A circular saw is one of the handiest tools you can have at home.
You might have seen this tool being used in many DIY videos. With the right blade, this tool can cut through various materials.
But it can indeed get troublesome to change and tighten its blade.
It is necessary to tighten the blade properly for safety reasons. So, how to tighten circular saw blade? You might be interested in knowing the answer.
You, as an owner, should ensure to match the correct blade and tighten the blade in a circular saw following the proper protocols.
If your saw has aged, its ability to tighten the blade might decrease.
Here, we will discuss a few things to keep in mind while tightening the saw blade so that you can use this article to do it yourself.
So, let’s get started!
How to Tighten Circular Saw Blade? | Steps to Keep in Mind!
Following are the steps to tighten circular saw blade.
1. Proper Blade Size Selection
The first step while looking at how to tighten circular saw blade is the proper size or diameter of the blade.
It is the measurement from side to side through the blade’s center.
- You can find the diameter of the blade size as it is usually printed on your saw.
- You will need to measure the size of the blade if it is not printed in the saw or if a printed side of the blade has been worn out due to frequent use.
- First, you’ll need to remove the blade from the saw, measure the diameter, and use this measurement to buy the blade of the proper size.
- Another measurement you need to know before buying a new blade is the arbor diameter.
- It is the diameter of the center hole of the blade as it needs to fit on the shaft or arbor in your circular saw.
- Arbor size is also printed on your saw or saw blade.
- If it is worn out, you will also need to measure the diameter of the arbor hole.
- Or you can take the old saw blade for reference and find it in a hardware store to ensure the new blade fits.
- Now, the last thing you need to look out for is RPM or revolutions per minute.
- Make sure that your new blade’s maximum RPM rating does not exceed your saw’s RPM rating.
Now, let’s move to the next step.
2. Proper Blade Type Selection
The second step while tightening a circular saw blade is selecting the required type of blade.
- You need to know how many teeth you want in your blades.
- Typically saw blades with more teeth cut slowly but produce cleaner cuts, and blades with fewer teeth cut quickly but usually make rough cuts and ends.
- Knowing the blade type you want to make a good cut is necessary.
- The typical cuts that need to be made in a material (like wood) are rip-cut and crosscut.
- A rip cut is made with the grain of the wood or along the length of the board.
- But a crosscut is made across the wood grain or the board’s width.
- For rip cut, you might want to use blades that have fewer teeth, less than 40. You can see the teeth of the rip-cut blade and notice tops of the teeth are flat.
- For crosscut, you might want to use blades with more teeth that are more than 40. You can see the tops of the teeth are formed in the shape of the valley, i.e., ‘v’ at the blade’s center.
The next step is to ensure that your circular saw is in good condition.
Related article: How to Unlock a Craftsman Miter Saw
3. Ensure Your Circular Saw Is in Good Condition
Ensuring that your circular saw is in good condition is crucial in tightening the blade.
- As we know, with the bad condition of the saw, it gets difficult to tighten the blade.
- Even if we have the correct size of blades selected for our convenience, it will be difficult to tighten them if the saw is rusty and old.
- Often these blades don’t tighten because saws are old, dusty, rusty, and quickly get worn out, from the gearbox to the blade itself.
- So, ensure your saw can tighten adequately and won’t get worn out.
For this, you need to clean your circular saw often. Using cleaner for your circular saw after removing the wood pitch after every use is essential.
Cleaning your blades and saw to maintain the tools for a longer life span is the way to go.
4. Correct Saw Direction
The third step while tightening a circular saw blade is to tighten it in the correct direction.
Always follow the necessary safety precautions when troubleshooting the potential causes of your circular saw not tightening.
Keep your saw unplugged while you’re inspecting it.
The steps are:
- A printed or engraved arrow can be seen on almost all circular saw blades. Insert the blade into the saw in the same direction as this arrow indicates.
- The circular saw’s front should be in the direction the arrow points. The teeth must face the front of the saw if you don’t see an arrow.
- It is usually a good idea to read the user handbook for your circular saw before tightening the blade.
- The directions for tightening the blade on your saw can be slightly different from those for other models.
- If your directions differ from the ones discussed, you need to look at the handbook.
- Adjust your blade following the guidelines in the manual.
- If your circular saw has a shaft lock, you can use it to ensure your circular blade doesn’t move.
- If your saw lacks this feature, you can keep your blade in place while tightening the arbor using a vice or clamp.
Now, let’s see how to actually tighten the blade.
5. Tightening the Blade
You can follow these steps to tighten the circular saw blade:
- As a general guideline, tighten your blade in the opposite direction from how it typically rotates.
- This will indicate which way to turn the arbor nut.
- The blade will keep unscrewing the bolt if the nut is tightened in the same direction as it turns.
- It would help if you used a wrench to support the nut’s rim when tightening this bolt.
- Doing this may stop it from turning and help you successfully tighten the bolt.
- With your other hand holding the appropriate tool, turn the nut in the opposite direction from the way the blade is spinning after you have tightened it with your wrench.
- Right-hand thread is what most screws have.
- To tighten or loosen these screws, you must spin them to the right and vice versa. The expression “righty-tighty, lefty-loosey” might be familiar to you.
- But the screw which tightens the blade to a circular saw has a left-hand thread. So, the saying “righty-tighty, lefty-loosey” doesn’t hold in this case.
- That means the screw must be rotated to the left to tighten a circular saw blade.
Watch this video to find out how to tighten a circular saw blade:
That would be all. Now, let’s move toward the conclusion.
Conclusion
This article guides you step-by-step on how to tighten circular saw blade.
Five actionable steps are presented, which help you tighten the blade in your circular saw by yourself.
Ensuring safety while tightening the blade is of utmost importance, as it can keep you safe from hurting yourself.
Also, the blade of the proper size and type must be selected for the best results. And the saw must be in good condition for smooth operation.
I hope you liked the article!
Regards.