you courtesy of WoodSmith, thanks Keith!). One point, though, is that it did require the substitution of a thinner riving knife as the Diablo is quite a thin blade

As for arbor reducers, any decent saw doctor or saw blade supplier should be able to supply them

Scrit

 

[Shivers]

I'd go with everything scrit says ,plus get a 60 tooth in alternate top bevel profile(ATB)for sheet materials/crosscutting, a good quality blade has larger teeth to begin with so can usually have 150-200% more sharpening,if you do the economics on this you will see they end up way cheaper in the long run.

also a thin kerf for me doesn't run as true --the thin plate allows far more vibration & wobble under stress/heavy load & is normally not 100% flat out of the box,the only advantage i see to a thin kerf is if you have a low powered motor on the TS as a thinner kerf cut uses up less horse power.

another tip for getting max chip free cut as possible is to find the blade height sweet spot,this entails raising the blade up or down to see the least amount of chipping,you'll know it when you hit it as it has to do with the sweep of the angle of the tooth as it hits the material & it varies from different types/thicknesses of sheet materials.


regards.

 

[Keith Smith]

For melamine I normally use a machine with a pre-scorer, so my experiences there are less relevant, although I've recently been pleasantly surprised to find that a Freud Diablo negative rake mitre blade will do a very passable job (i.e. minimal chip-out) with MFC on my W/Master OP-201 (small 10in saw), albeit at an increased risk of kickback, so watch out if yo go this way (this tip brought to you courtesy of WoodSmith, thanks Keith!). One point, though, is that it did require the substitution of a thinner riving knife as the Diablo is quite a thin blade

Scrit you're very welcome, thats 2500 tips from you and one from me; I'm catching you up

One thing I would say about using a negative rake blade in a table saw is to remove it as soon as you finish cutting the MFC or ply. The consequencies of trying to rip a length of timber with this blade would be dire.

Keith

 

[martlewis]

Anyone used Summit blades of ebay with any success? Not heard of the brand name.

 

[jonny boy]

I have one of those seriously thin kerf blades from CMT, (1.7mm) I think, it has 80 teeth and straight from the box I found it to be rubbish. The blade seems to be far too thin which means it won't hold it's rigidity when crosscutting something like oak or beech. The first table saw I had was a Kity 419 and way too under powered when ripping thick stock but when I fitted it with a series 60 Dewalt blade with 40 teeth, it was like I had gone up two extra horse power, butter and hot knives came to mind.
I used to work on an industrial estate in Doncaster where Black and Decker had their saw blade manufaturing plant and the quality control and testing that went into the Dewalt blades was amazing. The tool makers who worked on those blades certainly knew what they were doing and I also found that a lot of other well known brands also had their blades made there. Sadly though, the factory is now in the process of closing and moving production to China (the same old story).

cheers,
jon.

 

[DaveL]

Anyone used Summit blades of ebay with any success? Not heard of the brand name.

In the seventh reply to your question

I at the moment use blades I bought off E-bay from a company named Summit sawblades and I have found them fine so far.

:roll:

 

[martlewis]

Sorry Dave, missed that one. How do you rate the blades compared to the bigger names?

 

[Scrit]

I used to work on an industrial estate in Doncaster where Black and Decker had their saw blade manufaturing plant and the quality control and testing that went into the Dewalt blades was amazing.

Hi Jon

The biggest problem with buying from someone like B&D or deWalt is that they will indeed change source/quality/performance of their blades at the drop of a hat (although they won't necessarily inform you of the change), whereas a more traditional toolmaker cannot afford to do this to his customer. I also have to say that my make recommendations should be taken as really starting at 10 or 12 inches and getting larger and for use on static machines rather than portable saws.

As to thin kerf blades I remain biased against them. I've tried a few (CMT and Freud) in the past on 12 inch saw benches and they just tend to distort and vibrate too much for my liking.

Scrit

 

[ProShop]

Here's some pics of profiles of blades designed for cutting sheets etc.
hope you find them useful.

Good for cutting melamine on both sides, if you don't have a scorer.

And another, also good finish on veneered boards.

This an excellent blade for cutting mdf & other particle boards, great finish.

another one for veneered or laminate boards, very good undercut.

 

[dedee]

Martin,
I've have no complaints from the Trend blades - resonable priced when compared with some of the other brands mentions above. I use one in my table saw (Kity 419).

I recently bought a SIP cordless trim saw and did a test cut in 1/2 birch ply. The noise from the balde was awful and it managed to scorch the wood in places too. I immediately replaced the blade with a Trend one and it is now much quiter and gives a nice clean cut.

Andy

 

[jonny boy]

When I talk about the high quality of the Dewalt saw blades, I'm talking specifically about the series 40 and more to the point the series 60. The large panel saws we use at work have blade capacities of 300-400mm and we have used the series 60 for years under the ELU branding and rate them as truly an industrial saw blade for day in day out use. If anyone gets the opportunity to obtain one for a good price, I can promise you that you'll be impressed.
cheers,
jon.

 

[ivan]

Don't dismiss thin kerf blades if you have a lower powered saw, use a stiffener instead, unless ultimate finish straight from the saw is reqired.