Best track saw blade assortment for 5.5" blades

[smorgasbord]

I may be getting a lightly used non-Festool track saw: 5.5" blade

He said 20mm arbor,  but that has to be wrong - right?
What blades should I be getting?

I'll mostly cut and care about the quality of the cut for hardwoods, something thick (walnut, cherry, etc.).

I may do some hardwood plywood and will do some baltic birch.

 

[ear3]

5.5" -- is that a Bosch?  If so, it's conceivable that it uses Euro 20mm arbor standard, which is the configuration for the 160mm blades used on Festool and other track saws.

I use the goldilocks universal blade for most stuff with the TSC55 (so whatever is the equivalent for your model), and switch to the fine only for select cross-cuts and veneered ply.  Very rarely do I have to downshift to some kind of low tooth count blade, even for thick hardwood rips, but it's good to have one I suppose just in case.

 

[mino]

I may be getting a lightly used non-Festool track saw: 5.5" blade

He said 20mm arbor,  but that has to be wrong - right?
What blades should I be getting?

I'll mostly cut and care about the quality of the cut for hardwoods, something thick (walnut, cherry, etc.).

I may do some hardwood plywood and will do some baltic birch.

Makita does make Japan-only 125 mm mini circular saws, but those are not natively track compatible.

Then there are the Mafell KSS 300 / KSS 40 series saws which use 120 mm blades.

None with 140 mm are out there from the major brands, so it is very difficult to procure quality blades in those sizes. 160 mm is the "small saw" standard in Europe and 165 (6.5") is the US one. I would avoid anything that cannot take a 160 mm blade. You can run a 165 mm saw with a 160 mm standard blade. But not a 150 or 140 mm saw ...

There are a plenty of Chinese cordless circular saws on the market with 140 and 150 mm blades and 20 mm arbors. The use of non-standard blades limits them to the garbage level blades they ship with/sell with. This relegates even otherwise mechanically sound tools into "rough carpentry" category ... yes, each friend has one or two. Mostly gathering dust in their sheds for a lack of blades for them.

---
I would be careful and insist on a serious discount unless you have the blade situation sorted. With no good blades, a saw is practically useless for any semblance of quality work even if itself fine. Half of a good saw is a good blade.

 

[smorgasbord]

It would be a gift from a neighbor. They’re from England, so might be the Bosch cordless. Saw will be essentially free as they don’t do any woodworking or carpentry. Details light for now.

 

[mino]

Then take it .. keep note you do not (necessarily) have to use the maximum supported diameter blades.

Not sure how it is in US, but I can get 127 mm blades for such a saw, but not 140 mm ones from my local maker ..

If the saw has regulated speed, it can be used for plastics - smaller blade plus lower speed gives potentially lower linear speed. So even those 120 mm Mafell blades may be a good idea ..

 

[Coen]

There is the Bosch GKT 18V-52, has 140mm blade with 20mm bore.

You need the ProCore 5.5 Ah or bigger batteries with it to get it's maximum potential. With the normal 4.0 and 5.0 batteries it will be more limited.

But there is also the Parkside PPTSA, worth less as tool than one of the earlier mentioned Bosch batteries. Sold in the Lidl (discount grocery store).

Dewalt and Milwaukee each have a 12V powered 140mm saw too. But those aren't tracksaws.

Plenty of 140mm blades available anyway.

 

[smorgasbord]

[attachimg=2]Well, I got the track saw today. I's not the Bosch GKT 18V-52 I was hoping they had brought over from England, but a Chinese knock-off (Vevor) bought from Home Depot. I looked it up and it's about a $110 saw with case and no batteries/charger.

I don't think it's been used - a complicated situation I won't get into here - but they think it's past the HD 90 return window and they have no use for it. I'm "lucky" in that it takes Makita LXT 18v batteries, of which I have plenty (including a couple of US made compatible batteries, I guess that's a "US knock-off," eh?) so I could actually use the saw.

The saw proudly says "BRUSHLESS" on it and turns on and has a blade brake even. Depth appears to be about 50mm without track at 90º. It'll fit Festool/Makita/etc tracks. That 140mm blade is tiny, almost looks like something you might make for early teenager use.  The blade does say "140mm x 20mm x 1.8mm" so I'm assuming that's arbor and kerf. No riving knife and I doubt there's any kind of kick-back protection.

Since it's battery powered, I actually have one outdoor project to finish up that this saw would be good for, and it would be a fine saw to take to the lumber yard to cut down boards/sheets to fit in my pickup. Blades are hard to find - nothing from CMT, Ridge Carbide, Freud, etc. Bosch does, of course, make some blades. EDIT: After looking at the blades available, I removed 2 from the list since they weren't thin kerf (they were 2.2 or larger and not 1.8 or thinner), which I'll probably need to get the most out of this probably underpowered saw.
[attachimg=1]

Anyone have any clue as to which might be good to get? I'd want:
1) Plywood blade
2) Hardwood ripping
3) Hardwood cross-cutting

I'd keep the junk blade that came with the saw for lumber yard trimming of 2Xs, etc. Assuming it even cuts without danger.

EDIT: I'm thinking the $50 blade plus shipping isn't worth it.

Any other places I could order blades from for shipping to the US?

 

[smorgasbord]

OK, so it's past the return window and they really want to give me something for some help I gave them a while back.

The 2 blades I've settled on getting will cost be about $71 total. Not sure what to do.

I did try the saw out quickly on some scrap cherry. Can't cut the full depth on one pass, not surprising. But, with shallower passes, makes it through OK. Quality of cut on multiple passes isn't great, but again the blade is probably garbage. I guess I'll spend some money on blades and see where I go from here. Maybe use it to make tracksaw dovetails since the blade kerfs are pretty narrow.

 

[peter halle]

OK, so it's past the return window and they really want to give me something for some help I gave them a while back.

The 2 blades I've settled on getting will cost be about $71 total. Not sure what to do.

I did try the saw out quickly on some scrap cherry. Can't cut the full depth on one pass, not surprising. But, with shallower passes, makes it through OK. Quality of cut on multiple passes isn't great, but again the blade is probably garbage. I guess I'll spend some money on blades and see where I go from here. Maybe use it to make tracksaw dovetails since the blade kerfs are pretty narrow.

I love left hand blade circular saws. Unfortunately there are many corded versions around. I recently put new brushes into my 20 year old Porter Cable 7 1/4” and that will probably be the last saw (non track) I buy.

Peter