Good Blade For Panel Saw

[Erik Sine]

Anyone have any good saw blades they use for cutting clean acrylic & especially Lexan? I need one for my 8" panel saw blade. I'm guessing more than 60 teeth, i've been using a 40 tooth blade and it cuts okay for acrylic but as soon as I cut poly-carb it kicks it back or blasts it. I have a 80 tooth on my table saw and it cuts poly-carb great but it's a 12" blade, and more room for teeth.

[USSSharpe]

Anyone have any good saw blades they use for cutting clean acrylic & especially Lexan?  I need one for my 8" panel saw blade.  I'm guessing more than 60 teeth, i've been using a 40 tooth blade and it cuts okay for acrylic but as soon as I cut poly-carb it kicks it back or blasts it.  I have a 80 tooth on my table saw and it cuts poly-carb great but it's a 12" blade, and more room for teeth. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi WSG-

I normally use a 60 tooth carbide tipped blade. It cuts through all substrates beautifully. Now, Lexan is a different animal. On a table saw the Lexan cuts great with 60 or 80 tooth blades but I thnk its the way the sub is pushed through and the amount of blade that is up. On a panel saw the weight and natural curvature of the Lexan makes it easier for the blade to pull the sub as its cutting causing it to bounce and shatter. If you could adjust the blade on the panel saw to only extend beyond the thickness of the sub it would be great cuts, I think. I am unable to do that so if my cuts are vertical I just put a scrap piece of pvc or mdo IN FRONT of the Lexan and that stops the Lexan from being pulled and shattered.

Hope this helps and it makes sense with my rambling :beer:

[Erik Sine]

On a panel saw the weight and natural curvature of the Lexan makes it easier for the blade to pull the sub as its cutting causing it to bounce and shatter. If you could adjust the blade on the panel saw to only extend beyond the thickness of the sub it would be great cuts, I think.  I am unable to do that so if my cuts are vertical I just put a scrap piece of pvc or mdo IN FRONT of the Lexan and that stops the Lexan from being pulled and shattered.

Hope this helps and it makes sense with my rambling :beer:

That's exactly what happens too. I think I saw in the site where my panel saw comes from they make a fence that pushes the stock up against the rails firmly, maybe I need to try that. There's a couple of plast suppliers here that use panel saws too, i'll need to pay more attention to how theirs is set up.

thx for your input :smile011:

[Travis]

McMaster Carr has a blade that we use to cut plastics, pvc and any other soft material that a regular blade might chip. Its a carbide-grit edge saw blade on page 2219 of catalog 111. The blade will last for years. I started here in '95 and just a few monthes ago bought a new blade(probably could have used one earlier but the thing still kept cutting) due to warping. We use the blade primarily for the panel saw but everynow and then use it in a circular saw.