cutting conti board with elec saw

[SS]

Elec circular saw.... Cutting some conti board (coated chipboard) the other day and got some small chips along the cutting edge, not bothered as for shelving in a little used cupboard.

However can someone explain the following. The first cut was with a fine blade (maybe blunt as last used couple of years ago) the blade struggled to cut through it, but vagely remember chipboard being hard on power tools. Next cut I used a blade with big teeth on it which I thought would make bigger chips. It was no worse than the finer blade and went through it like butter by comparison. Assuming both blades awere ok would this be normal

[NT]

If any blade struggles with chipboard, its bu---ered. There's no board softer.

NT

[Gazz]

it's the chipboard that buggers the blades up, not the wood..... i mean sawdust bits, but the glue used to hold it together,

[The Medway Handyman]

Depends very much on the quality of the blade. The 24t supplied with my AEG saw cuts smoother than a 40t '3 for a tenner' Toolstation blade.

Chipboard blunts saw blades & cutters very quickly.

Try masking tape on the 'break out' side of the cut or even better use a sawboard.

[John Rumm]

Chip is quite hard on saws in general, too finer blade can bog down in the resin binder of the chipboard.

Remember to keep the finish side down - that will be chip free. You can limit the chips on the top either by masking tape along the cut line, or using a sawboard[1] helps a bit, or do a preliminary scoring cut with the blade set to just cat the top couple of mm, then do the full depth cut. (proper panel saws use this trick with a small deicarted scoring blade on the top surface.

[1]

[MuddyMike]

I saw sparks coming off when cutting some flooring chipboard, that can't be doing the blade much good.

Mike

[Roger Mills]

I've generally found a finer blade to be better for a smooth finish - provided it's *sharp*, and not so fine that it clogs.

As others have said, if using a hand-held circular saw, have the most important edge facing *downwards*.

If both edges are going to show, and if I'm going to stick edging on, I invariably cut the board a couple of mm over-size with the circular saw, and finish off with a router.

[Andy Dingley]

That's foreign bodies in the chipboard - sometimes things that fell in the press during manufacture (I saw half a squirrel(?) once, also a Malaysian crisp packet), or else wire staples that have been used to hold bundles of boards together on a pallet.

[Jon Fairbairn]

(!)

I would be suprised if there were not also occasional bits of tungsten carbide from the tooling of whatever produced the chips in the first place and bits of grit from the floor of that workshop. Certainly something hard enough to take a bite out of a new router cutter :-(