I’m remodeling my own house and right now I have about 1100 sq. ft. of laminate flooring to install. I started yesterday with the first floor half bath and the small adjacent hallway. I only made about 20-30 crosscuts. Well today I started trimming out the doors but the blade was burning the wood pretty bad so I cleaned off all the gunk. That didn’t help, so I figure the blade is dull from cutting the laminate flooring. I was using a carbide tipped Oldham 10″ 80 tooth ATB blade with about a 15 degree hook angle–my trusty miter saw blade for the past 9 years. Since it’ll take a couple of weeks to get it back from being sharpened, I picked up a new Dewalt 10″ 80 tooth ATB with a -5 degree hook so I can keep trimming out the rooms. (BTW that Dewalt blade cuts like a hot knife through butter.) What type of blade should I buy to cut the rest of the flooring? When I was out today I saw Porter-Cable makes big blades now (news to me), and they had one called a Laminate Flooring Blade. Basically it was just a variable tooth, Triple Chip Grind. Would a TCG blade last longer than an ATB for what I need to cut?
Thanks in advance.
Edited 3/14/2004 10:04 pm ET by EndCheck
Replies
This is Charles McCracken. [email protected]
Ask him he will take the time to answer any question you could possibly have and his advice will be sound.
Here fishy fishy....
to cut the rest of the flooring ...
I'd put the burnt blade back on ....
laminate will kill a blade ... but after the initial quick burn .. the blades still seem to cut the rest of the flooring ok ....
those blades are toast for anything else though ...
Those DeWalt's are my fav ... what ever series it is that comes in the real cardboard packaging ... not the one's plasitc laminated to the thin cardboard paper.
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
I have used the $10 120 tooth plywood blades. They cost less than a sharpening job on a good blade, they cut well the first few times, then they start to chip up the laminate pretty well, but all the cuts will be under the trim anyway, so so what?
Also I have had better luck cutting the stuff on a tablesaw with a sled, rather than a chop saw.
Either way it's not worth tearing up a good blade.