Not What They Were Made For

Have a look at Lennox metal cutting blades. They have been available in Lowes in a 7-1/4" size for metal roofers and so on. They are not cheap but do a good job. If you need me to get a number for you let me know. I think they are available in various teeth and sizes online, but Lowes will only stock their common blade. About $50 IIRC. I put 22 squares (square= 100 sq. ft.) of decra stone coated shingles on my house and bought two blades and made it through with the original 1st blade, but like you say the blade was getting a little testy towards the end. There were two cuts per row of shingles and two valleys and a chimney to deal with. Was running blade on a variable speed shopsmith and had the rpm down to perhaps 2500-3000 rpm. Blade states it will handle standard circular saw speed. I figured it would cut that stone better at a slow speed, YMMV. Good luck with it Lyndell

Regrets, that you can't find the blades which work. I've also bought HF "Sawzall" recip blades, and find them worse than useless.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

Somebody gave me some HF blades and they were a joke. Stripped half the teeth on the first cut, and chipped most of the rest. Some of the stripped teeth came out clean, and some took part of the blade with them. Never saw a blade come apart so fast and so thoroughly before.

Here is the webpage link. My mistake earlier........lenox has only one n. :-) Watch the word wrap. Lyndell

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That's surprising; DeWalt is generally the one thing the local hardware and lumber yards can be counted on to have. I just bought a couple replacements a couple of weeks ago; afaict they're pretty much same as always if you want to just go internet mail order for something you're comfortable with.

No idea what somebody else may have local; we don't have the box stores so I can't go on what they have in stock 'cuz I don't know. :)

For medium price range, generally can't go too far south w/ Freud; higher dollar is Amana, Tenryu, Oshlun, Forrest, probably roughly in that order. I'd not abuse a Forrest that way, for example. :)

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On 5/9/2012 7:52 PM, dpb wrote: ...

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I'd suggest if use these this way a lot go ahead and buy a for-purpose Al cutting blade for the type of material and stock you typically use...

Not much different in price ranges from the wood blades...you can go from pretty cheap to pretty pricey.

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A little OT, but...

A while back I solicited the group for suggestions on quality hacksaw blades. Lenox was by far the leader.

And rightfully so, they FAR surpassed my wildest expectations!

Erik

The biggest problem with HF blades is the uncertainty. Some are good and some are crap. A while back they were selling 10" 50 tooth blades for $8 & I bought one. It was good enough that I bought a couple more. I'm still using the 1st one on my table saw & another one in the chop saw. Wood only, but there is an older HF blade that I've using for AL & it's not lost any teeth.

Not the quality of a $100 Forest (?) or Freud, but plenty good for my every day work.

Bob