At the recent STAFDA trade show, Diablo Tools held a media event to showcase the latest in cutting and sanding accessories. It was not just a show-and-tell session; we were treated to a real-live sawdust-spewing, sparks-a-flyin’ demonstration of every product in a competitive duel with another brand. In the end, the most notable takeaway was that all of the circular and linear-edge saw blades shown have carbide teeth. We’re used to carbide teeth being the standard in circular blades, but carbide teeth on every type of recip blade is a relatively new and growing trend.
Circ Saw Blades
Recognizing the fact that more cordless 6 1/2-inch circ saws are making their way onto jobsites, Diablo now has a full line of blades to fit them. Besides wood-cutting blades in common use for framing, demolition, and finish work, the brand also makes specialty models for ultimate fine finish cuts in wood and for cutting ferrous metals, aluminum, and James Hardie composite materials.
The popular blades for framing and demolition have Diablo’s unique Tracking Point design, which features a symmetrically pointed spear tooth between every set of right and left cutting teeth. The spear point tooth serves to hold the blade straighter in the cut--resisting the sideways pull of the teeth shearing along the right and left sides of the kerf—to reduce the kerf size and cutting resistance.
Carbide Tooth Recip Blades
The big news in recip blades is the addition of carbide to a wider variety of blade types. Six different types of recip blades with carbide teeth are now available from Diablo, ranging from 3 to 20 teeth per inch. It all started in blades for demolition work in nail-embedded wood, and now Diablo is on its sixth version of this blade.
Newer carbide models include extra-fast cutting 3-tpi blades for clean wood and tree pruning, general purpose blades, and three different metal cutting blades: Thick metal blades for materials 1/8 to 1/2 inch thick (shown here), medium metal for 1/16 to 1/8 inch, and thin metal blades for metal less than 3/32 inch thick. Like the coarser-tooth blades, the carbide teeth are individually attached on the thick and medium metal models, but the tiny teeth on the thin metal blades are ground out of a strip of carbide that is attached to the body of the blade in one piece.
Carbide Tooth Metal Cutting
Cutting steel with abrasive cutting wheels is becoming a thing of the past, especially for cuts where precise results are important. The main advantage of using a low-rpm 14-inch dry-cut saw instead of a similar size abrasive chop saw is that the cut is cleaner and doesn’t heat up during the cut—thus avoiding the shower of sparks made by an abrasive blade melting its way through the cut. The 14-inch blades from Diablo come with two different tooth counts for thin or thick metals, and similar metal cutting blades are available in 7 1/4 and 6 1/2 inches for hand-held circular saws.
Mesh Sanding Disks
Along with saw blades, Diablo also makes hole saws, grinding wheels, drill bits, rotary hammer bits, and a wide variety of sanding abrasives. The latest sanding product is a line of 5-inch mesh abrasive disks for random orbit sanders. The nylon mesh material is tougher than paper and the properties of the open mesh let sawdust pass through it freely. This allows for dust extraction through more of the disk and keeps it from loading. The durable, waterproof mesh can be blown clean or even rinsed out if needed. Each pack of mesh disks comes with an interface pad to stick between the sander’s pad and the disk that is compatible with 5-hole, 8-hole, and other sander pads. The universal fit makes it easier to buy the proper disks for any kind of sander. 5-inch disks in grits from 80 to 400 are available now, with other sizes of disks and plain sheets on the way.
