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Saw blades

F

fuse

Sapling
Joined
Sep 4, 2025
Messages
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Location
Herefordshire UK
Name
Martin
LOCATION
Uk
At risk of starting an argument what is the correct hight of a tablesaw blade
Ive read conflicting articles saying either the minimum protusion above the material for safety or 'a lot' so the blade pushes the material down not out at you.
Also as I work a lot with soft wood I get a fair amount of resin buildup-what is the preferred way of removing it ?
 
If the piece your cutting has a small off cut be very careful, especially if you have the blade low and extraction on, the teeth can pick up the off cut and turn it into a bullet.
I don’t generally have the blade at full height unless doing lots of ripping.

For cleaning I use a special blade cleaner from Felder but have also used one from CMT….. Acetone also works.
 
The HSE say to set the saw blade so that the tooth protrudes all the way to the bottom of the gullet https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis16.pdf
I have a good crown guard and so set it higher for two reasons: First it pushes downward and second it is the shortest cut and shortest length that teeth are in the wood. The key is the crown guard.
As for cleaning the blade of resin there are proprietary resin cleaners available these days.
As an apprentice we used to use diesel or paraffin. But I would not do that now.
 
As per PAC1's message, I always work on the basis that the full tooth/gullet is visible above the top of the workpiece, for a number of reasons that I've seen sensible explanations for. I'm not saying these are 'right' or facts, but I've seen sensible arguments for all of them and haven't (yet) experience any reason to change my mind:

1. The higher out of the workpiece (within reason) the minimum amount of teeth inside the workpiece at any given time. This does two things, helps with cooling the teeth and stopping burning, and also seems to help with clearing the gullet and pushing dust into the bottom of the saw chassis or out into the crown guard/over blade extractor.
2. Pushes the workpiece down rather than towards you, so if you do get a catch then it's less likely (not completely, but less likely...) to ping it into your belly or crown jewels at extreme velocity...
 
And the counterpoint: when cutting thin materials, having the blade set lower means that the teeth exit the cut at a shallower angle, which can reduce breakout on the back of the cut when cutting things like plywood across the grain of the face veneers.

Personally, I set it low (somewhere between the bottom of the carbide and the bottom of the gullet) for finishing cuts in sheet goods, and higher for rough cuts (and almost all my table saw cuts in solid timber are rough cuts). I set it even higher when using the crosscut sled, so that the guard can clear the fence, but in that situation the sled itself gives a zero-clearance backer for the 'good' side of the back of the cut, so I'm not so worried about breakout.
 
Thats all pretty much what I though thanks
No one runs higher than the gullet?

On the subject of blades is there experience of the £100 type blade sharpening grinders?
Instead of buying more ebay disposables ,I might invest in a decent blade so it would be worth sharpening either by sending it off or buying a machine.
I have previously disposed of two chainsaw chain grinders on the grounds of being utter cr#p- is it the same story with rotary blade sharpeners?
 
I use Mr Muscle window and glass cleaner and a brass brush to remove the resin.
Minimum protrusion on the saw blade as well.

Pete
 
Yesterday I had to clean the gunge off my tracksaw blade (TS) not to be confused with my tablesaw blade (TS)...
Ive been cutting MFC and the buildup was fast and astonishing. I used synthetic thinners to soak it, then a chisel and brush to clean it off. Like new. I do't really understgand how I got so much build up, but it slowed up the cut so much that it felt dangerous.
I touch up the blades myself until they need a prope saw-dentist.YouTube is your friend.
S
 
My saw blade generally stays at full height but I am mostly making rip cuts, on the few occasions when I do set the blade lower I'm always surprised how much more resistance I feel when pushing the timber through.
 
fuse said:
Thats all pretty much what I though thanks
No one runs higher than the gullet?

On the subject of blades is there experience of the £100 type blade sharpening grinders?
Instead of buying more ebay disposables ,I might invest in a decent blade so it would be worth sharpening either by sending it off or buying a machine.
I have previously disposed of two chainsaw chain grinders on the grounds of being utter cr#p- is it the same story with rotary blade sharpeners?
Click to expand...
I have run mine with max blade protrusion more than once and it was fine, just means more blad to cover with whatever kind of guard you have, but I don't believe it makes any massive difference to performance.
 
fuse said:
No one runs higher than the gullet?
Click to expand...
If I'm using my crosscut sled on thin material, I have the blade an inch or more above the top of the cut, so that the fence of the sled can pass under the guard. It works perfectly well.

I also don't generally bother adjusting the blade height between cuts if I'm running different thicknesses; I just set it for the thickest thing I'm working with in that session and leave it there. That often results in above-the-gullet cuts, again with no issue.
 
spb said:
If I'm using my crosscut sled on thin material, I have the blade an inch or more above the top of the cut, so that the fence of the sled can pass under the guard. It works perfectly well.

I also don't generally bother adjusting the blade height between cuts if I'm running different thicknesses; I just set it for the thickest thing I'm working with in that session and leave it there. That often results in above-the-gullet cuts, again with no issue.
Click to expand...
Yes this is me too, sort of middle ish setting most of the time. Personally I don’t think a bit more than just the gullet showing can do much harm as long as it’s well guarded.
The only time I’ve ever had a bit of anything fly back at me was when I wasn’t being careful enough and was cutting a small bit of ply, I had the blade set to just clear the surface of the ply and the ply somehow got on top of the blade and you can imagine what happened next. Missed me thank goodness, but the curved track of the blades progress across the ply was most illustrative!
 
I think setting it so that the bottom of the gullet is around the height of the workpiece is a pretty good rule for most cuts. You also have to take into account that some of it is dependant on what you're cutting, for example when cutting two-face veneered/laminate panels without a scoring unit, if the blade is too low, you can have chipping on the top surface, if it's too high you can have chipping on the top surface, so there's a neat middle ground where the blade is passing through the material at roughly 45-degrees for the best quality of cut on both surfaces.

On the subject of blade sharpeners, you can do it yourself, but the results are never as good as being done by a proper company with several hundred thousand pounds worth of CNC grinders and optical comparators.
 
We have a branch of Leitz tooling here (Bristle). They do a superb job in sharpening my tracksaw, mitre and occasionally tablesaw blades.

I think for the tracksaw i can probably get away with three resharpens. I stick with Makita blades (it's an SP6000K). I did try cheaper 3rd-party ones - big mistake, and the Makita ones are 165mm, whereas Festool are 160mm diameter.

The only issue is that I haven't found a ripping blade I like. This is understandable as tracksaws are designed for man-made boards and/or crosscutting. Still, it would be nice to have something as a get-out-of-jail option sometimes. Tablesaw ripping isn't an option because of lack of space, ditto the bandsaw (although that's by the door, which helps). It's only rarely necessary though (bandsaw for most tasks).
 
Eric the Viking said:
We have a branch of Leitz tooling here (Bristle). They do a superb job in sharpening my tracksaw, mitre and occasionally tablesaw blades.

I think for the tracksaw i can probably get away with three resharpens. I stick with Makita blades (it's an SP6000K). I did try cheaper 3rd-party ones - big mistake, and the Makita ones are 165mm, whereas Festool are 160mm diameter.

The only issue is that I haven't found a ripping blade I like. This is understandable as tracksaws are designed for man-made boards and/or crosscutting. Still, it would be nice to have something as a get-out-of-jail option sometimes. Tablesaw ripping isn't an option because of lack of space, ditto the bandsaw (although that's by the door, which helps). It's only rarely necessary though (bandsaw for most tasks).
Click to expand...

Have you tried CMT blades, ETV? I use them with my Makita tracksaw, and I've had very good results.

https://www.scosarg.com/cmt-291-crosscut-sawblade-d-165-b-2-2-d-20-z-24

https://www.scosarg.com/cmt-292-fine-sawblade-d-165-b-2-2-d-20-z-56
 
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