Arse!

[DiscoStu]

Used my saw to cut some previously used MDF. There were a couple of holes in it that had been used to hang it up. I wasn't aware that these had a metal eyelets in them. So hit them with my saw blade!

So my question what options are there for replacement blades for a Festool TS55?

Not sure what the best options are? Am I best to stick with Festool or are there cheaper options that are equally good or some much cheaper and pretty reasonable in quality terms?

Suggestions please.

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[joiner1970]

I've been using the stehle blades they are good.

There's a great company called sharp saws uk look them up they also sell on ebay

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[ear3]

Is Oshlun available in the UK?  Those are the cheapest aftermarket blades available here in the US.  Sort of blade that's good for MDF and other basic cuts.

 

[DiscoStu]

Thanks guys I'll take a look. I'll stick with Festool if it makes much of a difference but if there are cheaper blades just as good then I'll go for them.

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[monstrol]

If the blade still has it's teeth you should be fine. Somebody here told me the metal cutting blades use the same carbide although in a different configuration. If you are missing teeth a decent saw blade shop can repair it. Just saying...

 

[Roseland]

I had mine sharpened by Axminster.  They may we'll be able to replace chipped teeth too.

Andrew

 

[Davej]

Trend craft pro are good cheap alternative blades and last quite well
Dave

 

[Holmz]

Is the blade actually ruined?

 

[Alan Mack]

Screwfix had Freud blades that fit the 55. Havent checked recently but try them.

 

[mrboult]

Firstly - are you sure you knackered the blade? I've hit various metal thingys with my festool blades over the years and none have ruined a blade.

Secondly - I have tried a lot of other blades - mostly a few years back before the UK prices reduced and Festool blades can be found for about £30.  I never found a cheaper alternative than £30 that I rate as highly for cut quality (or at least continued cut quality beyond the first week) I've never tried to find more expensive blades either, as I'm happy with the Festo stuff.

I keep panther blades for rough works and fine blades for the neat stuff.

 

[pixelated]

The blade may well be ok, especially if the eyelets are non-ferrous, I accidentally cut through two stainless #8 screws with my miter saw, when recycling some 2x4 lumber. The blade and the saw survived.

Before replacing it, check each tooth to see if any carbide was chipped. If the quality of cut hasn't diminished, you should be good to go. Otherwise a sharpening would probably make it right. As for replacements, I'd probably buy a Festool blade. Over here aftermarket blades in that size aren't so common.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Definitely take it to your sharpener.  Replacing chipped carbide or missing/damaged teeth is a routine fix.  If your sharpener can't do this, then its time to look for a better sharpener.

Last time I had a blade replaced (about 5 years ago) it was $5 USD.

 

[Ross 71]

I know several people, more experienced than I, who reckon that it just isn't worth using anything cheaper than the genuine Festool blades. In agree with them.

My friend bought one of the Lidl plunge saws for £50. It cut ok. not brilliant, but ok. We tried it with my spare festool blade and the machine was transformed. Still had the fiddly depth adjustment, and horrible spindle lock, but it cut better than a Makita.

That said, I keep a couple of Lidl £3 blades for use on questionable timber. Rather them than £`12 a pop  to get my good blades resharpened

 

[Holmz]

[size=12pt]I know several people, more experienced than I, who reckon that it just isn't worth using anything cheaper than the genuine Festool blades. In agree with them.
...

What are those several people's "reckoning" based upon?

Festool do not make their own Carbide, nor do they personally braze it on,
Festool has their blade made by some manufacture, so the OEM branded ones may be the same as the magical "System blade"
It is offending our intellect to suggest that they are better with no basis "of why/how they could be better", having been presented.

I have used Mafell, Festool, Freud, Oshun and a couple of other blades in a '55 track saw.
While I have not quantified it, I 'reckon' that if it quacks like a duck it is a duck, and all the carbide tipped blades seem to work similarly...
Basically they all cut.

 

[mrboult]

^^^ Holmz, please can you supply a link for these OEM identical yet cheaper blades for my TS55.

If not, I will continue along on the basis that I have not found anything cheaper and better in the U.K. than the festool blades. A duck might be a duck but I've used some quack blades. .

 

[Holmz]

Not sure [member=22067]mrB[/member] where in the UK you find them, but maybe Ax-minster or similar have recommendations?
https://www.amazon.com/Oshlun-SBFT-160048-Crosscut-Festool-SP6000K/dp/B0030GGFRShttps://www.amazon.com/Freud-LU96R0...ie=UTF8&qid=1485309110&sr=1-5&keywords=160-mm+saw+bladehttps://www.amazon.com/Tenryu-PSW-1...ie=UTF8&qid=1485309110&sr=1-9&keywords=160-mm+saw+bladehttps://www.amazon.com/Forrest-WW16...e=UTF8&qid=1485309110&sr=1-15&keywords=160-mm+saw+bladehttps://www.amazon.com/AGE-STL160-5...e=UTF8&qid=1485309110&sr=1-24&keywords=160-mm+saw+blade

Some cost more $/GBP than the Festool ones and some cost less. And in the UK I suppose there are different options than the US/Amazon examples.

Ideally there would be some comparison between the various blades. Maybe cut quality and number of feet or meters before it goes bad?

 

[Ross 71]

Happy Australia day

I guess the "several people" base their opinion on personal experience. They back that opinion by paying the money and buying the festool blades. I don't know much about brazed carbide steel saw blades. Not enough to have any sort of technical discussion on the merits of one against another.

My own experience was a situation where we had a metal cutting bandsaw that cost a fortune in blades(blunted/snapped). We changed to Sandvik bi-metal blades, which each cost about 3 times what we had been paying. In the first month we spent half as much on bandsaw blades compared with the previous month. Those savings carried on. If you added in the downtime for blade changing, and downtime arising from delays in material coming from the metal store to the machine shop it made substantial savings. 

Now I can't possibly account for why/how these sandvik blades could have been better than the blades we were using before. I just know that the net result was positive.

For me, quacking like a duck all very well, but its got to look like a duck, walk like a duck and swim like a duck to convince me.

 

[Holmz]

Bimetallic sounds like two metals.
So presumably harder at the teeth and more flexible in the back.

A mono-metal, or homo(geneous)-metal is constant throughout.

The carbide tipped blades are like bi-metal. Which begs the question as to whether carbides are all duck like, or if they differ? (I know they can differ as I have some carbide chainsaw chains out of the impact resident type)

 

[NorfolkNgood]

If you buy anything other than Festool watch for the kerf! You may ruin your guide rail edge!

 

[GarryMartin]

Festool do not make their own Carbide, nor do they personally braze it on,
Festool has their blade made by some manufacture, so the OEM branded ones may be the same as the magical "System blade"
It is offending our intellect to suggest that they are better with no basis "of why/how they could be better", having been presented.

Festool have their blades made (by Leitz I believe) to their own exacting standards and design. One of the differences to many OEM branded alternatives is sure to be the variable tooth spacing used by Festool to disrupt the harmonics and to help prevent vibration in the blade and workpiece producing cleaner cuts with less noise. It's not unique to Festool, but some of the brands mentioned above do not use this technique.

I don't have personal experience with anything but Festool blades, so can't comment on how well the other blades may perform, but I did just want to point out one of the key differences I was aware of.

As someone else has noted, be careful with kerf widths too for tracksaws.

The image below is from a previous thread and highlights the variable tooth spacing/size and design on a Kapex blade.

Incidentally, the variable spacing also causes problems for some re-sharpening services so be sure to tell them your blades have variable tooth spacing and sizing when sending them in.

[attachimg=1]