The standard blade will cut it without any difficulty,
Finer is better - but nothing special required.
Just cut the worktop with the laminate side down, and start the cut at the roll edge. That way any chipping will be on the paper side of the worktop and not the laminate.
Only in the sense that some brands of blade will be better than others.
which is typically a compromise general purpose blade (not that thick chipboard counts as fine!)
leave as is.
No need if it is on the underside.
The riving knife can be left in place all the time. Its main purpose is when rip cutting natural wood. Sometimes it is possible to release tensions in the wood that can cause the cut to spring apart (not a problem) or clamp together. If the latter happens this can trap the rear of the blade, which will tend to throw the saw at you. The riving knife prevents the wood closing up onto the trailing edge of the blade.
Pretty good saws. I've been using their bigger brother for timber framing, which is about as hard a life as hand-held saws get.
Yes, I think the standard is a 40 tooth which is a bit of an "all purpose" and ideal for nothing blade. A finer toothed blade would be a good idea, although you don't need a blade specifically for laminates. If you ever use it for ripping, you'll also find a 24 or 28 tooth rip blade will increase the usable capacity.
Some are better than others. Most are OK when new, but better grades of carbide are less likely to chip. I'd recommend CMT or Freud as the best. Axminster's own brand are pretty decent, I wouldn't waste my money on Silverline.
You've probably spent about 100 quid on this saw and _all_ it does is rotate a blade. How this blade does its job is absolutely crucial to the overall performance.
Apart from rebating (which I'd avoid with a hand-held saw) I always leave the blade at maximum depth - whether I'm using a hand-held saw or a cabinet saw. The logic is that this does as much cutting as possible with a blade contact that's travelling vertically (relative to the soleplate) not horizontally. Horizontal forces are what cause kickback and that's a lot more dangerous than worryign about the "stick-out" of a blade that's already guarded.
You can usually leave it in situ. It's rarely necessary to adjust it, once set. You might need to remove it occasionally for rebating (non-through cuts).
The main function of the riving knife is when ripping timber with some drying stress left in it. If this causes the timber to "grab" the blade, this can be very dangerous (kickback risk). It's much safer if this grab is onto the riving knife, not the rotating blade.
I'd agree with John & Andy except in respect of the depth adjustment. Normal practice is to adjust the depth of cut to just over the thickness of material, so the teeth & gullets just clear.
The theory is this gives a faster tip speed and a smoother cut.
Can I confirm that the actual supplied blade is only about 12/16 tooth. surely I dont want to be attempting to cut the worktop or even units back with that do I.
I was hoping the summit or silverline blades might be ok since they are quite a good price, has anyone never used the summit ones.
I have read various opinions online about setting the depth some seem to say to adjust it to slightly deeper than the cut by say 5mm or so but opinion
It is black worktop so not chipping it is essential as guessing it would show really bad
Tip speed depends on radius, not on blade position. The sides of the blade are just causing friction, not cutting, so a _slower_ speed would have the advantage, And if you're rubbing on the sides of the sawblade anyway, then stop it!
I've tried both, and setting the blade shallow gives a messier cut and makes the saw a pig to handle. When the blade's deep, the forces on the wood push it up towards the baseplate, thus dont interfere with your job, that of guiding the thing forward. With a shallow blade, the forces are mostly at 90 degrees to that, and the forces vary as the blade vibrates and wood edge is less than perfectly smooth. You have to guide the saw directly against those unsteady forces.
The sticking out blade is not guarded, its bare, but a shallow setting makes a saw much less stable to handle, and much more prone to kicking. When the blade is set deep, it can catch all it likes and youre at no risk, because of the direction of the forces. If it catches when set shallow, it can pull the saw outta your hand, and cause it to jump up at the same time.
If I need a perfect cut with a basic coarse blade, I put the workpiece on a bit of scrap and cut thru both together. Hardboard is fine for this. Also go easy, the harder you push, the rougher the cut.
I dont know much about differing blade brands, but I've also used a rock bottom price Kinzo mitre saw, and the cuts on it are ok. Unlike the PPPro mitre I saw the other day, my god, flap wobble.
heap of stuff recently. They are thin. Thinner than the=20 Freud(?) blade I have been using for a while and too=20 thin to be gripped tight by the arbor plate on my Skil=20 saw.
As long as you have the saw on the reverse side of the board you will get a clean cut.
I cut some black worktop for a friend a couple of days ago on my table saw. That has a similar general purpose blade in it (it has a few more teeth - but only by virtue of it being a bigger blade). No masking tape used, and no chipping either.
If in doubt make a test cut on the very end of the worktop - or better still on a scrap bit.
Nope not tried the summit ones. Have used some silverline blades (reciprocating saw) though - nothing special, but cheap as you say.
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