Hotspotoutdoors

Scared the bejeezes out of me! Fired up the table saw the other day and something hit me in the ear, HARD! I had no idea what it was. A buddy looked at the blade and in just about 5 seconds he said "Here it is." A carbide tip had come off. He told me it was pretty common, I'd never heard of it.

I was not wearing safety glasses (I know, I'll never do it again I swear) and the tip could have hurt me bad.

Is this really that common? I use them on my Skill saw too and now I'm a little worried about it.

1st for me also...
I use a table saw almost every day at work and have used saws all my life.

Never heard anything about it before.

Never heard of that happening before, been a carpenter for 30 years. What brand blade was it.

Let the company know about it and they will put a check on that fault.

Carbide tips coming off isn't rare but not very common. Carbide maybe hard but it can fracture easily. Be carefull when you change blades and rest your blade on a piece of scrap wood (not a cast iron table top). BTW router bits are suceptible to this too.

i've seen alot of broken/chipped carbide teeth. the better the blade the less likely it is to happen, as well as paying attention to what you cut through (nails, screws, ect)

Freud has been a good blade and router bit for me. no complaints

Ouch! The rim speed of a 10" table saw is just over 100 MPH so that tooth was moving! Again a good reason to wear safety glasses.

Never had it happen to me, yet. Ive been very happy wih my Freud blades.

used carbide tipped blades for years, never had a problem. might have been a fluke or bad blade.

Buy a better grade blade if you can-skimp on something else. And ALWAYS wear your safety goggles. ALWAYS! We all admit they are a PITA but you could end up like one of my old pals.....he found he does not shoot a shotgun nearly as well now that he only has one useful eye. Ask HIM about wearing safety goggles.

I'm a Freud guy too. But I've used a variety of carbide-tipped blades for nearly 30 years of home renovation and finish carpentry and never had that happen.

Dang scary indeed! Makes a good case for a Lexan face shield instead of just safety glasses/goggles. I ALWAYS wear safety glasses when using the table saw. If I can't find the glasses, I don't flip the power switch on the saw.

Not so sure quaility of the blade has a lot to do with it, I'd think what you saw may have though, nails, stones, dirt, etc are all hard enough to cause a carbide tooth to chip or crack.

I remove blades often enough that I usually give them a once over before putting away, and when I clean them they get a look with my lighted magnifing glass.

I started all this right after I bought a used Woodworker 2 blade at a garage sale and had a piece come off, didn't hit me but it made eye protection manatory, along with the ear protection I had been wearing.

Stuff happens to fast in woodworking to not wear protection, both eye and ear.

Al

Great to hear you didn't have a serious injury Donbo.

I'm just as bad at wearing safety glasses because I wear glasses.

Not a good excuse for me. We all need to wear them.

We don't take the time for safety and after we lose an eye, its to late.

It's my job too and I have not had that happen. I do see them wear off hitting nails and stuff all the time, cutting through shingles putting in roof vents ect. But to just fly off, never. I would be lost with out them. Yep the glasses thing is a must. Glad it didn't get ya.

Never seen one fly off in a case like yours. Table saw commands enough respect as it is. That's a bummer. I have blades I keep for when I know I am going to hit things that a good balde does not need to hit. They get all messed up by nails, screws and thinkg but even then it takes a bit for the carbide to break away.

I've only seen one blade shed the inserts. Neighbor drilled the arbor out to 1" and installed a craftsman carbide tipped blade to his brushcutter. They spin at about 15,000 rpm, I believe most blades are rated at 6-7000 rpm. Anyhow, the when he wound up the trimmer ALL the teeth came off and one tooth caught him in the shin. The carbide made it halfway thru the bone, surgery took it out the rest of the way. He learned a very painfull and expensive lesson about improperly using tools.

Now THAT'S scary!

I used to do custom woodworking for a living and saw a few scary things happen. One day a friend was running the shaper with a slip knife head and had one of the blades come out at 10,000 RPM. It hit him at stomach level and luckily he was wearing one of those big belt buckles and that took the hit. The impact almost knocked him over, and the buckle was cut and bent where the knife hit.

ya take it from a guy with one eye avatar was no good!

I've seen it on a blade missing carbides but never have been hit by one myself. My pops was a shop teacher and he really didn't use to many carbides in his shop at school. We have them on a few of our saws at home and I use them on most all of my saws now. I think it is a fairly uncommon thing though. But that is why one can't be too careful.

What the heck was he doing? Doesn't he know how to use a chain saw?