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Thread: Diablo saw blade flexing
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30th July 2018, 10:57 PM #1Intermediate Member
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Diablo saw blade flexing
I recently purchased an Ozito plunge track saw and changed the blade to a Diablo 40 teeth based on recommendations I'd seen elsewhere. After a bit of fiddling I've got it working well but it won't cut smooth and straight. There's no play anywhere I can find so I'm suspecting its the blade itself. Its quite a thin blade and flexes by hand and it also has lots of those swirly things cut into it. So what I'm finding is that cutting 18mm melamine that I get about a 1mm drift toward the end of a 500mm cut and that it tends to wave fractionally along the length. If I plunge the blade along the piece after the first cut it cuts into the bits it drifted on, but its not the ideal way to cut. I just want to know if this is common and what the solution might be. Is there a cheap way to strengthen the blade?
Below is the blade:
https://www.bunnings.com.au/diablo-1...blade_p6370899
This is the only other blade I've seen of a similar size, but I've no idea whether it would be any better:
https://sydneytools.com.au/makita-b-...-tct-saw-blade
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30th July 2018, 11:32 PM #2
Have you used the saw with the factory blade. If you have a similar problem, then the issue would be with the saw or guide setup, rather than the aftermarket blade. If you are operating as a track saw, and the blade has any toe in or out to the guide edge, you can expect the saw to induce some flex into the blade.
There are a variety of blades available for track saws in general, most firms making or rebadging a track saw have rip and crosscut blades available. I have a Sheppach saw with their rip and crosscut blades and have no issues with their blades, but so far have not used it with material thicker than 12mm.
Thin kerf blades tend to be more prone to flexing because there is not a lot of metal in the disk to resist it.I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.
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31st July 2018, 12:07 AM #3Intermediate Member
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The original blade was a cheapy that had fewer teeth and the forums suggesting tossing it, so arguably it would be worse. But I might give it a go.
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31st July 2018, 01:06 AM #4Novice
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Looks like a "super thin Kerf" blade. I use to run a Diablo 80 tooth thin kerf blade on my table saw, and also got warp along a cut. Although it was a larger diameter blade, but I could visibly see the blade warp along a sheet of plywood.
I've replaced it with a thicker and some what more expensive CMT blade from Timbecon. What a difference a thicker blade makes to accuracy, the blade is dead straight along a cut with no visible or measurable warp.
It could well be the blade that's causing the issue.
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10th August 2018, 11:51 AM #5Intermediate Member
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Thanks for those replies. Doing more work with the saw and its driving me nuts. I'll look into the blades at Timbecon as I need an specialist.
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10th August 2018, 12:05 PM #6GOLD MEMBER
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I favour The Diablo blades in my battery saw as they cut with less effort and use them in my dropsaw as well for site work but yes they do flex
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10th August 2018, 06:50 PM #7SENIOR MEMBER
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Check your saw with blade mounted up for arbour float (looseness of drive/mounting/output shaft in & out). In inexpensive saws, it may not be the blade that's at fault at all...
Sycophant to nobody!
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31st March 2023, 04:12 PM #8New Member
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Diablo 254mm 10" 40 Teeth General Purpose
I bought the Diablo 254mm 10" 40 Teeth General Purpose blade and returned it the same day as was flexing upto 5mm each way on a new bench saw.???
Other blades seem to be fine, I'd say these blades are too thin, maybe better suited to battery powered thought a terrible blade for a bench saw.
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2nd April 2023, 10:31 PM #9SENIOR MEMBER
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The blade can't do anything more than the operator tells it to do. Even if the blade were bent and wobbled, it will still only go in a direction you push it in. The track is only a simply track. Only possible issue is it's bent, check that. Otherwise, it's the saw and the base plate doesn't align with the direction of the blade and it's binding.
Also. All the thin kerf blades flex a bit while cutting. Thicker the material and faster you go the more flex.
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3rd April 2023, 01:07 AM #10Member
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here in the colonies the Diablo blade are made by Freud.
I have a couple and they wobble and here is the reason I believe that creates that problem.
The blade metal is what i would say is relatively soft. The blades are fine as long as you don't get a kick back jamb a piece of wood.
In my case i had a piece of 12 mm ply fall onto the blade kick back at Mach 3. The blade from that was wobble city.
In a circular saw a blade catch is almost guaranteed and if you have a Diablo blade like my Diablo blade it will deform. Wobble city from there.
Just my personal experience with this blade brand if indeed we are talking about the same blade brand.
BTW if you can keep them straight / flat they make excellent smooth sharp cuts. Just don't challenge the blade axially.
calabrese55
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3rd April 2023, 11:40 AM #11
I have a diablo blade in my track saw (festool), no problems.
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3rd April 2023, 03:14 PM #12GOLD MEMBER
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not to sound harsh, but I think part of the problem is that its VERY cheaply made track saw, its going to have a questionable amount of quality.
this review on the bunnings website suggests a fix
The main pro with this is that it brings track saws to a *MUCH* more accessible price point in New Zealand. The next closest here is about twice the price. This saw *can* be used with a decent degree of accuracy, for some (but not all) classes of project. First - the stock blade isn't fantastic, but it does an acceptable job for many cuts. However, I recommend ditching it immediately before cutting your tracks with a blade that has a more common kerf, such as the Makita track saw blade. Second, I've tried three examples of this saw and every one of them was calibrated poorly out of the box for blade angles (reasonably easily fixable), and blade toe-in (very difficult to fix). If you have this saw and are wondering why you can't cut straight and true, or why your cuts are bowing despite the track being straight, toe-in is likely the issue. Unlike the Festool, this saw doesn't have straightforward adjustments for toe-in, but you can take a dremel to the four screw points that attach the tilt/plunge mechanism to the base and adjust it. This is eventually what I had to do to get a working saw. Ultimately, if you have the budget, I would recommend going straight to the Makita. If you don't have the budget, you need to be willing to put the time in to get this saw working, or alternatively you might end up taking back one or two examples before you get one that is actually usable.
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4th April 2023, 09:41 PM #13SENIOR MEMBER
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If they're thin kerf blades they'll always have flex and vibrate to a certain degree, which is also dependent on tooth rake. The blunter the teeth are the more the durable they are to dulling but overwhelming them, so they flex, is pretty easy.
Years ago I was working in a shop where we were ripping hundreds of feet a day. Our go to blade was called a wrecking blade with 8 teeth and had a real blunt tooth and the saw plate was 1/8" thick. These blades were built to take a beating and many nail and screw hits. But it took a lot of effort, relatively speaking, to push wood through it... I found an 8" blade called a sharktooth one day and threw it in the tablesaw to see how it would go. It was thin kerf and had very pointy tooth. It was crazy how fast we could push wood through it. In fact, we never found it's feed limit. But if it hit more than one nail if was ferked and had to be tossed. But back then they were really cheap so we would go through a few every day...
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13th March 2024, 10:01 PM #14New Members
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Hey Russell, hope you got this sorted. I'm replying to this thread incase I can help someone in the future. After owning the ozito for a year or two I decided to give it a service and blade change today. I bought a diablo 80t ultra fine finishing blade as soon as I got it.
It was only TODAY that I realised I had it I stalled backwards the whole time!!
The original blade had the decals facing outward so I just assumed that was the same orientation the diablo should go. When swapping out the blades today I realised the arrows on the tool and the blade were opposite. After looking at the blade I also realised the burn marks were behind the teeth 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Although it worked the whole time, I don’t know if my blade ever bent, but i definitely had issues with the tolerance being off by about 1mm. Now that I think about it there seemed to be a lot of burning lol. I just assumed it was because it was a cheap tool.
Anyway, bought a new Diablo 40T fine finish and installed it in the right orientation today (the decals face inward and plain red facing the same side as the nut/screw. The difference is NIGHT and DAY, and the alignment/tolerance seems so much more accurate. Lesson learned.
Will update here in here if I discover anything else.
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