Lidl saw blades for ts55?

[Woodmonkey]

I notice lidl have saw blades of the correct diameter and thickness for the ts55 but the wrong bore, just wondering if it's possible to use them with some sort of reducing sleeve, has anyone tried this? Could be worth it at 3.99 each as opposed to £35 for the festool blades...

 

[Bigstinka]

I bought some for my scheppach tracksaw as they were right size. Haven't tried them though and won't need to for awhile

 

[MattRoberts]

Assuming the arbor nut sufficiently covers the bushing and the blade, it should be fine - however, personally I'd argue that a decent blade is worth 10 of those cheap ones. Depends on whether you just want disposable ones to avoid the hassle of sharpening

 

[Woodmonkey]

I cut mfc all day which blunts blades fairly quickly and normally cost around 7-8 quid to sharpen so as long as they would last atv least half as long then i guess it's worth it. When you say bushing, is that what you need to make the blade fit?

 

[MattRoberts]

Yes - they're little round bushings that reduce the diameter of the hole in the saw.

Don't you sharpen your saw blades yourself? Easy to do with a dremel and a diamond wheel with a simple Jig

 

[Eric The Viking]

I had a look at them last Thursday, when they went on sale. One crucial dimension wasn't specified. You need to know:
- diameter (obviously)
- bore diameter (you can sleeve 30mm down as you were wondering, as long as the clamping arrangement grips the blade properly)
- kerf width (should be 2.2mm)
- plate thickness

It's the last that isn't specified on the Parkside packaging. Also I *think* the ones I saw also seemed to be the wrong kerf width (2.4mm): As you know, they should be 2.2mm to fit the TS55 & Makita correctly (but it does say 2.2mm on the Lidl web site).

The plate thickness and kerf together give the offset distance between the surface of the driving arbour and where the teeth cut/scuff the rubber strip. You could have both wrong and the system would still work, but if one is wrong, the edge of the kerf won't line up.

I got some Axminster blades last year, as I couldn't otherwise find a rip blade for the Makita.
- 160mm diameter: check (should be 165 for Makita but 160 is OK);
- 20mm bore: check;
- 2.2mm kerf: check.

But the saw plate was a lot thinner than the proper blades so I ended up taking big chunks out of the rubber strip on the rail - I was not a happy bunny as I didn't have a spare strip handy.

Measure the plate thickness of your normal blade with digital verniers and check the Parkside ones. You may be lucky but I doubt it. The thicker plate reduces oscillations, which in turn gives a cleaner cut. A thinner plate is a good way of cost-reducing.

E.

 

[petermillard]

I haven't used the Lidl blades, but I did buy some cheapies off eBay - they were OK for rougher work, but I wouldn't go near MFC with them. By all means try them - for under a fiver, why not - but don't expect to get anything like the cleanliness of cut you get with a decent blade.

HTH Pete

 

[Woodmonkey]

Fair enough, that is normally the case. The axi contract blades are pretty good and around a tenner cheaper than the festi blades. Never thought of trying to sharpen them myself, have always thought it best left to someone with the right kit, do you have a link/ pic of the jig you use Matt?

 

[MattRoberts]

Sure

Obviously I'm using the drill press attachment here, but as long as the dremel is held firmly at the right angle it could just as well be a vertical board it's attached to.

 

[Rorschach]

I have used the lidl blades on my chop saw and SCMS and they work very well for the money. I would like to use the blades on my parkside track saw but they don't fit. The blades available at the moment are 30mm bore and the parkside is 20mm, a reducer would usually work but the arbour on the saw is 30mm, so the blade just falls off the reducer, very irritating.