Saturday, February 12, 2011

What's The Best Saw Blade For Cutting Laminate Flooring?

This may surprise you, but the best saw blade for laminate flooring is an aluminum cutting blade. Here are the reasons:
  1. An aluminum cutting blade is made to take the impact of cutting hard materials and laminate flooring is about as hard as aluminum.
  2. Rather than having sharp points on the carbide tips like an ATB wood blade, that will dull quickly, it's a triple chip grind. It will stay sharp and continue cutting well much longer.
  3. With a negative rake angle, an aluminum blade doesn't put all the cutting strain on the end of the tips, so they glide through the material more easily.
  4. Laminate flooring often has aluminum oxide in it, which would chew up the points and edges of a wood cutting blade in a hurry.
Aluminum Cutting Saw Blades by Tenryu

Tenryu makes a wide variety of aluminum cutting blades, in numerous sizes, tooth counts and grades. Starting with their basic budget priced Alumi-Cut Series, to their longer-lasting, heavier duty Industrial Series and finally, the top of the line Pro Series for Aluminum. And any of them can be used on a table saw, miter saw, sliding miter or radial arm saw.

Which One Is Right For You?

If you're going to be installing your own laminate floor and no more, consider the Alumi-Cut 80 tooth for a 10" saw. Just $69.00.

If you're a professional installer, I'd suggest the Industrial Series. An 80 tooth 10" is $85.50 or a 100 tooth, for smoother, cleaner cuts is $91.50.

(There are several other sizes available, I just used the 10" as an example because it's the most common for this kind of work.)

For your hand-held saw, there are smaller sizes, too: 7-1/4" to 8-1/2". Cordless saw? They have blades for that, too. From 4" to 6-1/2".

For specifications, more information and to order one or more of these top quality blades, see Aluminum Cutting Saw Blades by Tenryu at JustSawBlades.

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