Change, Sharpen Circular Saw Blades
Circular Saw Blade
Changing a circular saw blade is not as hard as you might have been thinking. However, it can be a cause of serious injury if you don’t know how to change a circular saw blade properly. Don’t be troubled, as I’m going to show you the steps in a moment.
Before I start showing the circular saw blade replacement steps, let me tell in short about different circular saw blade types.
Circular Saw Blade Types
- Combination blades
- Crosscutting blades
- Ripping blades
- Dado blades
- Plywood blades
- Hollow ground blades
- Thin Kerf blades
- Abrasive blades
- Continuous Rim/Diamond blades
- Turbo Rim blades
Circular Saw Reviews
Combination Blades
This kind of blade is a good fit for different DIY enthusiasts as it offers versatile use with a simple design. When you don’t need too much perfection, you can use a combination blade. Typically you will want to cut things like hardwoods, softwoods, wood grains with this sort of blades.
Crosscutting Blades
This type of blades typically has around 48 small gullets teeth to cut across the object like wood grain smoothly. However, a crosscutting blade is a good option for only short wood grain.
Ripping Blades
The use of ripping blades is almost similar to the crosscutting blades. I mean, both of them are used to cut across the wood grain. However, ripping blades are suitable for cutting long wood grains, and they have fewer teeth with larger gullets than crosscutting blades.
Dado Blades
If you want to cut grooves of different widths, then the dado blade is the type you should go for. You will find two types of dado blades - stacked dado blades, and wobble dado blades. Stacked dado blades have two circular saw blades, some chipper blades, and shims stacked together.
On the other hand, wobble dado blades consist of a simple circular blade mounted on an adjustable hub.
Plywood Blades
The name says it all. This type of blade is mainly used to cut plywood. Plywood blades typically have around 100 teeth and small gullets that helps to deal with plywood cutting effortlessly.
Dremel Ultra-saw (US40) is a perfect tool to fit this kind of plywood blade to cut plywood.
Hollow Ground Blades
Hollow ground blades are made to cut coated boards like plywood smoothly. One of the main differences between a plywood blade and a hollow ground blade is, the later one has a thinner body than the teeth. It helps to turn aside the binding. Hollow ground blades are also used to cut across the wood grains.
Thin Kerf Blades
Thin Kerf blades are used to cut small wood pieces, that’s why it’s a handy option for cutting dimensional or engineered lumber. The word ‘kerf’ means the cut width. So, as you are guessing, thin kerf means narrow cutting here. Don’t use this type of blade to cut stricter wood.
Abrasive Blades
This type of blade doesn’t have teeth to cut the materials. It uses abrasive materials like silicon carbide or aluminum oxide to cut materials like tiles, concrete, masonry, brick, or steel.
Continuous Rim/Diamond blades
Diamond blades serve almost the same purpose as the abrasive blades do. That means this type of blade is also the right choice for cutting materials like tiles, ceramic, glass, concrete, etc. Diamond blades offer a much cleaner finish than an abrasive blade.
Rotorazer and some of its alternatives are some of the right fit for this kind of diamond blades.
Turbo Rim Blades
Best circular saw
Turbo rim blades look pretty similar to the continuous rim blades. But these blades cut more aggressively than the continuous rim blades. Nonetheless, turbo rim blades don’t offer clean finish, that a continuous rim blade can to do. It is used to cut materials like concrete, brick, etc.
How to Change a Circular Saw Blade
circular saw
You must change a circular saw blade if you are finding difficulties in cutting the materials or if you find the edge isn’t sharp anymore. Nevertheless, changing a circular saw blade is a pretty straightforward process and can be done in a quick time.
- First and foremost, you have to unplug the unit if you are using the standard saw. If you are using a cordless circular saw, then remove the battery. The idea here is to avoid any accidental firing up of the machine when you are changing the blade.
- Second, press the spindle lock button that is located near the blade guard, and then turn the blade until you see it engaged. That means turn the blade until it stops turning.
- Next, loosen the bolt.
- Then unscrew the bolt to remove it. Also, remove washers if there is any.
- Next, pull the lower blade guard and move it out of the way.
- Now, remove the blade.
- After that, place the new blade keeping the blade face in the right direction. You have to match the direction of the arrow on the blade body and the arrow on the blade guard.
- Then place the washer and bolts and tighten them again.
FAQ | Frequently Asked Questions
Circular Saw
- Can I cut steel with a circular saw?
- Yes, you can cut steel with a circular saw. You just have to use the appropriate blade in this case. An excellent abrasive blade will do the work.
- Is it possible to sharpen the circular saw blade?
- Yes, it is possible to sharpen a circular saw blade. You can use any hand file or an automatic file to sharpen a steel-toothed blade. If it’s a carbide-tipped, then better take it to the professional sharpening service because it requires a diamond wheel sharpener to get things done when it’s a carbide-tipped blade.
- How to know when I need to replace the circular saw blade?
- When you see the blade is chipping the wood instead of cutting the wood, it's time to replace the blade because your blade is dull at this point.
Final Words
Let’s recap!
In this article, I’ve given you an idea about different circular saw blade types. Then I mentioned the different steps involved in changing a circular saw blade. Finally, I answered some of the frequently asked questions. Please make sure to buy the right size blade for the saw you are using and always wear safety gear when you operate the saw.
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