Sliding Miter Saw Blade

[Dan Gaylin]

This has been asked before (sort of) but a long time ago. There seems to be a lot of contradictory information about whether you need to use a blade whose teeth have negative rake for a a sliding compound miter saw. A lot of folks say you do, and some folks say that if you are using the sliding feature so that you are pushing the saw away from you, as opposed to pulling it towards you then a positive rake is perfectly fine. Would appreciate your insights.

Thanks,

-dan

[Steve Rozmiarek]

SCMS are to be pushed through the cut, not pulled. I have a 7 degree positive rake Freud on the saw in the shop right now. Also use lower rakes with more teeth for chip prone materials.

[Tom M King]

Don't try this at home, but I never push, and even hate using a butter knife for cutting butter.

[Mike Kees]

Negative rake blades and push through the cut.

[Kevin Jenness]

Negative rake will generate the least upward force on the workpiece and the least tearout on the top face when push cutting. Pull cutting is climb cutting, more aggressive and potentially hazardous with a positive rake blade. These saws generally do best with a narrow kerf blade.

[Paul F Franklin]

The issue with push cutting IME is it compounds the already difficult dust collection issue because there is nowhere for the saw dust to go except up from the back of the blade which makes it a lot harder for the hood behind the saw to capture it. When you pull cut, the dust shoots mostly straight back into the hood. But it is definitely safer to push cut. When I choose to pull cut, I generally clamp the stock and keep a solid grip on the saw to resist any forward motion. And I use a negative rake blade.

[Dan Gaylin]

This is all very helpful, and I appreciate everyone's replies. I have made it a habit to only do push cuts with my SCMS. I had been using the stock blade. It is getting tired and so I've decided to try a new one. Hard to find the negative rake blades in 10" diameter right now. Freud makes one but it is oversold everywhere. Never thought about the dust collection issue, although I've always been unimpressed with the dust collection I get on my saw so maybe that explains it. Has anyone actually compared quality of cut with negative and positive rake?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Dan, we use a lot of different blades in the company's SCMS. YMMV because we probably cut a more eclectic variety of materials than most. I think there are 7 saws? ish anyhow, and generally I have them set up with 80 tooth somethings if we're doing finish carpentry, and whatever is handy if it's rough carpentry. We use lots of Freud blades because they are easy to just pick up at the local lumber yard. Anything will cut a 2x4, but clean cutting of painted millwork is a different animal. The Freud we generally use is a positive hook 80 tooth blade for the 10" saws, the 12" saws have 96 teeth for the same series blade if I remember correctly. It's an ok blade, but not great. The best reasonably priced blade I've found is a Makita 10" 80 tooth "ultra polished", it's really good but I have to order them, so the Freud gets used more. It's also a positive hook blade, but less than the Freuds. Freuds are 8 degrees, I'd guess the Makita is half that, but it's not marked. BTW, we have found some bad blades to, some Dewalts are just garbage, I especially hate the 12" blade that came on the latest Flexvolt SCMS. A few select ones are ok though.

[Dan Gaylin]

Steve, that's very helpful on a number of fronts. Thanks