Mitre saw blade

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RorieT

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Hi folks,

Quick question; i have been looking at buying advise for my mitre saw blade.

With a mitre saw, do we 'always' do cross grain cuts? Hence i should get a negative rake, high tooth blade (60+)?

I am trying to think of a time that i have 'ripped' with my mitre saw….?
 
You don't say what mitre saw you have.
Just buy a mitre saw blade, recommended for you're particular saw, The more teeth, the better and finer the cut, usually, 24 to 60 tooth.
The mitre and chop saw will both be cross cutting at 90 deg, and getting towards ripping at 45 deg.
But, Don't cut with the grain as the blade is not a ripping blade, will do nasty things, such as grab, burn and even snatch.
Regards Rodders
 
Thanks for the reply.

I never gave details of the saw as i never thought it would matter - its a Dewalt DW717. I don't think there is a specific recommended blade, other than 254mm….

Any thoughts?
 
I see only one mention that the DW717 comes with a 32tooth blade when new, and nothing appears in the instruction book by the looks of it.
What's fitted to you'rs?
Regards Rodders
 
Mine (very secondhand) came with an odd blade - 80 tooth Freud, probably intended for plastics.

It leaves a very fine finish, and I like it, generally speaking, BUT it isn't negative rake (almost no rake but still slightly positive). I have had it chuck small offcuts around on occasions, which is quite an unpleasant surprise when it happens.

So I'd strongly recommend negative rake, although not having one, I can't tell you how much better they are.

Incidentally, being a leftie, I tend to feed stock in from the left, which is also where the clamp is. It's an old saw and only has one clamp. The adjustable stop block is on the right, under the chunky induction motor.

This is OK when you're cutting long pieces, but if you're making a number of small blocks, which I often do, you end up with the off-cut hidden entirely under the motor as the blade comes down. That's when you can get scary kickback. The cut is made, and the offcut moves slightly and catches the teeth as the blade is raised back up to its starting position.

So I use a push-stick on the right to keep the piece hard against the stop block, and/or leave the blade down until it's stopped spinning. A clamp either side would probably fix the problem (but slower for repeat cuts), and neg rake would be safer, probably.

E.
 
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