Thread: 80 tooth blade for circular saw in Workcentre 2000

Well I took your guys advice and bought a 40 tooth and a 60 tooth Irwin blades. Both look like they have smaller kerfs than my current blade. I need to rip some plywood today so I will try out the 60 tooth free hand first.
I say free hand to mean outside the workcentre using a straight edge. Although my jig for that is no longer straight but that's another topic.

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Update: I couldn't get the old blade off and I didn't have time to muck around with it over the weekend. So I ripped the plywood with the old blade - including bevel cuts. It still doesn't do too horribly on 12mm ply to be honest. But not exactly fine furniture cuts either.

I'll have to try some WD40 and anything else I can think off during the week to try and undo that nut. Are all circular saw nuts undone anti-clockwise? (In the direction of the blade rotation?). I don't expect it is a reverse thread but thought I'd ask before I try to apply too much force.

If you're using the stock blade/dust guard the thin kerf blade may cause the material to bind as the kerf won't be large enough to slide material through smoothly. You can remove it altogether but you run the risk of kickback

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

If you're using the stock blade/dust guard the thin kerf blade may cause the material to bind as the kerf won't be large enough to slide material through smoothly. You can remove it altogether but you run the risk of kickback

To be honest I didn't understand this. If I can get the original blade off the new blades are indeed thin kerf blades. Don't see what it has to do with the guard.

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Originally Posted by DaveVman

To be honest I didn't understand this. If I can get the original blade off the new blades are indeed thin kerf blades. Don't see what it has to do with the guard.

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I think that he meant that the riving knife, that the guard mounts on, may be thicker than the kerf left by the thin kerf blade.

Yep

With a thinner blade the kerf may not be large enough to pass the timber through the splitter. What i found this ends up doing is either binding with the splitter/fence or ends up pushing the entire dust guard/splitter backwards until it disengages.

As i said you can remove the guard completely, but you run the risk of getting kickback. Kickback isn't as fun as it sounds, i've got a few dents on the wall as a result of kickback. People have also lost their fingers as a result of kickback. Leaving the guard on, is also quite hazardous as you end up trying to force the material through or end up being distracted with what the dust guard is doing.

All this depends on how thin the kerf is compared to the thickness of the splitter.

I have this problem already. More or less.
I can't get the splitter aligned with the blade well enough any more. I must have another go at this.
For years I didn't really understand the function of the splitter in managing kick back. I had not bothered with it because I had the problem you mention where the splitter is too thick and causes things to bind against the fence. It's really only this year that I have fully understood the risks of not having it there. However since fitting this saw to the workcentre, I couldn't align the splitter with the blade properly.
This time, once I put the saw back into the workcentre I'm going to have another go at this alignment.
You're correct. IF I can manage to change the blade AND I can solve the alignment THEN I might find the splitter is too thick anyway.
Grinder time?
Maybe I can make something?

Thanks for the heads up. I'll just have to address these problems one at a time.

I haven't got the original blade off yet.

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Great news!
You inspired me to address all these things.
I finally got the blade off and tried out my new 20 tooth.
I adjusted the sled in the workcentre. It was not holding the saw parallel so fixed that issue.
Then I figured out the biggest issue of all.
I have been watching YouTube and noticed that it's best practice to lower the blade on a table saw to a little above the work piece. So I started doing this on the workcentre.
Unfortunately after some time mounted up side down in the workcentre my circular saw blade is no longer parallel to the foot when it is raised off the foot. So when I lower the blade in the workcentre it goes out of parallel to the fence.
Now that I have realised this I can keep the blade fully up and it is parallel. So parallel that it is in alignment with the splitter. Even with the new thinner kerf blade I can still use the splitter and guard.
So happy days, I have it working well.

The 20 tooth Irwin blade leaves saw marks ripping pine. The 40 tooth original Hitachi less so. Hence I'm not really understanding the point of the low tooth blade to be honest but I'll give it time.

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You "should" only have the blade extended sufficient to clear the teeth to the depth of the bottom of the gullets as a maximum. If your saw is wobbling too much then Triton make two options: firstly a saw stabilising bracket which prevents sag; or secondly the blade height winder kit which also allows you adjust the saw height above the table (you just insert a handle into a hole and wind away; it's the absolute best accessory ever for the Work Centre).

The tooth count relates to how much of a "bite" the saw can take with each revolution. A lower tooth count allows the blade to take big chunks of wood; which is great for ripping along the grain but gives a rough finish. A high tooth count means the blade is taking tiny nibbles which gives a better finish; but takes longer. If you were to try to rip 40mm thick hardwood with an 80 tooth blade it would take a long time; produce a lot of dust and probably leave major burn marks on the timber. Cross cutting is a different animal though; a 20 tooth blade cross cutting timber leaves an ugly finish with many splinters and much tear out; while that 80 tooth will leave an almost glossy surface. Aussie hardwoods have a peculier property in that the sawdust produced tends to be of a greater volume than the wood actually removed so DEEP gullets are necessary when ripping.

With homogenous materials such as MDF, chipboard and plywood there is no difference in the direction of cut so you pick a blade that suits the end purpose; the more teeth the better the edge but the longer it takes and there is a risk of burning.

Combination blades are a compromise; they'll rip ok but a bit slowly, and crosscut ok but with minor splintering.

Just remember that in the journey of a piece of timber the saw is only the first step, if you were ripping planks to width to join together into a board then you would not normally expect to glue them together without further work, so this is why you would pick a 20 tooth ripping blade. You'd cut the wood oversize and then take them to the jointer (or joint by hand with a plane), the low tooth count means the cutting step is very quick. If jointing is not available to you then the use of a very high tooth count blade would possibly give a surface smooth enough for gluing but you would have to be very careful not to burn the timber and keep it hard against the fence to ensure the straightest possible edge.

My 40t also leaves a finer finish when rippng but the 20t is a lot easier to push through the rip with less load on the saw motor and I clean up the cut edge anyway.

Sounds like everything is making progress.

I'd also recommend resolving the alignment issues, as its important to keep the blade at the appropriate height at all times, this could be the difference between grabbing a bandaid or going to the emergency room to have an appendage re-attached.

Also there will be times when you simply can't have the blade fully extended eg when doing non-through cuts or dados.

Time spent addressing these issues not only saves you time later down the track, this also helps you understand why your tool is designed the way its been designed which helps you troubleshoot when things go wrong.