Necessary Tools: Part 1 Power Saw
The most used (and most dangerous) tool I’ve been using in my house renovations has been,
by far, my father’s industrial grade Delta Compound Miter Saw. It’s a useful table tool that combines the perfect-angle-making abilities of a Miter box and a hand saw with the super-awesome-in-your-face-power of a Chop Saw.
Lesson 1: When sawing anything - Never use a dull blade - unless you really want it to hurt.
One problem we ran into with my father’s model, was that in the 10 years he owned it he only changed the blade once…big bad no-no! Different types of blades are important to different types of work. My father only used his for cutting laminate flooring - something I’ll talk about another time - which was fine, since that’s what I needed the blade for. Unfortunately, the blade had been very dull for a very long time and even Dad forgot how smooth it was supposed to cut.
I replaced the flooring in our bedroom using the old blade, when I cut into the laminate it was a slow feed through the board which produced a lot of choking smoke and burned saw dust. Since it was “laminate” and not wood and I was warned about it being difficult to cut, I proceeded to finish the room that way, THIS IS WRONG.
The smoke and burned bits were being caused by friction (fairly obvious to anyone with a 5th grade education) which is minimized by a very sharp and smooth edge. As the blade wears down, unlike rocks in the ocean, it gets more jagged. A Microscopically rough surface develops and kills the cut, causing lots of friction, heat, and smoke. This is when it’s time to change the blade. And remember always check the directions for the tool before attempting to service it anyway.
In our case, the bolt was stuck fast. I had my father come by to help and after messing about for a bit, in the wrong direction, the bolt snapped - best of luck to Dad on that one - needless to say, Mom’s pissed - she bought it.
So we went out and bought our own.
This one is lightweight, a bit smaller in presence but still a 10″ blade.
Lesson 2: It’s gonna jump.
There actually is no warning in the instructions, they expect if you’re using this tool you know what you’re doing, but the damn thing jumps, I’m mean JUMPS.
You have to be careful, once you lay your material down when you pull that trigger the blade will start and that baby is going to jump right out of your hands. Hold you wood and base of the saw firmly and ALWAYS make sure you’re hands are well away from the cutting plate.
Now I would have thought the smaller, lighter variety would jump more, not true. My Dad’s 30+ lbs. unit had incredible jump, sometimes a little hard to ready for, and has ruined some cuts on my Dad when he was using it without bolting it down. BTW, Most Compound Miter Saws can be bolted to a table and come with the necessary hardware. This new smaller model I got is only 15 amps, and is a lot lighter resulting in a less powerful jump with less to hold down - I still screwed up my first cut, but every girl makes mistakes.
Lesson 3: F*ck Sears.
Thom’s partial to Sears, he used to be the Receiving manager for one of their Hardware Stores way back in the day, and loves Craftsman Tools - too bad he never built anything with’em… ‘cept for that Bong for your mom *back in college…
Anyway, we purchased this model online for in-store pick up, with a coupon, and when we got to Sears later that evening there was no record of purchase in their system. They do not list their time-frame for online purchases, nor could anyone give any answers, nor did anyone offer us satisfaction in anyway or offer to look into the issue. We buy almost everything online and use the in-store pick up option whenever possible. In this day and age if a retailer can’t keep up with the online options THEY CHOSE to offer… well… that’s… ah… that’s… that’s a paddlin’. Sears = FAIL.
That concludes my lecture for the day.
So remember kids, fresh blades, lots of caution, buy American.