Circular saws make quick, straight cuts across a board (crosscuts) or along the board’s length (rip cuts). You can also set a circular saw to make bevel cuts. Standard components on a circular saw include:
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Circular saw sizes are usually classified by the diameter of their blades. Sizes of 5-1/2 to 7-1/4 inches are the most common. There are also many options available on circular saws. Choose the best circular saw for your specific needs.
There are two basic designs:
Circular saws can make various types of cuts. Watch our DIY Basics video: What’s That Cut Called?
Where and how you use your circular saw will help determine the power supply you need. Two types are available:
Always unplug corded power tools and disconnect the battery on cordless power tools before servicing them.
Always unplug corded power tools and disconnect the battery on cordless power tools before servicing them.
Handheld circular saws, table saws and miter saws are common do-it-yourself tools that use circular saw blades. These blades are typically designed for cutting wood or wood composites. You can also find blades for circular saws, miter saws and table saws that cut plastic, vinyl and more.
As you’re looking at blades for these tools, keep these general tips in mind:
Other power saws also utilize circular blades, including
We’ll show you several types of circular saw blades below, starting with standard blades you’d commonly use with a handheld saw, miter saw or table saw.
Good to KnowTable saw blades and miter saw blades have a similar design to handheld saw blades but have a larger diameter.
Rip-cut blades are best for cutting along the grain of the wood (usually along the length of a board). You might use one of these blades when you’re reducing the width of a board.
Crosscut blades are designed for cutting across the woodgrain (across the face of a board) as you would do when cutting a board to a particular length.
Combination blades are good general purpose blades. They can effectively make both rip cuts and crosscuts.
Framing blades are perfect for jobs where speed is important and the quality of the cut doesn’t matter.
As the name suggests, these blades are primarily designed for cutting plywood to size.
Demolition blades are another type of blade you’d use when speed and capability are more important than a clean cut.
These blades are designed for applications where the quality of the cut is most important, such as for cabinet building and joinery.
Blade diameter, arbor hole size, number of teeth and kerf (the thickness of the cut the blade creates) are typically printed on the face of a circular saw blade. You may also see a list of appropriate tool types as well as maximum revolutions per minute (RPM) and application specifications.
Continuous-rim blades are usually a type of diamond-edged blade — sometimes called diamond blades.
While some blades are suitable for wet and dry applications, make sure your saw is suitable for the type of cutting you need to do.
Turbo-rim blades are diamond blades similar to continuous-rim blades. They lack the teeth and gullets of standard blades but have a serrated rim.
Segmented blades also typically cut with diamond edges but have a rim divided by gullets similar to those on a standard blade.
Like diamond blades, abrasive blades don’t have teeth. They cut with an abrasive material, such as aluminum oxide.
Stacked dado blades are woodcutting accessories designed for use on table saws or miter saws.
Follow the blade and saw manufacturers' instructions for use and safety.
Each type of circular saw blade is designed to cut different material and work with specific power saws. Be certain the blade you choose is suitable for the material you need to cut and that it fits your saw. Your saw manual should provide information on compatible blades, but here are some quick tips.
Check the size of the arbor hole, or the hole in the center of the blade. It must fit the arbor or shaft on your saw. Some blades with a circular arbor hole include a piece you can knock out to allow them to fit saws with a diamond-shaped arbor.
Check the maximum RPM rating of the blade to make sure it’s compatible with the tool you plan to use.
Learn how to choose the best power saw for your projects:
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The steps for changing a circular saw blade will vary by tool type. You should always refer to your saw manual for specific instructions on changing a blade, but here are some general tips for changing a blade on a handheld circular saw:
Wear heavy-duty work gloves when handling the saw blade.
When loosening and tightening the blade stud, use only the included wrench. Other wrenches may overtighten the stud.
If you need to sharpen a circular saw blade, take it to a professional. Sharpening some blades require specialty tools that most do-it-yourselfers don’t have. Attempting to sharpen other types of circular saw blades yourself risks ruining the blades.
To reduce the need to sharpen your blades, look for carbide-tipped blades. They’re more expensive than other blades, but they stay sharp much longer than steel or high-speed steel blades.
Making smooth, safe cuts with your table saw, radial-arm saw, chop saw or sliding compound miter saw depends on having the right blade for the tool and for the type of cut you want to make. There's no shortage of quality options, and the sheer volume of available blades could bewilder even an experienced woodworker. That's why we've put together this article. It's part glossary and part guide, with important basic information to help you make the right selection saw blade selection for your project.
A good way to narrow your options and focus your search is to answer a few key questions:
In what type of saw will the blade be used?
Some blades are designed to be used in particular saws, so you'll want to be sure to get the right blade for the tool. Using the wrong type of blade for the saw is likely to produce poor results and might in some cases be dangerous.
What materials will the blade be used to cut?
If you need to cut a wide range of materials, that will affect your choice. If you cut a lot of a single type of material (melamine, for example) that specialization also might affect your choice.
What types of cuts will the blade be used to make?
Will you be using the saw blade exclusively for crosscutting (cutting across the woodgrain)or will it be used only for ripping (cutting with the grain)? Will it need to produce good results in all types of cuts?
Do you want to build a collection of specialized blades, or do you want one blade that can make all kinds of cuts?
Are you willing to change the blade every time you switch from one cut to another?
How powerful is the saw on which the blade will be used, and what size blade does the manufacturer recommend?
Is it a 3 hp cabinet table saw or a portable job-site saw? Is it a 10" saw or 12"?
Answering these questions will go a long way toward clarifying your best options. Understanding a little about the anatomy of a saw blade can help further narrow your search.
Many saw blades are designed to provide their best results in a particular cutting operation. You can get specialized blades for ripping lumber, crosscutting lumber, cutting veneered plywood and panels, cutting laminates and plastics, cutting melamine and cutting non-ferrous metals. There also are general purpose and combination blades, which are designed to work well in two or more types of cuts. (Combination blades are designed to crosscut and rip.
General-purpose saw blades are designed to make all types of cuts, including in plywood, laminated wood and melamine.) What a blade does best is determined, in part, by the number of teeth, the size of gullet, the tooth configuration and the hook angle (angle of the tooth).
In general, saw blades with more teeth yield a smoother cut, and blades with fewer teeth remove material faster. A 10" blade designed for ripping lumber, for example, usually has as few as 24 teeth and is designed to quickly remove material along the length of the grain. A rip blade isn't designed to yield a mirror-smooth cut, but a good rip blade will move through hardwood with little effort and leave a clean cut with minimal scoring.
A crosscut blade, on the other hand, is designed to produce a smooth cut across the grain of the wood, without splintering or tearing. This type of blade will usually have 60 to 80 teeth, and the higher tooth count means that each tooth has to remove less material. A crosscut blade makes many more individual cuts as it moves through the stock than a ripping blade and, as a result, requires a slower feed rate. The result is a cleaner cut on edges and a smoother cut surface. With a top-quality crosscut blade, the cut surface will appear polished.
The gullet is the space in front of each tooth to allow for chip removal. In a ripping operation, the feed rate is faster and the chip size is bigger, so the gullet needs to be deep enough for the large amount of material it has to handle. In a crosscutting blade, the chips are smaller and fewer per tooth, so the gullet is much smaller. The gullets on some crosscutting blades also are purposely sized small to inhibit a too-fast feed rate, which can be a problem especially on radial-arm and sliding miter saws.The gullets of a combination blade are designed to handle both ripping and crosscutting. The large gullets between the groups of teeth help clear out the larger amounts of material generated in ripping. The smaller gullets between the grouped teeth inhibit a too-fast feed rate in crosscutting.
The shape of the saw blade tooth and the way the teeth are grouped also affect the way the blade cuts. The configuration of the teeth on a saw blade has a lot to do with whether the blade will work best for ripping, crosscutting or laminates.
Flat-Top (FT)
Flat-top teeth are used on blades for ripping hard and soft woods. Because wood is much less likely to chip and splinter when it is being cut with the grain, a rip blade is designed to quickly and efficiently remove material. The flat-top tooth is the most efficient design for cutting and raking material out of the cut.
Alternate Top Bevel (ATB)
This means that the blade teeth alternate between a right- and left-hand bevel. This configuration yields a smoother cut when crosscutting natural woods and veneered plywood. The alternating beveled teeth form a knife-like edge on either side of the blade and make a cleaner cut than flat-top teeth.
High Alternate Top Bevel (Hi-ATB)
The Hi-ATB configuration is used for extra-fine crosscutting and to cut materials surfaced with melamine, which is prone to chipping. The high bevel angle increases the knife-like action at the edge of the blade.
Triple Chip Grind
The TCG configuration excels at cutting hard materials such as laminates, MDF and plastics. Teeth alternate between a flat "raking" tooth and a higher "trapeze" tooth. The TCG configuration is also used for non-ferrous metal cutting blades.
Combination Tooth (Comb)
Combination blades are designed to do both crosscutting and ripping. The teeth are arranged in groups of five – four ATB teeth and one FT – with a large gullet between the groups.
Hook angle has an important effect on blade operation. A blade with high positive hook angle (say, 20°) will yield a very aggressive cut and a fast feed rate. A low or negative hook angle will slow the feed rate and will also inhibit the blade's tendency to "climb" the material being cut. A blade for ripping lumber on a table saw will generally have a high hook angle, where an aggressive, fast cut is usually what you want. Radial-arm saws and sliding compound miter saws, on the other hand, require a blade with a very low or negative hook angle to inhibit overly fast feed rate, binding and the blade's tendency to "climb" the material.
Many blade types are available in both full-kerf and thin-kerf varieties. Full-kerf blades typically cut a 1/8" slot and are intended for use on saws powered by 3 hp (or greater) motors.
Thin-kerf saw blades have a thickness of less than 1/8" and were developed for use on portable and jobsite table saws with motors of less than 3 hp. Because a thin-kerf blade has to remove less material than a full-kerf blade, it requires less power to operate and allows lower-powered saws to cut material at an appropriate feed rate without the risk of bogging down during the cut. (Bogging down causes excessive friction; as a result, the blade heats up and can become distorted or burn the cut surface.)
The potential trade-off for the thinner kerf is the fact that the blade plate is thinner and therefore might be expected to vibrate more than a thicker, more rigid plate. However, technological advances in blade design have generated thin-kerf blades that rival the best industrial-quality full-kerf saw blades. Vibration-dampening systems, like the one used with Freud thin-kerf blades, compensate for the slight loss of stability and make thin-kerf blades the optimum choice for lower-powered saws.
The teeth on most high-quality saw blades are thick carbide tips that have been fused (or brazed) to the steel blade plate. How long the blade will stay sharp, how cleanly it will cut and how many re-sharpenings it will take all depend on the quality of the cutting tips. On some of the best blades, the carbide is formulated specifically for the application of the blade, and a tri-metal brazing process is used to attach the carbide cutters to the blade plate. This process, in which a layer of copper alloy is sandwiched between layers of silver alloy, provides extra flexibility and impact resistance. At a minimum, look for a blade with C3 grade micro-grain carbide teeth, which are thick enough to allow a number of re-sharpenings.
So which blade is right for you? Collect your answers to the questions at the beginning of this article and go to Rockler.com, where you can search our selection of blades by brand, blade type, blade diameter, material to be cut and price. If you are planning to cut a variety of materials and prefer not spend time frequently changing from one specialty blade to another, a general-purpose blade is a good choice.
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