Miter Saw Arbor ???

[Bob Moyer]

I have a Dewalt DW715, the specs say it has a 5/8 or 1" arbor. Exactly what does that mean, also with the Freud blade sale on Amazon, what would be a good combination blade, particularly for hardwood floors.

Thanks

[Charles McCracken]

Bob,

It means that the arbor is 5/8" but it comes with a bushing from 5/8" to 1" to accept standard 12" blades. I wouldn't recommend a true combination blade for that saw because you won't be ripping but for a general purpose blade you would be well served with the LU73M012. (http://www.freudtools.com/p-21-cabinetmakers-crosscutbr-nbsp.aspx)

[CPeter James]

The LU73M has a 10º positive rake and that seems a lot for a miter saw. I tried a blade like that on mine and it "threw" a cut off back at me and I still have the dent in my chin to prove it. For a miter saw, I would think a blade with a tooth rake of 0º to -5º would be better.

CPeter

[Charles McCracken]

Blades with mild positive hook angle have been used for non-sliding saws for many years. If you get a small cutoff caught in the wrong manner it will be launched with any blade. Best practice is to not make cutoffs that are small enough to fit between the blade and the opening in the throat plate or the fence (or use zero clearance for both).

[Jim Becker]

But Charles, isn't it "best practice" to use a blade tending to negative hook with a SMS/SCMS/RAS?

[Charles McCracken]

Jim,

Negative hook blades are recommended for sliding saws to counter the effects of lifting the stock off the saw table (SCMS) or self feeding (RAS). Neither are factors with a CMS. The advantage of the positive hook for Bob's saw is that it will feed with less resistance. Some manufacturers offer one blade for SCMS, CMS and RAS that has low or negative hook (and our sliding saw blades work well on non sliding saws too) but this may be due to the economy of scale. In other words, if you only offered one miter saw blade for all of those saws you would be making a lot more of them and they would become less expensive.