Thread: Essential Mitre saw blades?

The most common blades I use on both my TS, and quite often on my SCMS, are negative raked toothed blades.
The blades are ideal and safer to cut Al and brass but can be used to make very clean cuts in, ply melamine, MDF, plastic and epoxy.
They are definitely not suitable for ripping wood.
While MDF and ply cutting is slow they produce a very clean cut.

My blades are both 305mm Bosch, 96 and 100 Toothed.
The TS blade has a 3.2 mm kerf but the SCMS has a 2.7 mm kerf.

The other blade has to be a dedicated ripping blade, 24 teeth - it will make the 60 toothed blade seem like a snail.

80 tooth negative rake triple chip

Originally Posted by riverbuilder

80 tooth negative rake triple chip

In my experience, triple chip is absolutely god awful at crosscutting timber; anything less than freshly reground blows out the back face. Neutral or low positive ATB is much better.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

In my experience, triple chip is absolutely god awful at crosscutting timber; anything less than freshly reground blows out the back face. Neutral or low positive ATB is much better.

Yes but it’s the ducks nuts for cutting aluminium and brass.
he already said he’s buying a 100 tooth atb, presumably for trimming and such.

If the blade is not parallel to the fence then any blade will not offer a superior cut. I use Flai and I am happy with them but they are not made anymore.

I agree in my experience that a triple chip does not always equate to a good cross cut. If you are prepared for a little less time between sharpening then a High ATB might be a consideration.

I don't use a fine blade except when cutting laminates but that is not very often.

I forgot to add that RAS, I have one, a lot of people use a negative rake blade, and some don't.
If I was cutting aluminium then I would be using a triple chip, no question.

This leads me to a final comment that there is not a one for all blade, there are blades that can do 70% of most work but outside that there are particular blades for particular tasks.

Thank you all for your replies.

I guess my question should have been more along the lines of:

- I am about to buy some blades for my Mitre saw, what would be considered essential to have in a quiver?

Cheers

PS. might start a new thread (be easier)

Essential; one ~60 toothed blade.
Many of them will come standard with this sort of a blade.

After than I would go for a higher tooth blade.

Originally Posted by tomres

- I am about to buy some blades for my Mitre saw, what would be considered essential to have in a quiver?

I don't know any woodworkers (in real life) who have more than the one blade apart from one person, but he has two that are exactly the same so that when one is sent off for sharpening he's not without his saw.

Perhaps don't buy another blade until you've established that what you have isn't suitable. Then ask about the best blade for that particular application.

If you want the bare essentials a 60T or 72T neutral rake ATB will do basically everything well enough, even the odd bit of aluminium/brass/perspex.