Circular saw blades...off topic..any advice?

[Ratty]

Not a metal question but I know lots of you also work with wood (and I trust the judgement on here more than some unknown woodworkers forum).

Any recommendations for good 305mm saw blades for a static saw bench? ..and where to buy too (mainly cross-cut, some rip, lots of MDF - which needs to be good quality fine cut and the current job in hand is 40mm bamboo worktop!). I'm just well confused after looking at prices from £25 - £75. I'm happy to pay for quality and to change blades to suit the job but don't wanna be ripped off. Anyone know if these are as good as they boast?

Any tips gratefully received. Cheers folks

 

[Sam]

£50 is a good price (not sure of the brand) these blades can be re-sharpened £12 also if a tip does come loose they can also be replaced.Using a lubricant such as silicon tallow or wd40 you can also cut aluminium with these.

 

[Alzax3]

You can't go far wrong with Freud blades, I've used them for years, the laser cut spiral expansion slots look cool and probably work well too! I've had other makes that are thicker and quieter, these ones seem to 'ring' a bit more than some.
Has anybody ever brazed on replacement teeth? Is it easy? I've a blade that needs two chipped ones replacing and haven't plucked up the courage to try it yet.....

 

[Sam]

Think they are silver soldered but also think it will need sharpened after to keep all the teeth in the same plane.

 

[Benji]

Freud are good blades for the money, expect to pay aprox £1 per tooth as a rule of thumb. Dont even think of replacing the teeth yourself, you would be creating a potentially lethal piece of kit. A saw doctoring service will replace if deemed economical and will then re-align and sharpen blade.

 

[Ratty]

Thanks for the replies guys - much appreciated. I'm about to take delivery of a new table saw from axminster, they don't seem to offer many 305mm blades (although I could also use 300mm which gives a better choice) which is why I started googling but this morning I rang their tech. dept. and had a very helpful chat with Kevin. The long and short of which is I decided to get a pair of Bosch blades (from them) - 60 and 80 teeth. They are negative kerf blades which I'm told are best for man-made boards and the 80t will cut aluminium which is helpful. Cost? I got them thrown in free with the saw. Result!
They're not a very expensive blade - list £43.13 ex VAT for the pair...actually very cheap (too cheap dammit...shoulda asked for free top of the range blade)..but Kevin reckoned they were good blades for my use (and were on a parr with Freud(?!), anyway I can't really argue with free and I'll see how I get on with them.
I looked again at the Freud blades and they don't seem to do a neg. kerf, nor mention man-made boards. My other choice with Axminster is the CMT range (which are more like £1 a tooth). If the bosch blades don't give a clean enough cut I might splash out on one of their 300mm blades - not sure which (think my brain is going to implode trying to decipher the most suitable!). Bamboo work-tops apart, I use a lot of MDF which I know trashes tools horribly but also both soft and hard woods at times, and laminate stuff...I guess a general purpose blade is probably the best bet or I'll be changing blades every other day (or forgetting and ruining an expensive blade).
I'll report back!

 

[Hitch]

A result from Axminster

For future reference, Toolstation do a fair few blades, including freud ones. They do a silverline blade for veneers/mdf, 100t, i reckon thats worth a go for under £17

 

[Ratty]

Thanks for the links Hitch, still can't get my head around the huge price variations. What's so much better about a £65 blade versus £17

I like axminster, always very helpful and nice to deal with. I wanted the saw in a hurry and they said they weren't delivering to my area again until Feb but would find out if another carrier could deliver sooner and at what cost, they came back with next-day with palletline and the cost was slightly less than axminster charge.
So I've spent yesterday and today having a big clear up and sort out in my wood shop to make space for it and it will be here tomorrow. Yippee! and the sparky is coming Friday morning to wire in 16amp socket (a useful addition to my power) so with any luck (and not at the docs with a hernia after getting the damn thing in and sited) I should be up and running by late Friday morning.
I've been humming and ha-ring about getting a decent table saw forever and what decided me? starting to re-build my kitchen and needing to cut the worktop
I've managed for years with a very old Dewalt radial arm and an ancient site saw (probably a rare antique now, I bought it s/h off a mate about 25 years ago - had one motor rewind about 15 years ago after burning it out cutting firewood, otherwise it just keeps going!) but I know I'm going to wish I'd bought a proper saw years ago!

 

[simon718]

I've managed for years with a very old Dewalt radial arm

i absolutley hate those things, we had a ryobi one in work with no clamps/ method of clamping near took my thumb off several times cutting small lengths of aluminium channel, thank god its long gone one thing i have H&S to thank for

 

[Ratty]

Oh I'm very happy with it simon it's just a bit limited in what it can tackle and although I have used it for ripping a few times it's a bit scary!! I've never clamped anything but then I'm only cutting wood not ali.