change your blades when you should

[Adam Herman]

oh shoot, i just need to rip this board, no time to change the blade.... run into a buried, broken off screw head and knock the carbide right off my infinity 40T combo blade... :mad:

just a reminder to use the right tool for the job.

ok... recs on new blade? anyone use the amana black mamba 24 thin kerf rip? seems like a decent price.

ill take recs to replace my 100 dollar blade as well.

[Mark Bolton]

Weve been running a bunch of Amana full kerf rips (super cheap like less than 60 bucks a piece). 24T if I remember. Dont run any thin kerf at all.

[Bill Dufour]

Would a rip blade not have lost teeth?
Bill D

[Jim Dwight]

I have two infinity blades I do not use because they burn wood worse than any other blade I own. So I am not high on infinity. But I have the 50 tooth and 24 tooth rip which I think are different from the blade you used. I like Freud blades and have a "fusion" 40 tooth thin kerf on right now and it's a pretty good blade. Not very expensive. I also like 50 tooth combination blades with 40 ATB and 10 ripping teeth. I use thin kerf now on my 1.75hp PCS but still have quite a few full kerf blades (including the infinities). I think the full kerf blades worked better on my previous 110V table saws. But with a good thin kerf the PCS is doing good work for me.

I usually do not lose a tooth when I hit a screw but it often chips a tooth. If you lost the entire tooth was it a really big or hard screw?

[glenn bradley]

no time to change the blade....

This was an arguing point in some thread long ago. I changed blades a half a dozen times and averaged it. IIRC it was around a minute. Doing that sort of thing just peeves the heck outta me; even more so because I know this :mad:. I too keep a junker blade around for questionable materials.

[Brian Tymchak]

I highly recommend getting a metal detector if you are going to use reclaimed wood. Has saved me at least 3 or 4 times.

[Adam Herman]

This was an arguing point in some thread long ago. I changed blades a half a dozen times and averaged it. IIRC it was around a minute. Doing that sort of thing just peeves the heck outta me; even more so because I know this :mad:. I too keep a junker blade around for questionable materials.

yea, i was just in too much of a hurry, and had already ripped a bunch of this redwood stock from a pergola without hitting anything.

i was so - so on the infinity blade, though i have had it on there a while. I think every tooth is either gone or damaged. Looked like it may have been about a #12 or #14 screw head from a hardened construction / deck screw

may pick up the 50t fusion for a finish blade. going to try the amana 24t rip for this sort of stuff.

[Andrew Seemann]

I have a cheap thin kerf Irwin rip blade I picked up from Rockler on clearance I use for rough ripping and anything questionable. I'd say pick up something similar for questionable materials and stuff where speed is more important than quality.

If you only lost a tooth or two, you probably could have your blade repaired by a sharpening shop. For replacement options, there have been some recent threads on this. They tend to recommend Forrest WW2 blades or similar/better quality blades that are less well known and a shade cheaper.

I have a pair of Forrests that I picked up years ago, back when they were the main recommendation for good blades and others were not commonly/readily available. For the most part they stay on my saw, and only come off for dadoing, and when I use that cheap thin kerf rip blade. I do have some others I could use, but rarely have a reason to.

[Bruce Wrenn]

yea, i was just in too much of a hurry, and had already ripped a bunch of this redwood stock from a pergola without hitting anything.

i was so - so on the infinity blade, though i have had it on there a while. I think every tooth is either gone or damaged. Looked like it may have been about a #12 or #14 screw head from a hardened construction / deck screw

may pick up the 50t fusion for a finish blade. going to try the amana 24t rip for this sort of stuff.

Send your blade to Dynamic Saw for an acessment. They can tell you what it will cost to fix it. You will only be out the shipping if it isn't fixable.

[Tom Bain]

I’ve been very happy with my Ridge Carbide ATBR blade.

[Matthew Hills]

I really liked my WWII thin-kerf.
I also really like my Freud Fusion.

Matt

[Lee Schierer]

I have a Craftsman 1Hp table saw and I run Freud full kerf blades 100% of the time. I have no problem crosscutting or ripping with those full Kerf blades. I routinely cut Red Oak, Cherry, Black Walnut, Soft Maple, Hard Maple and Hickory with no stalling or burning. I carefully aligned my saw right after I got it and I check it periodically to make sure it hasn't moved. I see no value in thin kerf blades.

[Brian Tymchak]

I have a Craftsman 1Hp table saw and I run Freud full kerf blades 100% of the time. I have no problem crosscutting or ripping with those full Kerf blades. I routinely cut Red Oak, Cherry, Black Walnut, Soft Maple, Hard Maple and Hickory with no stalling or burning. I carefully aligned my saw right after I got it and I check it periodically to make sure it hasn't moved. I see no value in thin kerf blades.

Lee, are you cutting 8/4 stock with a full kerf blade on that saw? I cut a 45* on 6/4 hard maple yesterday with a thin kerf blade and I think the blade flexed a bit. I think maybe a full kerf blade is what I need but wasn't sure if my 1.5 hp TS would push that blade thru.

[Jim Dwight]

I switched to thin kerf blades on my 1.75 hp PCS after making a bunk bed. The legs are a little less than 3 inches square made of glued up 2x4s (flattened first on the jointer). So I was ripping softwood around 3 inches thick. I think I first tried the 24 tooth Infinity ripping blade. The saw struggled even with a low feed rate. The Infinity blade was new and clean. So I switched to a full kerf Freud 24 tooth blade. That worked much better but I still had to use a slower feed rate. The Freud blade was not new or completely clean or sharp but was in decent shape. So I switched to a thin kerf 24 tooth blade and the saw would rip these 7 foot glueups at normal feed rate with no issues. When I saw the saw struggled I mean the thermal overload on the motor was tripping.

I've used full kerf blades on 110V table saws for years. I used a BT3100 before the PCS which is belt drive with a 15A universal motor. I'm pretty sure it would have ripped these posts with a full kerf blade (but possibly not the Infinity). My thermal overload may be set a little sensitive on my PCS but the easiest solution is thin kerf blades. I ripped 3 inches deep in softwood repeatedly yesterday with a thin kerf all around blade (40 tooth Freud Fusion). My saw just seems to really want thin kerf blades. I don't think they stay sharp as long and I miss the full 1/8 kerf for making narrow dados but using a thin kerf isn't a big deal to me. I also have a new 24 tooth ripping blade that I will use if the all around blade struggles.

I also make deep rips in hardwood including fairly recently in 3x3 cherry glueups for my bed. I do not remember the PCS struggling. I'm pretty sure I was using a full kerf blade. They were shorter than these bunk bed posts, however, and I may have just lived with a low feed rate to get done. The only other time I remember the thermal overload tripping on my PCS was ripping 1 inch thick oak with a full kerf combination blade. The wood was pinching the blade, kerf closing up. I jambed a wedge in it to complete the cut after resetting the overload. There might have been something like that going on when I was ripping the bunk bed posts but I didn't notice it. The riving knife SawStop uses is pretty close to the width of a thin kerf blade so it's significantly thinner than a full kerf blade. So it makes sense to me that the saw would be more sensitive to the kerf closing with a full kerf blade.

[Lee Schierer]

Lee, are you cutting 8/4 stock with a full kerf blade on that saw? I cut a 45* on 6/4 hard maple yesterday with a thin kerf blade and I think the blade flexed a bit. I think maybe a full kerf blade is what I need but wasn't sure if my 1.5 hp TS would push that blade thru.

I've cut some hard maple making toys, but the cuts are short. I have a Freud Glueline RIP blade and it cuts well in thicker stock. Ive been impressed with how well it cuts as compared to the thin kerf RIP blade I used to use. I cut some 8/4 walnut with it. You have a half Hp more than I do.

[roger wiegand]

If it's just a tip or three your sharpener should be able to replace it for much less than the cost of a new blade.

[Fred Falgiano]

over a year ago, I had a WW2 combo that was starting to burn a lot on my 3hp SawStop. Picked up a couple of cheap diablos at HD (a crosscut and a ripper).

I’ve been really disciplined about swapping and using the right blade for the job and I’ve gotten great results. I’ve ripped 8/4 hard maple with no issues.

Much cheaper than the fancy blades and convenient to replace when the time comes.

[Roger Feeley]

I had a SawStop brake fire (my fault) when using an Amanda combo blade. A couple of carbides were ruined. My sharpening guy brazed new carbides onto the blade. The charge was very reasonable and far less than a new blade. I still use it.

[Jim Dwight]

If I go three table saws back I had a home made table saw with a 1hp motor. A true 1 hp motor. Wouldn't run on a 15A circuit. I think it was as powerful as my current PCS with a "1.75hp" motor. I think the ratings have changed over the years. I know that old 1hp induction motor is at least as big as the motor in the PCS.

[Adam Herman]

If I go three table saws back I had a home made table saw with a 1hp motor. A true 1 hp motor. Wouldn't run on a 15A circuit. I think it was as powerful as my current PCS with a "1.75hp" motor. I think the ratings have changed over the years. I know that old 1hp induction motor is at least as big as the motor in the PCS.

if it would not run on a 15 amp circuit, it was more than 1 hp. 1 hp = 745 watts. 745 watts / 110 volts is only about 7 amps. not factoring inrush.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Old Expression which can applied to any task that one is putting off:

"I don't have time to sharpen my axe because I have too much wood to chop."