Buy new or sharpen
#15
(06-18-2022, 06:03 AM)Gregor1 Wrote: I have a number of 25+ year old 10" saw blades. These are not thin blades. The teeth are .133 thick. They are mostly Delta, and Freud. I have seen where so many seem to prefer the thin blades, claiming less stress on the saw itself. Yesterday I was attempting to cut a 20 degree angle on a board, and the thin blade simply deflected, making it impossible to do. Would you rather buy new, or resharpen old blades for your table saw? Do you prefer thin blades?

Thanks  Greg

Old blades may or may not be worth sharpening.  The key question about resharpening is the flatness of the plate.  The fist time a sliver bangs between the throat plate and the blade may mean that there is a permanent bend in the blade.  Checking straightness of the blade's plate in your saw would be a good exercise to prevent you from paying to have a bent blade sharpened.
Reply
#16
(06-20-2022, 03:06 PM)Bob Vaughan Wrote: Old blades may or may not be worth sharpening.  The key question about resharpening is the flatness of the plate.  The fist time a sliver bangs between the throat plate and the blade may mean that there is a permanent bend in the blade.  Checking straightness of the blade's plate in your saw would be a good exercise to prevent you from paying to have a bent blade sharpened.

Your comment about flatness of the blade peaked my curiosity. I had to check it out. I set up my dial indicator on my unisaw and checked six 10" blades. I cleaned each blade with CMT blade and bit cleaner before checking. In each case, I got as close to the teeth as possible, without getting into any laser cuts. On the Freud blade, this wasn't very close. I checked a Milwaukee 24 tooth. A Freud 24 tooth. A Bosch 24 tooth. (it came with the saw when I bought it). A CMT 24 tooth. 2 CMT 40 tooth. Bear in mind this is not a $500 Starrett dial indicator, but I have rebuilt a lot of small engines using it, and I trust it. The numbers represent in thousandths of an inch, how much side to side wobble (if you will) there is in each blade.

Milwaukee 24 tooth......7  Thin kerf
Freud 24 tooth.............3  Thin kerf
Bosch 34 tooth.............4  Thin kerf
CMT 24 tooth...............3
CMT 40 tooth...............4
CMT 40 tooth...............3

Th4 CMT blades are at least 25 years old. All other blades are relatively new. I have more 40 tooth blades but they are in the sharpening shop. I have never really liked the Milwaukee blades. They always seem to me, to chatter more than other blades, but it's what my local store sells, so I have bought several, and they are thin kerf, which I also don't like. I like something with some meat to it. I also took my dial indicator and checked the 12" Milwaukee, 100 tooth blade on my miter saw. 8 thousandths.
I was visiting a long time wood worker a while back. He was showing me on his table saw how the belts had " memory" to them. Ha hasn't done any woodworking in a long time. He would turn the blade by hand, and the blade would naturally spi9n back to where it was. He called this "memory" in the belts, and claimed it could cause more saw marks in your cuts. I am sure my unisaw belts are original to the saw, and also have memory. Anything to this do you think?

Thanks  Greg
Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut, and have the world think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Reply
#17
(06-20-2022, 03:06 PM)Bob Vaughan Wrote: Old blades may or may not be worth sharpening.  The key question about resharpening is the flatness of the plate.  The fist time a sliver bangs between the throat plate and the blade may mean that there is a permanent bend in the blade.  Checking straightness of the blade's plate in your saw would be a good exercise to prevent you from paying to have a bent blade sharpened.

A large saw shop will balance and straighten blades as part of sharpening.  I use Misenheimer in Morristown, TN.  They sharpen for all the regional industry.
Bill Tindall
Reply
#18
A measurement at essentially zero rpm will be misleading.  The blade will straighten some or completely when it spins up.  

There are few cuts made with a table saw that are not refined further with a plane or jointer or hidden in the project.  People fret too much about tooth marks.
Bill Tindall
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.