Kapex plastic?metal saw blade

[rufino]

I recently purchased a new plastic/metal/laminate sawblade and used it to make a maximum of 100 cuts cutting Pergo flooring to length.  I made it through approximately 60 cuts before the blade started getting very dull.  Has anyone else had problems with Festool blades and short life?  I like the saw but at $140 per blade and only 60 cuts it is not worth it. 

I wrote to Festool a week and a half ago and have heard nothing.

 

[tbellemare]

Can you tell us which blade, by product number, you are using?

Tom

 

[Dunn wood]

Cutting through the top of any plastic laminate will dull ANY blade quickly.
Cutting with a table saw will increase the life of any blade, Miter saw you are cutting through the plastic, creating a lot of heat, table saw you are shearing the plastic. Hope this makes sense, but I know cutting laminate flooring with a miter saw is hard on any blade and in my experience using a table saw I get much longer blade life.

 

[tjbnwi]

I'm surprised you got 60 cuts before it was junk.

Tom

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Michael,

Welcome to the forum. I checked with my colleagues and found that we did receive your email from the website on 8/28 as 12:29pm. Brent called you at 12:40pm according to our phone records and believes he left a voicemail. I would suspect it was a voicemail since his call to you was only 40 seconds long.

The blade you purchased was the aluminum blade, 495385, according to your email to us. That blade is not designed for laminates. The laminate blade is 495386.

http://festoolusa.com/power-tool-accessories/miter-saws/blades/aluminum-plastic-68-tooth-saw-blade-495385

That may be a reason why the blade dulled quickly.

Shane

 

[rufino]

Shane,
Sorry for the delay in responding.  I did not get a phone message but may have received a call.  The 495 385 blade I purchased is designed for metals and hard plastics.  Laminate is a composite of paper and hard plastic.  I bought this blade rather than the laminate blade because I did not ever expect to use it for laminate again but wanted to be able to use it for aluminum as well.  It also looked like the only difference in the blade was the tooth profile.  The laminate blade had a tooth profile designed to produce a cleaner cut.  I was willing to give up the cleaner cut to have a blade that would do more things.  I am guessing that the plastic blade would have dulled faster because of the sharp tips on the ATB design. 

I used the Kapex saw for this job because I wanted a dustless cut as I was working inside an art gallery that still had work displayed. 

 

[MaineShop]

With our work we come across a lot of laminate flooring, I hate it personally but it seems to be the hot trend in our area right now. Must be some good marketing going on somewhere. Anyway we find it is always a blade killer, and in our experience the higher end the product the more glue and plastic goodness there seems to be to kill our blades. We don't use a Kapex but we do use miter saws for most of our installs and for a 1200 square foot install we can easily go through 2-3 blades on a 12 inch sliding saw. While not as pricey as the blade we are talking about here we tend to use CMT blades at work and they run us in the $100-$120 range.

We did find we had better luck with 12in blades over 10in on the laminate in terms of lifespan and all I can figure is it must have something to do with the blade heating up and dulling the carbide faster.

My advice Rufino, would be to accept that any blade that is used to cut laminate, will be dead at the end of the job, or set aside for when you need a blade for that "special cut". Or do what all my employees seem to do which is borrow one of my saws for a weekend and bring it back with a nice dull blade on monday.

Adam

 

[semenza]

With our work we come across a lot of laminate flooring, I hate it personally but it seems to be the hot trend in our area right now. Must be some good marketing going on somewhere. Anyway we find it is always a blade killer, and in our experience the higher end the product the more glue and plastic goodness there seems to be to kill our blades. We don't use a Kapex but we do use miter saws for most of our installs and for a 1200 square foot install we can easily go through 2-3 blades on a 12 inch sliding saw. While not as pricey as the blade we are talking about here we tend to use CMT blades at work and they run us in the $100-$120 range.

We did find we had better luck with 12in blades over 10in on the laminate in terms of lifespan and all I can figure is it must have something to do with the blade heating up and dulling the carbide faster.

My advice Rufino, would be to accept that any blade that is used to cut laminate, will be dead at the end of the job, or set aside for when you need a blade for that "special cut". Or do what all my employees seem to do which is borrow one of my saws for a weekend and bring it back with a nice dull blade on monday.

Adam

Plus about an extra 6" of cutting edge, assuming a proportionate number of teeth to circumference, and everything else being equal.

Seth

 

[wow]

Thanks for posting this - it's only 3am and already I learned something today.

I have a laminate project coming up soon and was totally unaware that it would destroy the blades like that!!! Do any of you use your Kapex for this task? If so, what blade do you use?

Or, would I be better off just using a portable circular saw with a good but relatively inexpensive (~$20) blade that I just throw away when they get dull? If so, any suggestions on brand or blade that has worked well?

 

[Kevin D.]

I've never used one of them, but I recall hearing of them in the past.  A shearer for laminate flooring.

http://www.bullettools.com/flooring/13-in-ez-shear-flooring-cutter

Not as expensive as I thought, but I have no idea if this brand is cheapo in its class or not.

I found it via tripping over this video....

http://kronotexusa.com/installation/installation-videos/during-installation-videos/how-to-cut-laminate-floor/

EDIT:  It's actually the cheapest in a line this company makes.

http://www.bullettools.com/flooring/laminate-wood-flooring-cutters

And their pricing may be MSRP's and not the price out there with distributors/retailers.

I wonder also whether you can rent it?  Maybe not at your local rent-all, but at a flooring specialist wholesaler.

2nd EDIT:  This one here is a beast....

http://www.bullettools.com/flooring/laminate-wood-flooring-cutters/20-in-magnum-flooring-shear

Cuts up to an inch thick and even has a laser.  It's like the Kapex for flooring guys.

(Cut and pasted from their website below/follows)

Features

No Dust - Fast cleanup, work inside
No Noise - Work early or late
No Electricity - Easy setup, environmentally friendly
Save Time - Safely cut where you work
One shear blade outlasts over 20 saw blades
Strong, lightweight double I-beam construction
Laser guide for precision cuts
Built-in ruler and movable fence for 45° (up to 14 in. or 500 mm wide) and 90° cuts
30-day satisfaction guarantee
5-Year Warranty
Made in U.S.A.
Cuts

Maximum thickness of 25mm or 1 in.

Laminate Flooring
Commercial Vinyl
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Parquet
PVC Tile
Rubber Cove Base
Rubber Tile
Soft Plastic
Wood Flooring, Engineered (most)
Wood Flooring, Solid (most)
Specifications

Cut Width: Up to 20 in. (508mm)
Cut Depth: Up to 1 in. (24mm)
45° Angle Cut: On 14 in. (35cm) wide product