Inexpensive Oldham blades – any good?
Was in my local HD yesterday, and noticed they had Oldham 10″ saw blades on sale. I think they might be closing them out the way they were displayed. Anyway the 24 tooth combination blades were $12.95, the 40 tooth combination blades were $16.95 and the 60 tooth combination blades were $19.95.
Now I’m sure these aren’t in the same league as a Forrest blade or maybe even a Freud but the price seems good.
Should I grab a few or pass?
Replies
well it is all what you want the blades for. If you do a lot of demo and framing sure get them use them up and toss. but if you do more finishing work I would stick with the better blades.
What kind of demo are you doing with a 10" blade? (:-) I think those prices were kind of high for sacrifice blades.
I have a 10" circular saw. old reliable
i use a 80 tooth mitre saw blade it works great
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Oldham has three different quality/price designations. I forget the names and colour of package stripes, but you can bet that if you saw them in HD, it is the runt of the litter
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I saved a few bucks and gave one a try.
I returned it several hours later for a full refund because 3 teeth disappeared.
Days later I was back in HD and the same blade missing 3 teeth was hanging on the blade rack.
So thats what happens to the stuff returned to HD.
Gord
I'll second that!
Bought one Oldham 24 tooth circ saw blade from HD several years ago...good price...didn't last 5 minutes on the job!
I stay as far away from them as possible now!Jason Pharez Construction
Framing & Exterior Remodeling
I got some Oldhams at Menards and have not had a problem with them.
That's been my experience with oldhams.
The old oldhams, the steel blades were great. I used to circulate a hundred or so of them. When the industry went over to carbide, Oldhams just don't measure up. I think their tips are to soft and one nail will ruin them. That won't work for me-I often intentionally use my power to cut nails and staples.
blue
Thanks guys. I guess I'll pass on that deal!
On a (kind of) similar note, I'm planning to cut about 800 lf of MDF molding this weekend. My old blade is pretty much dead, and I don't want to break in one of my new blades on MDF, so I tried using a 7 1/4" 40 tooth Freud blade in my table saw. It only gives a 1.5" depth of cut (which will still go through a 2x if I need it to), but leaves a great finish, has a 1/16th inch kerf (which means half the dust), and only cost fifteen bucks. Oh, and because I don't exactly have the greatest saw in the world (Delta Shopmaster), it lets me feed at a decent speed without worrying about the saw bogging down.
Just recalling an old post made here years back regarding cheap carbide saw blades.
Someone was remarking on the occurrences of seeing the individual carbide tooth tips go flying off the blade when in operation.
Just a word to he who has ears to hear.
be a flying projectile
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
soft carbide.. won't stay sharp very long.. blade bodies don't seem to cope with heat that well...........
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
All I know is I can buy 20 Marathon blades (7 1/4") for less than $7 each...why save less than $1 a blade for inferior blades.
OTOH, if you only need one or two blades, why not spend a little extra and get a Diablo or something like that.
Either way, it boils down to ROI, ya know.
(This is LOL BTW, no hard speech intended ;-))Jason Pharez Construction
Framing Contractor
did you know that Diablo's are about the same as Oldhams.......Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!