I have a makita table saw that I purchased appx 3 years ago. I used the original blade that came with the saw that worked terrific. Just recently I replaced the blade cause it seemed like it was finally getting dull with a dewalt blade. After a very short time this dewalt blade now seems dull and I see some burned marks on it after ripping some door moulding. Is the dewalt a good quality blade? Do I need to clean the blade already? The blade must be a thin kerf 10″ blade. I still have the original makita blade. Should I get that sharpened and put that back? What blades are good quality blades and where can I get them from?
thanks,
Dimitri
Replies
Dimitri,
I've had good service from Oldham premium blades and I've heard good things about other brands, but your blade isn't one I've heard good reports on.
Don't be afraid to spend a little on good blades. They last longer, cut more quietly and smoothly and you'll be very satisfied.
Regards,
Don
There will be many opinions on blades. The easiest thing for you to do would be to have the Makita sharpened. If you liked it before you will like it again. Just cleaning it may put in some new life. If you visit some of the blade manufacturers web sites you will find that there are many blades with specific purposes. There are also factors such as the the set up of the saw, whether you are cross cutting or ripping as well as operator experience. Until you understand these things you may not be able to make the best selection. A good industrial combination blade will probably do everything you need. I'm not a fan of thin kerf blades as they are more prone to deflect than a full body. Freud makes some very good blades at reasonable prices, you can also spend a lot of money on Forest and Systematics but I don't think that would be a good choice for you. I clean my blades as soon as I start to see any accumulation on the teeth. Again there are many choices for cleaners. Just soaking in warm soapy water won't cost anything, use an old tooth brush. Some like Simple Green, I hate the smell. Stay away from oven cleaners, ammonia and other harsh chemicals, you don't need them. I use Zep citrus degreaser available in the cleaning section at Home Depot.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
"Do I need to clean the blade already? " You'll need to clean the blade any time it gets dirty (pitch in the crevices of the teeth). That can happen quickly if you're cutting resinous wood. The effect on the blade can make it behave as if it's dull, cause burning, and even be a safety hazard if it causes you to push too hard against your stock.
The fact that you're getting burning makes me think it's dirty, assuming nothing has changed in the alignment of your saw or fence. Try cleaning it (I'm a Simple Green fan; citrus cleaners should work fine too. As mentioned above, no oven cleaner). If you clean when needed, it shouldn't take more than about 10-15 minutes to take the blade off, clean it and remount it to the saw.
The other thing is to make sure you're using the right type of blade. E.g., don't try to rip thick wood with an 80-tooth blade made for crosscutting, that type of thing. A good 40- or 50-tooth combination blade can do most of your work for you. I'm partial to the Freud LU84. The Forrest Woodworker II is an excellent blade. A blade of this class is going to run you $75 or more, but it's well worth it. For general work, a combination blade and a 24-tooth rip blade will pretty much get it all done.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
IF it were me I would get the old Makita blade sharpened but before I put it back into use I'd check out the alignment of the saw very carefully. Three years is pretty good use out of a small saw without adjustment.
Tune it up and then try the Makita blade. More than likely you'll be in tall cotton again!
Regards,
Mack
"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
Three years is pretty good use out of a small saw without adjustment.
Forget that, three years out of a blade w/o sharpening is pretty good!
Doug
Doug,
You've got a point there! The thing that makes me suggest tuning the saw is that he's getting burning with an almost new blade (the Dewalt). Not that it's a great blade or anything, just a bit suspicious.
Regards,
Mack"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
thanks Mack! I appreciate your great advice! I will do that.
Dimitri
I've used this combination blade from lee valley on two different table saws, and it cut significantly better than the blades that the saws came with. Not very expensive either (the link will probably show you canadian dollars). I just cleaned it the other day with an old toothbrush and toothpaste, and i was suprised at how well that worked, and with what a difference it made in cutting. It was like new again. You definately need a blade that is appropriate for what you're cutting, and if you are switching between crosscuts and rip cuts fairly often and don't want to be changing the blade all the time, a combo blade is important to have.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=30059&cat=1,41080,41165,41167&ap=1
Jesse David
"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way."
Hiya,
I have a question! My original makita blade is a 24 tooth blade. The blade from Lee Valley you are showing me looks terrific but its a 50 tooth blade 10". Can I use that blade? I will ofcourse use it for ripping and crosscutting without changing the blade. It also must be thin kerf for my machine which I think the Lee Valley one is.
Dimitri
Dimitri,
I don't know anything about the specific blade you are looking at but I would certainly hesitate using a blade with that many teeth for ripping.
I (my 2cw) am not a fan of "combination" blades as I feel they do everything acceptably but nothing exceptionally well.
My cross-cut blade is a Freud Ultimate Cutoff. For ripping nice straight stuff I use the Freud thin kerf either 24 or 28 teeth, I can't recall which. It leaves an edge that is very close to perfect. For less than perfectly square and straight stuff (ripping) I use a 10 tooth Systimatic. This blade gets the job done with no burning and allows me a fairly aggressive feed rate.
Regards,
Mack
"WISH IN ONE HAND, #### IN THE OTHER AND SEE WHICH FILLS UP FIRST"
If you're ripping short pieces, a 50 tooth blade can work if you go slowly and let the blade cut. Less teeth is better for ripping because the deeper gullets clear out more sawdust and this is how they can cut more agressively. Ripping tears out fibers, and the dust is coarse.
Crosscutting shears the fibers and the dist is very fine. Ripping a long board with a 50 TPI will cause the blade to become very hot and will dull quickly.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Dimitri, a good 50-tooth combo blade will rip OK, especially if the wood's not too thick (say an inch or less), but I'd recommend you either get the 24-tooth Makita blade sharpened, or buy another 24-tooth rip blade and use it when ripping solid stock. Ripping puts much more stress on a blade and motor than crosscutting does. It only takes a minute to swap out blades.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Thanks Forestgirl! I will do that. I will buy a freud 24 tooth blade thin kerf and use that until the makita blade gets sharpened! I will alternate blades as each one needs sharpening. It works for me. Thanks.
Hi Dimitri. Sounds like a plan, though if you like your Makita, you could just get a Freud combo blade and use it until the Makita gets back from the sharpener (sorry to be ornery, just a suggestion).
These guys -- AllProTools -- seem to have a good selection and prices on Freud blades. If you have any questions about the different "models" of blades, drop me an email (click on my name). I have their catalog here on my desk.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
That Lee Valley blade is a full kerf (actually, at 0.134", it's more like extra-full kerf!).
I'd suggest a Freud TK906 (thin kerf, 50-tooth, combination blade) for all around use on your portable saw.
Get the original 24 tooth blade that came with your saw sharpened, and keep it as a backup and for heavy ripping.
Jesse,I am on this kind of crusade against long links. If the link is too long, the whole post runs out of the frame – making it very difficult to read. Maybe this is not a problem on all machines, but it sure is on mine. If you take your link to this website, it is easy to convert it to a smaller size, thus keeping your message inside the frame:http://tinyurl.com/
Thanks.
Nikki, there's no need to go to TinyURL if the poster is using Internet Explorer -- Our composition window has a "links" icon in the formatting icons -- it's an earth-globe with a chain link pictured. You click on that icon, and a pop-up box gives you a place to paste in the URL. So, you can type click here for info, and the words will link to where you want them to.
Doesn't work for Netscape, etc., users unless you compose the html yourself. I don't know about Mac's either.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
re: long linksI am on a Mac and generally use Mozilla to access Knots.However, I tried accessing Knots with IE, and none of the stuff you mention (for making the links smaller) shows up on my machine. So does that mean only Mac users have this problem with long links? Reading a post where thius occurs really is a pain.
Hi Nikki. I guess it could be that Mac's don't show the formatting bar (Bold, Italics, underline, etc. -- do you see those icons??) Only other possibility I can think of is that somehow you stumbled into Basic View rather than Advanced View when you logged in with IE.
Those long URLs are a pain (especially if they're realllllly long) but they don't happen all that often. Be gentle :-)
The other solution, maybe more work for you, would be to put in your own http code. For instance, if I were to make a link for Jeff Jewitt's site, this is the string I'd type:<A href="http://www.homesteadfinishing.com">Jeff Jewitt's site</A>
You would do this by clicking "Source" at the bottom of the text box, and then typing in the string. When I use Source, I generally preview the message before posting it to be sure I did it right.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Type in my own http code? That's a chuckle, since I barely know how to turn this machine on. Macs have none of the formatting options (in Prospero) available to you Windows users, and nothing I could find about "source."Usually, I just skip posts with long links -- since they run way out of the frame, and I have to scroll back and forth to read each line. I was hoping I could get more folks to reduce the size of their links (either with the "tiny URL" thing, or your method), but I guess I would be fighting a lost cause. I take it this is never a problem for those of you using Windows?
Hi Nikki, sorry they left you out in the cold with the formatting thing.
I guess I don't notice as many too-long-links as you do. Mind you, I do get irritated when a link runs off the side of my screen, screwing up the text in the whole post. Does it happen that often here? Maybe in Breaktime, where I rarely go? What size is your monitor?
It may be an uphill battle if you're having way more problems than the rest of us, but I say keep at it! I have a campaign going on image file-sizes, so I know the feeling.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Ya know those makita blades are pretty good. I had on on my 10" compound slider miter and it cut glassy smooth for several years of heavy cuts.
Until a friend tilted the saw but not the fence and cut into it bending a couple teeth and knocking a few out not to mention the damage to the fence!
Nothing's cut as good for the money and the arbor is fine thank goodness!
Notrix
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