Finally figured out I was using my circular saw blade backwards for 6 months

So I've been doing some framing in my garage and wondering why my cuts were always rough and the saw kept binding up. My buddy came over last weekend to help me hang some drywall and he just stares at my saw for a second. He goes 'uh, your blade's on backwards man.' I felt like a total idiot. The teeth were pointing the wrong way so it was basically scraping through the wood instead of cutting. Soon as I flipped it around the thing ripped through 2x4s like butter. Has anyone else had a moment where a simple fix changed your whole approach to a tool?

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.thea3d ago

Had a buddy who spent like a year fighting with his planer. Kept getting tearout and burn marks on every board he ran through it. He cleaned it, sharpened the blades, adjusted the depth, all that stuff. Finally took it to a shop and the guy looked at it for two seconds and said the feed roller was adjusted too tight. One twist of a screwdriver and it worked perfect. He said he almost cried thinking about all the wood he ruined.

jamiekim2d agoMost Upvoted

Feed rollers are one of those things people don't think about until they've already wrecked a bunch of lumber. I had a similar issue with mine where the rollers were actually grabbing too hard and compressing the fibers before the blades hit... that causes tearout every time. Once I backed them off just a hair, everything smoothed out. Also check your chipbreaker if you're still getting issues, that can cause burning if it's out of alignment with the cutterhead.