circular saw blade for plywood

Hello

What do you guys use for a plywood blade in your circular saw? I bought a plywood blade to cut some birch plywood and it did a terrible job with tearout.

I have a bunch of bookcases to make so I would like to improve the initial cuts.

Thanks

Larry C

Reply to
Larry C
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You talking a handheld or contractor/table saw?

I've had good luck w/ good quality plywood blades; don't understand there being much of a problem unless it was just an inexpensive one or some other alignment problem.

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Reply to
dpb

It is a circular saw

Reply to
Larry C

This url will take you to a google books extract, which has some information on cutting ply with a circular saw and ways to minimise tearout.

Scroll down past the two pics to get to the explanatory text.

Hope this helps

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Reply to
litteratuer

gosh, don't overwhelm us w/ verbiage...

What _specific_ blade (manufacturer, no teeth, grind, etc., etc., ...)

I'll take the "circular saw" as skilsaw, not contractors; they all are "circular".

What particular saw and are you sure the blade is perpendicular to the shoe plate and are you using a guide or freehanding the cuts? Have you checked the blade is parallel to the edge of the base plate if using the straightedge? If it isn't, it's just like the fence on a tablesaw not being parallel to the blade; it causes the work to run at an angle against the blade which will cause teeth to drag on one edge or the other preferentially depending on which way the bias is.

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Reply to
dpb

I was trying to do about ten things when I was tanking about this question and I just replied.

I use a Milwaukee Skill saw and the blade is a 140 tooth. I use a straight edge as a guide.

I will read the link that someone posted and see if that helps

Thanks

Larry C

Reply to
Larry C

I've been using an Oldham "Ultra Finishing/Plywood/OSB Industrial Carbide" blade in a cheap Black and Decker hand-held circular saw.

7-1/4", 60 tooth blade.

Makes CLEAN, FINE cuts on the 3/4" expensive cherry-faced plywood I've used.

I put the "good side" down, and use a clamped-on fence to guide the hand-held saw.

Works like a charm for me.

-Zz

Reply to
Zz Yzx

As a last resort, you can clamp some sacrificial wood to both sides of your stock.

Reply to
HeyBub

I use a Skill Worm drive with diamond hole blades.

The whole trick I th>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

I use this blade:

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on a Milwaukee 6390-21
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"good" side down, and I use a 9' straight edge as a guide.

Max

Reply to
Max

Here is what you need

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Reply to
Leon

"Larry C" wrote in news:aIQwm.3826$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrddc01.gnilink.net:

I bought an Irwin Marathon blade at my grandpa's suggestion, and it's yet to come off the circular saw. It's a standard blade (I don't remember the number of teeth for 7 1/4" blades), not a plywood blade, but if you take it easy it cuts through plywood with a minimal amount of tearout. Last plywood I cut with it was sheathing grade 1/2" stuff, though. You may have problems with better quality plywood.

Not bad for a $8 blade.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

I have an older B&D worm drive. I forget what blade is on it now, carbide tip (probably 40 tooth). For good plywood cuts, I do 2 things... clamp on a guide board and (with the good side down) put a sacrificial board under the cut (for the whole length of the cut.)

Ed

Reply to
Ed Edelenbos

Your biggest problem will be with crosscuts, any decent blade should rip well. For crosscuts, you could...

  1. Use a blade with many tiny teeth. Expensive if carbide, cheap if steel and steel works well for a while.
  2. Apply backer to tearout side. Even masking tape helps.
  3. Moisten the wood.
  4. Score the wood on tearout side with a knife. Hard to do with a hand held saw. Scoring can also be done by making a very shallow first cut then cutting through.
  5. Cut a bit oversize and trim with a router.
Reply to
dadiOH

TWO WORDS:

Masking Tape

Some more words . . .

Good quality, thin kerf, carbide blade with as many teeth as you can find.

I bought a "plywood" blade from Lowes, found it less than perfect and took it back for a refund. Bought a thin kerf carbide blade and had better results. Also, there is something about which side is "up" that is different (as I recall) when using a "Skill" saw vs a table saw. I believe the god side is to be down with the former.

Google "Cutting Plywood" don't take my word for it! :)

Reply to
Hoosierpopi

Hoosierpopi wrote in news:1b619c7f-a64b-4884- snipped-for-privacy@e34g2000vbm.googlegroups.com:

*snip*

The blade makes contact with the good side first.

(Of course, you'll want to take more protections to protect the "god side.")

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Actually the blade makes contact with the top side first. You however want the good side down.

Reply to
Leon

Hoosierpopi wrote: ...

...

Yes, the cutting teeth edge enter from the bottom for the skilsaw while from the top on a table saw. Hence, there tends to be less tearout when oriented as stated although a quality, sharp blade should leave minimal either way...but as noted much earlier in the thread (before OP departed, in fact :) ) it was noted an alignment of the blade can cause problems if the trailing drag the cut edge on exit they can wreak havoc (as well as can the cutting teeth on exit, particularly that's where dull or poor set or choice of type of blade will cause problems).

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Reply to
dpb

Guys

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I think my issue is most likely my blade.

Sorry about the initial post being somewhat vague. A little spun in circles these days.

Plus I forgot that Verizon was dumping news groups and sign up to service to reply to this thread.

Larry C

Reply to
Larry C

"Leon" wrote in news:RLKdnV6LebaItFjXnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

You're right (of course). I might have over simplified things.

In the middle of a cut, for any given tooth, the good side is the one that the cutting edge of the tooth comes in to contact with first.

I think this is general enough and correct enough to work for any saw.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

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