Thread: 80 tooth blade for circular saw in Workcentre 2000

Hi Dave,
I guess your original blade is not suitable now for another resharpening.

An 80 tooth blade costs a fair whack to resharpen ... good blades can be resharpened up to 5 times. But for $30 it doesn't sound like your going for a high grade blade.

Think of the value of the timber you will pass over the blade over the next few months ... then figure out what the extra cost of a good blade adds to the overall cost

There are blades specificall designed for Melamine ... and if you use this product often it may be economical to get such a blabe.

Cutting with an 80 tooth (crosscut type) blade is adventurous..... besides the masking tape I find that I get good results by doing a 0.5mm scratch cut before doing the through cut and a new zero clearance insert also helps.

Regards

Rob

What you need for melamine is a triple chip blade with a high tooth count and a negative hook angle. At Bunnies you can get Irwin Aluminium series which is what your want. Other manufactuters eg Bosch, Makita etc also carry them.

For ripping, you need a low tooth count. Common ones have 24 teeth - going lower is probably better but they are more expensive and harder to get from local hardware etc.

I have a 20t for ripping, a 40t for general and an 80t for plywood etc. I have forgotten sometimes and tried to use the 80 for ripping - my advice is don't. Slow, poor chip removal and poor surface finis

Thanks so much for the quick reply.
After all these years the original blade owes me nothing. I always meant to upgrade that blade but never needed to until now.

The blades specifically designed for melamine are at least $90 if I can even find one for a 235mm circular saw. I have never made anything out of melamine before so I'd like to try something real low budget first. If it works out then I'll save for a track saw and do it properly in future.

When I reflect on the $30 blade from Trade Tools I suppose I have answered my own question. What's $30 and a little melamine for a shop project?
Its just that I haven't done it before so I wonder if I'm way off base. Guess I'll give it a crack and learn along the way.


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So I should really get 2 new blades is the advice.
One for ripping solid wood and one for melamine and plywood.

Eventually I'd like to get a track saw.
I certainly picked an expensive hobby!

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You don't say what the original saw blade is?

Personally I have found that cutting melamine faced particle board on the workcentre will leave chips on one side regardless of what blade you use. I tried an irwin 80 tooth which actually left a worse finish than the original triton blade; then I bought a Linbide 80 tooth which although was an improvement on the Triton it was still sub-par for finishing work.

Now I just use the Triton blade and finish off with either a router or a power plane, I have the planing attachment fitted to the WC.

As this is for workshop equipment are you really concerned about a little bit of chipout? Carefull planning of your cuts can ensure that each piece has the chipout exposed on a hidden face where the casual observer has no need to look.

That's interesting Chief Tiff
these are some close ups of the edges I got with my Saw with the Irwin

top edge

IMG_0822.jpg

bottom edge

IMG_0824.jpg

Originally Posted by Lappa

That's interesting Chief Tiff
these are some close ups of the edges I got with my Saw with the Irwin.

Was that on a Triton workcentre? The workcentre has no zero insert which might be another factor.

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Yeah; that's similar to what I get with the Linbide but never had that much success with the Irwin. Is that the aluminium blade you referred to earlier? The finish is acceptable on the top edge but the bottom shouldn't be in any area that shows.

The current blade is the 235mm Hitachi that came with the saw. See pic.

The first project is for the shop so yeah it wont matter. The wife wants me to make a cabinet from melamine for the laundry. I'm insisting my shop cabinet will be first.

I think I have more issues than the old blade but I'm trying to get some incremental improvements at low cost until I can afford a table saw.

Although I agree with you that as long as I have one good side it should be OK for the laundry as well.
Actually this is an excellent point when I think about it.

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In fact when I think about the good side poor side concept further, I might as well use pocket hole joinery and glue.
Who's gonna see?

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Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Yeah; that's similar to what I get with the Linbide but never had that much success with the Irwin. Is that the aluminium blade you referred to earlier? The finish is acceptable on the top edge but the bottom shouldn't be in any area that shows.

Your a hard man to please if it's only "acceptable" with no chip out at all.
Bottom edge is not bad for a home built table saw with no scoring blade or no knife scoring on the cutting line done, and obviously it would be out of sight. Yes it was done with the Irwin Aluminium blade which I had originally bought to cut Aluminium.. Since its demise (tungsten teeth and steel rod should not occupy the same space at the same time) I bought a Bosch 80t multimaterial blade as I mainly cut plywood. It does a great job on plywood, and is supposed to be great on "coated chipboard" but I haven't tried it on melamine yet.

DaveVman - yes, I have a zero clearance insert

Originally Posted by Lappa

Your a hard man to please if it's only "acceptable" with no chip out at all.
Bottom edge is not bad for a home built table saw with no scoring blade or no knife scoring on the cutting line done, and obviously it would be out of sight

Actually, that's very impressive for a home-made system, certainly no worse than what a Triton can do. Is it based on a portable saw or did you use a proper arbor to mount the blade? I tend to find that using a portable saw such as used in the Triton a sawn edge has miniscule little imperfections that only show when butted up to another piece of melamine; probably because the tooth edges may not be truly parallel to the cut or there may be slight blade wobble. A proper panel saw with scoring blade is much more rigid and allows the main blade to perform a planing cut requiring no further work. I've pretty much given up trying to get good quality sawn edges on melamine hence why I either rout or plane the edges afterwards if it's going anywhere other than the shed.

Originally Posted by DaveVman

In fact when I think about the good side poor side concept further, I might as well use pocket hole joinery and glue.
Who's gonna see?

You'll struggle to get pocket hole screws holding in chipboard particularly well, it can be done but you need a lot of them. If you want to use screws then go straight through the carcase and use 8 gauge 50mm deep thread timber screws, properly pre-drilled. Myself; I use biscuits or sometimes dowels for joining this stuff, and I've found that Titebond III sticks to melamine real good!

It's a 2000w Makita N5900B circular saw mounted with all sorts of jiggery/pokery to keep the Saw very stable. It has a fine windup height adjustment and the back of the motor draws its air via a snorkel so it gets no sawdust. The saw box has 6" extraction and the dust chute on the saw blade shroud is also attached to a 50mm vacuum cleaner. It also had a sort of "automatic air regulating panel" which will vary its opening depending on whether other air inlets in the cabinet are opened or closed. Measured Air flow is very stable. The only problem is that's it's a pita to angle the blade so after a couple of times I don't bother anymore.

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

I've found that Titebond III sticks to melamine real good!

Fantastic because I have some of that sitting in the cupboard feeling neglected.

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