Saw blades

[sxturbo]

I will be embarking on a decking project in the next couple of weeks, it's not the first one Ive done, but is the first one where I haven't borrowed tools like mitre saw and circular saw.

My wood got delivered today, it's all pretty wet, and as I'm storing it outside will continue to be wet for a while.

At the moment my circular saw and my mitre saw have just got the factory fitted rip blades. They tend to splinter the wood at the end of the cut which I would then have to sand down a bit, and they've done the same on previous decking jobs. It seems worse when the boards are dry.

Would getting finer teeth blades make much of a difference to the wood splintering,?

 

[Burnerman]

For sure, a finer toothed blade in your mitre saw will minimise splintering at the end of the cut.....however, the quickly grown rubbish we have to work with these days has a widely spaced grain so there will always need some sanding to finish.
John

 

[rsgaz]

Make a zero-clearance sacrificial fence maybe? That is, as long as all your cuts are 90°, or it won't be zero clearance any more.

 

[ETAF]

Would getting finer teeth blades make much of a difference to the wood splintering

What number of teeth have you got and on what size blade.
Tool Make / Models would also help.
Are the blades sharp?
I had a Silverline blade that was blunt after 10-20 cuts on laminate flooring. - very poor , hence the move to Freud / Saxton
But got reasonable results with the supplied Dewalt blades for both Mitre SMS and Circular

I'm just a DIYer and made quite a few items now from laminate, MDF, plywood and a lot of treated material for fencing and made gates. But none of it was wet

I have used 40T/48T (165mm)
Freud
https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/cu...zOMCWsPCNYDY3uvTtJoaAoFQEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
on Circular saw - Saxton & Freud blades - give a really nice finish to the cut.
60T & 80T on Mitre Saw (250mm) - Saxton and Freud
https://www.saxtonblades.co.uk/tct-circular-saw-blades

 

[sxturbo]

Thanks, it's got a 40 tooth blade at the minute, should I be looking at a 60 tooth or 80 tooth.

216mm blade

Erbauer mitre saw

The circ saw Is Hikoki 165mm and has 36 teeth.


The blades on both are brand new (well done a handful of cuts last weekend to batten out for some cement

Edit- the Hikoki has a 30mm bore which limits the blade choices, trend do a blade that fits.

 

[Celeronmanuk]

Setting the depth of cut too deep?

 

[sxturbo]

Setting the depth of cut too deep?

I haven't set depth of cut as just want to clean cut through it

 

[^woody^]

Just get a cheap 60 or 80 T and leave it on the mitre saw forever.

 

[sxturbo]

Just get a cheap 60 or 80 T and leave it on the mitre saw forever.

That's what I'm thinking, but which of the 2 would be the better to go for?

 

[^woody^]

The cheapest. Both are fine enough

 

[ETAF]

I see the issue with the Circular saw 30mm Bore on a 165 Blade.
Just reminder, not trade, just a DIYer
As i mentioned , I have not used really wet wood, although I have used treated timber which has moisture in and used that for fence post ,fencing & gates
I found freud blades really good with little tear out, But since then after reading reviews , I use Saxton Blades - they are also very helpful on the phone.
They only seem to do a 40T or 80T in 216mm at saxton, https://www.saxtonblades.co.uk/tct-circular-saw-blades/165mm-216mm-blades/216mm-blades
Freud do a 64T , but expensive https://www.screwfix.com/p/freud-tct-circular-saw-blade-216-x-30mm-64t/2172f

theres a good Video on youtube, comparing 3 blades Evolution, freud & Saxton, that made me try out saxton blades on my CSaw & SMS and now multitool blades

the more teeth the slower the cut, also if the timber is very wet, then it may bind
Also it may shrink if fitting wet

is the Mitre saw capable to cut the size of decking you have purchased ?

 

[sxturbo]

Yeah the saw is definitely big enough for the work I'm planning to do with it.

I'll get a 60 tooth blade. For the mitre.

For the circ saw trend show a 48 tooth available so will get one of them.

I've got options then.

Unfortunately I haven't got the ability to let the decking dry out, so will just have to hope the boards don't shrink to much, I'm going to use 4mm quicklii decking spacer clips, so I'm hoping with shrinking the gaps still won't be too large.

 

[ETAF]

Setting the depth of cut too deep?

maybe worth watching this Plunge/track Saw Video, re depth of cut , as mentioned in previous posts
About 3min 26sec in

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Wet boards in particular require a low ish tooth count with big gullets to prevent the blades from binding in the cut. For rip cuts the same goes - a 165mm rip cut blade like the Panther used on the Festool.TS55 has but 12 teeth, but rips beautifully with no binding, clogging or scorching. Try that with a 48 tooth blade on 2in pine and it will clog, bind and/or scorch all the way down the cut

To give you some idea about relative performance I tend to use a 24t blade on a 230mm saw for rip cutting, but on the same saw I use a 40t blade for cross cutting 3in softwood joists. Blade sharpness and timber dryness both have an effect on how much spelch you will experience on cross cuts.

On my 216mm DW saw I generally reckon to get clean cuts in 2in thick framing timbers with a 60 or 72t blade. Higher tooth count blades just clog up faster and start scorching as well as cutting much more slowly on this material

Having decent quality blades which are sharp makes all the difference, so avoid cheap brands like Silverline or Toolpak. Even tradesmen are guilty if running saws far too long before resharpening.

 

[sxturbo]

Thanks Jonandknock.

I'll get a decent 60 tooth blade for the mitre and see what it's like.

The circular saw I'll probably just leave it as is.