How To Sharpen A Circular Saw

How to sharpen a circular saw correctly
To understand how to sharpen a circular saw correctly, you need to know how much tooth wear is on the top cutting edge. You also need to know the geometry of the tooth and the basic rules for sharpening.

Saw blade tooth geometry

Circular saws are made from durable grades of steel, on the body of which carbide plates are attached using a high-temperature soldering. The alloys for the manufacture of these solders can be different. Domestic manufacturers mainly use tungsten-cobalt alloys. Foreign manufacturers use their own technological compositions. The characteristics of a particular composition will depend not only on its chemical characteristics, but also on the size of the grain of the carbide phase. Small grain size will provide the highest parameters of hardness and strength that the material will have.

Circular saw teeth can have various geometric shapes. Among them, there are several basic forms:

Different discs for different materials.

  1. Straight tooth.
  2. Oblique tooth shape.
  3. Trapezoidal tooth shape.
  4. The tooth is conical.

Saws that have straight teeth are used for fast rip cuts. Over, the quality of such a cut will be quite low.

An oblique tooth can have a right or left angle of inclination. Very often circular saws can be made with alternately beveled teeth, i.E. When the teeth with the left and right angles will be repeated in turn. Such saws are used for sawing chipboard in the longitudinal and transverse directions. Such a constructive shape will avoid the appearance of various chips on the surface of the material being processed. The saw, the tooth of which is made in the shape of a trapezoid, can be used for sawing MDF material. The peculiarity of such saws is low wear of the tooth material and a fairly low cutting speed. Very often, trapezoidal teeth alternate with straight teeth, which are used for a cleaner cut.

Saws with tapered teeth are used for auxiliary work when trimming the upper or lower laminate layer. Such a saw will prevent the appearance of chips and preserve the surface of the processed material.

Sharpening rules

An oblique tooth can have a right or left angle of inclination.

To understand how to sharpen a disc correctly, you need to know that the main wear of its tooth occurs on the upper cutting edge. This edge is rounded during operation. The size of the rounded layer can be up to 0.2-0.3 mm. The front edge of the surface also wears out quickly.

To perform such work, you will need the following equipment:

  1. Sharpening machine.
  2. Pendulum goniometer.

The process of sharpening a saw with a straight tooth must be carried out on a plane located in front. To do this, it must be installed in a mandrel in a horizontal position.

Then, using the adjusting screws located on the sharpening machine, it is necessary to set the required angle at which sharpening will be carried out. The saw blade must be moved in such a way as to ensure the closest contact with the surface of the abrasive wheel.

The thickness of the layer removed from the material will be controlled by the pressing force. After the first tooth has been sharpened, the disc must be retracted from the grinding wheel. After that, it must be rearranged one step and continue the process. So you need to consistently sharpen all carbide inserts.

Sharpening the circular saw.

Sharpening of the beveled surface of carbide brazing can be performed both along its front plane and along its rear. The difference from sharpening the fillets of a disc with a straight surface will be that such a saw blade must be positioned at an angle that will correspond to the angle of inclination of the tooth.

To determine the required installation angle, you must use a pendulum goniometer. Initially, you need to set the angle with a positive value (8, 10, etc.). Sharpening must be done through the tooth, thus the first half of the disc plates are processed. Having completed this work, the required angle of inclination is changed to negative and the second half of the teeth is processed.

The back plane of the soldering is a little more difficult to sharpen. This requires a machine, the design of which will allow you to install the circular saw so that the rear plane of the saw teeth is parallel to the plane of the grinding wheel.

How to sharpen a circular saw correctly

The circular saw blade consists of a steel blade (blade body) and carbide-tipped inserts in the form of cutters, the shape of which can be different. To properly sharpen a disc, you need to know the geometry of the tooth and the basic rules for sharpening.

how to sharpen a circular saw

To sharpen a disc correctly, you need to know the geometry of the tooth, as well as the basic rules of sharpening.

How to sharpen: basic methods

There are two methods available for sharpening circular saws. Manual and machine. In order to sharpen the disc correctly at home, some nuances must be taken into account.

Instruments

Sharpening the saw with your own hands is allowed only with the use of special devices. For this, there is a grinding machine that helps to carry out the process on an automatic machine, and not manually. Then the result becomes more accurate.

In addition, other improvised devices are used for sharpening:

  • Mounting vise;
  • File;
  • A piece of wood.

It will not work to replace the listed devices. If at least one of them is not available, then sharpening will not work.

How to determine wear and tear?

Checking the saw blade for wear is an important issue that should be given special attention. Deep damage leads to the inability to sharpen the circle. There are three main signs by which you can understand that the saw needs to be sharpened or replaced:

  1. Excessive heating of the protective cover and formation of smoke. The circular saw has a special cover that signals when the saw is blunt by heating. In especially difficult situations, smoke may appear from it.
  2. Sometimes the saw device involves a mechanical feed (if you need to adjust the pressure with your own hands). In such a situation, wear can be noticed if the pressure has to be increased.
  3. If carbon deposits and a strong unpleasant odor are formed on the workpiece when sawing wood.

All the situations described above tell the user to sharpen the device.

Saw Sharpening Tips

Each tooth is sharpened with a file. Each of them has the same number of movements and equal pressure.

To sharpen a circular saw, you need to start from the surface that is at the back. It is this part that, during the implementation of the workflow, refers to the material that is being processed. It is preferable to sharpen the disc directly in the machine, but such an option is also quite acceptable when it must be removed for the sharpening process.

When it is necessary to sharpen the saw in the unit, the cord is pulled out of the socket (this must be done for safety reasons so that the unit does not accidentally start itself). It is necessary to wedge the disc, while on both sides wooden blocks are placed, they are tightly pressed against the saw teeth.

With a marker, mark the tooth that will be sharpened first. When sharpening the first tooth, it is necessary to remember the number of movements made by the file. This is done because all subsequent teeth must be sharpened with the same efforts and the number of movements must be the same.

So how do you sharpen your circular saw blades? If the disc for sharpening is removed from the machine, then it must be clamped in a vice (for this it is most advisable to use wooden dies). After that, you must follow the same procedures as described above. When the teeth are being sharpened, the disc must first be turned in a vice. It is much easier to do this than it might seem at first glance, you just need to follow the safety rules, otherwise all this can lead to the most negative consequences.

How to sharpen a circular saw correctly?

The circular saw is a very popular tool. In order for it to be as effective as possible, it must be sharpened regularly.

You can sharpen a circular saw both with a special machine and with the help of available tools.

What is needed for this?

  1. Vice.
  2. A block of wood.
  3. File.

It should be borne in mind that all circular saws need correct and timely sharpening, but those that do not have increased power should be sharpened especially carefully. The point is that a blunt disc increases the load on the electric motor. This is the result of the fact that it simply overheats quickly, and it becomes impossible to work with the tool, since it fails.

A circular saw needs urgent sharpening if it shows the following symptoms:

  1. Sawing requires considerable effort.
  2. The edges of the cut begin to burn, an unpleasant odor begins to appear, and dark spots appear from the saw teeth.
  3. The protective heating jacket begins to heat up very quickly (smoke may even appear when using such a tool).

What to consider when sharpening a saw?

After the procedure, the circular saw must be checked for uniform sharpening on a piece of wood.

After the sharpening of all the teeth has come to an end, the disc is inserted carefully into the machine. Then the machine is connected to the network and the unnecessary wooden block is sawn. If at the same time a lot of noise is observed or the material is fed unevenly, then it is imperative to check how much the teeth correspond to each other in height. This is done as follows: you need to bring a marker to the cutting edge, the disc turns a full turn in the direction opposite to the direction of rotation. Then the disc should be examined in the most careful way. Each tooth will then have a mark, so that you can identify those teeth that differ from each other in height. The height of the long teeth is neatly leveled with a file.

A circular saw is sharpened better on a special sharpening machine, but for home craftsmen this sharpening method is far from always available. Therefore, the most popular method of sharpening circular saws, carried out at home.

It should be noted once again that such a process should in no case be delayed, since otherwise the tool will simply quickly fail. And repair work can be very expensive, so it’s best to do everything initially, spending a small amount of time on it.

The fact is that such a tool can be called cheap with a big stretch, therefore, having bought it once, you need to make every effort to ensure that it serves as long as possible. And this is not difficult to do, you just need to regularly care for such a tool and then there will be no problems.

Circular from an angle grinder

If you have your own “angle grinder”, it is very good. To create a “circular”, you need to make an axial handle and a sliding stop to the unit. The design of the sliding stop includes a pair of steel angle pieces located on the sides of the saw blade. With the help of nuts and bolts, they are connected by a transverse bundle, and the gap between the working part and the sidewalls of the structure will be provided with washers.

On the “angle grinder” you need to pre-tighten the metal band clamp with a screw tie down. Then you need to attach the double-folded metal strip to the holes for the sliding stop. The stand and clamp can be combined, but in this situation the metal strip will be too thick.

Then, in the gearbox of the future tool, you will need to make several holes for the bolts. For this purpose, the body is disassembled, and the points where drilling will take place are indicated. With the help of the holes made, the axial handle is fixed, because the “standard” handle will not allow making a good cut, even if the master has very strong hands.

The handle is created from a metal tube or rod. Designs can be shaped like horns or braces. The ends of the element with which it will be attached to the gearbox must be provided with holes for installing fasteners.

You also need to make a barbell that will regulate the process. For this purpose, you need to take a piece of a metal rod, make a loop from one end of it, rivet it slightly and make a hole for the front stop bolt.

The other end of the rod needs to be threaded, which will allow you to connect it to the handle. In advance, one strong nut should be screwed onto this thread, and after the structure is assembled, the second. By lowering and pulling them, you can adjust the cutting depth. By the way, if you use a drill instead of an angle grinder, you can make a similar tool.

Thus, you can independently make a good circular saw out of an ordinary angle grinder, with which you can cut various materials.

How to make a stationary or manual circular with your own hands

A hand-made circular saw is an excellent tool that allows you to solve a large number of household and other tasks. In fact, it is not difficult to make this device on your own, even in that situation, if you do not have any special skills, the most important thing is to understand at least a little the principle of processing metal alloys.

The materials needed for the job can be found in the home workshop or in the garage. So, circular from a circular saw do it yourself is made of the following elements:

  • Corner of strong steel;
  • Rectangular shaped tube;
  • Engine.

The finished circular saw can be positioned on a workbench. If you don’t have one, you will have to make the table yourself. The engine can be taken from an old tiller or washing machine.

Compact benchtop machine

Above we talked about how to assemble a hand circular. Now we will tell you how to turn this device into a stationary one. This process involves the manufacture of a U-shaped bed from a pipe, as well as the installation of a transverse arm. The lower ends of the structure should bend horizontally in the direction of the cut. They are bolted to the table. Stability is provided by additional supports.

Lever mobility provided by cutting the horizontal segment into two identical parts, which are fixed to each other with clamps. The saw blade is attached to the vertical element of the bed with clamps.

How to make a stationary or manual circular with your own hands

A hand-made circular saw is an excellent tool that allows you to solve a large number of household and other tasks. In fact, it is not difficult to make this device on your own, even in that situation, if you do not have any special skills, the most important thing is to understand at least a little the principle of processing metal alloys.

The materials needed for the job can be found in the home workshop or in the garage. So, circular from a circular saw do it yourself is made of the following elements:

  • Corner of strong steel;
  • Rectangular shaped tube;
  • Engine.

The finished circular saw can be positioned on a workbench. If you don’t have one, you will have to make the table yourself. The engine can be taken from an old tiller or washing machine.

Compact benchtop machine

Above we talked about how to assemble a hand circular. Now we will tell you how to turn this device into a stationary one. This process involves the manufacture of a U-shaped bed from a pipe, as well as the installation of a transverse arm. The lower ends of the structure should bend horizontally in the direction of the cut. They are bolted to the table. Stability is provided by additional supports.

Lever mobility provided by cutting the horizontal segment into two identical parts, which are fixed to each other with clamps. The saw blade is attached to the vertical element of the bed with clamps.

Circular from an angle grinder

If you have your own “angle grinder”, it is very good. To create a “circular”, you need to make an axial handle and a sliding stop to the unit. The design of the sliding stop includes a pair of steel angle pieces located on the sides of the saw blade. With the help of nuts and bolts, they are connected by a transverse bundle, and the gap between the working part and the sidewalls of the structure will be provided with washers.

On the “angle grinder” you need to pre-tighten the metal band clamp with a screw tie down. Then you need to attach the double-folded metal strip to the holes for the sliding stop. The stand and clamp can be combined, but in this situation the metal strip will be too thick.

Then, in the gearbox of the future tool, you will need to make several holes for the bolts. For this purpose, the body is disassembled, and the points where drilling will take place are indicated. With the help of the holes made, the axial handle is fixed, because the “standard” handle will not allow making a good cut, even if the master has very strong hands.

The handle is created from a metal tube or rod. Designs can be shaped like horns or braces. The ends of the element with which it will be attached to the gearbox must be provided with holes for installing fasteners.

You also need to make a barbell that will regulate the process. For this purpose, you need to take a piece of a metal rod, make a loop from one end of it, rivet it slightly and make a hole for the front stop bolt.

The other end of the rod needs to be threaded, which will allow you to connect it to the handle. In advance, one strong nut should be screwed onto this thread, and after the structure is assembled, the second. By lowering and pulling them, you can adjust the cutting depth. By the way, if you use a drill instead of an angle grinder, you can make a similar tool.

Thus, you can independently make a good circular saw out of an ordinary angle grinder, with which you can cut various materials.