Spent 4 hours trying to fix a mitre saw that just needed a new blade

I was working on some crown moulding for a kitchen in Portland and my mitre saw kept burning the edges. Figured it was a alignment issue so I spent a whole afternoon tweaking the fence and the bevel stops. Got it 'perfect' on the gauge but the cuts still looked like garbage. Finally called a buddy who came over and just swapped out the blade. 10 minutes later it cut like butter. Has anyone else wasted a whole day on a problem that had a dead simple fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_patricia29d ago

Used to be the guy who'd blame everything but the blade. Spent two days once trying to square up a chop saw at a job site in Hillsboro, checking the fence with a square, adjusting the detents over and over. Turns out the blade was dull and had a chip in one tooth I didn't even see. Now I keep a couple spare blades in my truck and swap them out the second a cut starts looking rough. Changed my whole mindset on troubleshooting, start with the easiest fix instead of jumping to the complicated stuff.

dixon.spencer29d ago

I'm gonna push back on that a little, @the_patricia. You spent two whole days messing with the fence and detents before checking the blade? That sounds like you skipped the obvious stuff, sure, but calling a dull blade "the easiest fix" isn't always right. Sometimes the easiest fix is just cleaning the saw or checking the material isn't warped. A blade swap is cheap and quick if you have spares, but it also hides bigger problems like a bent arbor or a bad bearing. I've seen guys swap blades three times and still have a wobbly cut because they never bothered to check the motor mount. Blades get blamed too fast when the real issue is the tool itself. So I get your point about starting simple, but don't act like a fresh blade fixes everything.

robinj2912d ago

Three weeks ago I spent an entire Saturday adjusting the fence on my miter saw because the cuts were off, only to find out my dog had knocked the blade guard and bent the cheap blade I had on there. I felt like a genius when I figured it out, then felt like an idiot when I realized I could have just looked at the blade first. Now I keep a spare blade in the same drawer as my Allen wrenches so I don't have to admit to myself that I'm bad at troubleshooting.