Do you own a dull miter saw? Well, you need to know that if your miter saw has a dull blade, then you will never get perfect cuts. The more you use the machine, the blunter your blade becomes. Even if your blade is sharp today, with time, after some uses, it will get blunt. With that in mind, you need to sharpen the blade to make sure that the edges are able to cut easily and quickly. Besides, sharpening a blade takes less time. In fact, you only need about fifteen minutes to complete the sharpening process and get back to work.
Here are tips on how to sharpen a miter saw blade!
Get the right tools to sharpen the blade
To begin with the process, you need to get the right tools to sharpen the miter saw blade. Some of the most important tools include a crayon file, a diamond file, and a workbench that has mounted clamps. Once you have these tools, you are now good to go!
Unplug the miter saw from the power
Working on a miter saw while still connected to the power is very dangerous. Even if the power button is off, accidents do happen and the saw might go on accidentally and that is very dangerous. Unplug the miter saw from the power cord. If the saw is cordless, remove the batteries. After that, raise the cutting end on an upper place. The cutting head is where you will find the handle and the blade.
Remove the blade
The first thing to do is to remove the blade from the machine. It is impossible to properly sharpen the blade while on the saw. Once you remove the blade, place it on the clamps on the workbench.
Mark the teeth of the blade
Marking the blade’s teeth is very important. Before you start sharpening, you need to mark one tooth with a crayon to know the starting point. You should not sharpen a single tooth twice, and marking a starting tooth will help you know once you are done sharpening all the teeth.
Sharpening the blade
Once you finish with the preparatory steps, the next thing is to start the sharpening your saw blade. Make sure you sharpen the teeth one after the other. Take your diamond file and put it at the bottom front side of the blade, pick the first tooth. To file effectively, move the file forward and upward, effortlessly along the edges. Make sure the face of the file is on the flat part of tooth’s thickness. Following the same method, run the file effortlessly over the upper side of the tooth that is flat. Never touch the point as you sharpen.
Move on to the next teeth
Repeat the above process on all the teeth until you reach to the one with a crayon mark. When sharpening, avoid touching the sharpened surfaces. Once you are done with one side, turn to the other half of the miter saw blade. You can easily do this by repositioning the blade on locks and continue sharpening the remaining teeth as you did with the first half. Once you get to the tooth with a crayon mark, then you should know that your sharpening process is complete.
Once you are done sharpening, you can now install the blade on the miter saw and get back to work. Start cutting with the blade and see better results than before. Take a piece of wood or board and cut to see is the cuts are right. If the blade needs more sharpening, you can easily follow the above steps, and if okay, then enjoy getting clean and precise cuts.
There you have it. Sharpening a miter saw blade is that simple. As we said earlier, saw blades are prone to getting dull after a long time of use. However, now that you know how to sharpen the blades, you can easily make the cut as good as new. All you need is to follow the above steps. While there are other methods of sharpening a miter saw blade, the above sharpening method is easy to follow, very effective, and does not call for much equipment’s.