Can this blade be repaired? (is Infinity being fair about this?)

[Dan Friedrichs]

I bought a new miter saw blade from Infinity (first blade I've ever bought from them). A couple of test cuts impressed me, but on about the 3rd cut I made with it, the blade thew a couple of teeth, broke a shoulder off, and bent a shoulder. See picture.

As far as I can tell, I didn't do anything wrong - no knots or metal in the wood, no fences or obstructions in the way of the blade's travels, etc.

I contacted Infinity, and their reply was that such damage couldn't have occurred unless I had hit something, so they couldn't offer me any assistance.

My questions are:

1) Can this blade be repaired by a competent sharpening service? The missing teeth should be fixable, but that missing shoulder...

2) Is Infinity being reasonable with me? This blade was literally 2 weeks old, and had only made 3 cuts. I can see how they would be reluctant to offer to replace the blade, since they have no PROOF that I didn't hit something hard with it - but at the same time, am I just out-of-luck if a brand new blade throws teeth?


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[Lee Schierer]

I had a similar problem with a Freud blade a number of years ago. I was cutting 45 degree bevels on the end of some pieces to make a mitered corner box. To save wood, I made the first cut right at the end of a piece which resulted in a triangular shaped cut off riding on top of the blade. It jiggled for a second and then one of the teeth caught it and drove if down into the opening in the throat plate, which forced the blade to the left where the teeth hit the other side of the metal throat plate, breaking two carbide tips off and one complete tooth. I sent the blade to Freud with an explanation of what happened and they set me a new blade.

The lesson learned was to have a zero clearance insert when making any cut, even a bevel cut.

I do tend to agree with them that just cutting wood should not have resulted in that kind of damage. Is it possible the blade was dropped before you purchased it? With regard to repair. As far as I know, they can replace a carbide insert, but not a tooth.


How smooth were the first two cuts you made? Was there anything in the first two pieces that might have damaged a tooth? How about posting a photo of both sides of the last cut you made.

[David Venditto]

Dan,
Please send this blade back to us so we can evaluate. I've never seen a blade body fail in this fashion without some kind of intervening force against the body. We'll give it a test and come up with something suitable.
Best,
David V.
Infinity Tools

[jack forsberg]

i have seen lots of teeth come off in my 30 years in the shop but the blade body braking could not be from cutting clean wood. You can see the metal bending and the force it took to rip the first one from the blade . something like this just does not happen with regular cutting IMO.

that tool guy is great for giving you a saw that you toasted. count your lucky stars too and review what your doing. you lucky your not hurt.

[Jerry Toschlog]

This might just be the lighting,..... but look at the 3rd tooth to the right of the missing tooth. The top looks more squared off and even the carbide tip looks a bit shorter on top.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Dan,
Please send this blade back to us so we can evaluate. I've never seen a blade body fail in this fashion without some kind of intervening force against the body. We'll give it a test and come up with something suitable.

Thanks, David. To be clear, I've never before broken teeth off a blade, so I'm unsure what to think. If your judgement is that such damage couldn't have happened without some unreasonable force, then I'm perfectly happy purchasing a full-price replacement from you (as the first few cuts were fantastic ). I'll PM you...

[ken masoumi]

A few months ago I was using my sliding miter saw and pushed a little hard while cutting some oak ,the blade(Infinity 010-060) made an unusual noise so I stopped and examined the blade,3 teeth had broken off.
It was my favorite blade and I was really mad at myself for pushing on it too hard ,anyhow I took it to a sharpening service and was told it wasn't worth the repair cost(plus sharpening the blade) and I would be better off buying a new blade.
If the cost of shipping to Canada wasn't so high,I would have bought another 010-060 blade in a heart beat.

[glenn bradley]

I had a similar experience when I hit 'something' in a piece of "shoulda-been-clean" wood. Similar damage but, on a 50 tooth blade. It was repaired and has given good service since.

[Richard Coers]

What were you cutting? Hardwood or manmade material? I'd say the blade is scrap. Pretty sure no one will want to try and weld on a tooth, with the heat required going into the body of the saw, it will probably warp.

[Jim Matthews]

That's a decent offer, David.

Good onya.

[Phil Thien]

I suspect the first shoulder broke-off on its own, buried itself in the wood, and then broke-off the 2nd shoulder.

[Ed Griner]

It's a shame "Members" tend to use this forum for customer service problems,maybe Keith should charge by the complaint.

[johnny means]

I've used hundreds of blades in my career, and have never seen a blade fail in that manner withouthitting steel or stone. What I have seen, however, is a plethora of foreign objects embedded in "clean" lumber. Bullets, steel shot, nails, stone, teeth, wire, sheet metal are just a few examples of thinfo I found the hard way.

[Curt Harms]

It's a shame "Members" tend to use this forum for customer service problems,maybe Keith should charge by the complaint.

As long as the poster isn't being objectionable, I have no problem with asking "has anyone seen anything like this before?". There's quite a bit of collective experience here. On the other hand, Dan's post was responded to by the person best able to address his problem. It says something to me about a company when their president/chairman/owner responds to issues with their company's products. Shiraz Balolia (Grizzly) Rob Lee (Lee Valley) and David Venditto (Infinity) are all "the buck stops here" guys and have responded to customer issues on this site. Pretty remarkable.

[Rick Fisher]

I had a thin kerf freud blade that bound in some wet wood.. ( My fault ) .. but didn't stop spinning.. 5hp saw.. And didn't kick back .

It was one of those weird scenes that you would have to have seen in person to understand .. lol

Either way.. it left 3-4 teeth in the wood but the shoulders where okay.. The blade was literally cupped when I took it off..

I rip all lumber on the Bandsaw now .. life is too short..

I would guess you dropped the blade because only one tooth was affected. Or banged it pretty hard..