Whether you’re replacing your blade or taking the old one off to sharpen it, removing a circular saw blade and reinstalling it can be a tricky and annoying task that takes forever if you use the wrong technique, but it’s easy to get the work done quickly, when you know how to do it correctly. Following this guide will help you safely remove your circular saw blade out of its place in no time.
Purpose of Removing a Circular Saw Blade
The main purpose of removing a circular saw blade is to either change the blade with a new one or to sharpen the teeth of the existing saw blade. The circular saw blades are attached to an electric motor and spin at high speeds. Blades are used to cutting lumber, plexiglass, wood, sheet metals, and many other types of materials. However, over time the teeth of the circular blade can get dull, and it can reduce the effectiveness of cutting and can increase the time of cutting with it. There are also instances when you might accidentally crack it. And to solve this problem of the dull or cracked blade, it is required to either change your circular saw blade or sharpen the teeth of the existing circular saw blades by removing the blade from its housing for maintenance. Since it is kept under high tension, removing it can be dangerous. Circular saw blades come in many sizes and shapes; if you don’t remove yours correctly, serious injury can occur. Luckily, with proper care, anyone can remove their circular saw blade safely. With proper instructions and guidelines on how to remove your circular saw blades, you can get through everything without any hassle and can remove the blades in the following ways.
Things You Should Know before Removing the Circular Saw Blade
There are many different circular saw blades available. Each provides a specific advantage for specific types of materials, but every circular saw blade shares some common steps for removing the blade from the machine, and before knowing how to remove a saw blade, you must know the parts of the circular saw blades and what are they called.
- Shafts: The shaft is the whole in which bolts are driven in
- Washer: Washers are the piece of metal added in between bolt and shaft for tightening the blade
- Bolt/ Blade stud: Bolts are large screws used for attaching and keeping the blade in its place.
- Upper guard: The upper guard is to protect the user from any cut. It is a round-shaped piece of metal is used in the upper side of the blade
- Lower Guard: The lower guard provides safety and precision in work and lies beneath the blade
- Locking button: It is a button used for locking the free movement of the blade
How to remove the saw blade?
Step one: unplugging and removing the power
The first task of removing a saw blade is to remove the battery of the saw blade or to unplug the cable for safety purposes. If by any chance the plug is on, or the battery is left in it, then it can cause serious wounds and even losing fingers. It is quite possible to accidentally press the power button while trying to remove the blade, and it can cause serious injuries., it is important to disconnect the power supply to eliminate this risk. You should also be careful about your hand’s safety. It is suggested to wear gloves while removing the saw blade.
Step two: Locking the saw blade
It is important to lock the free movement of the saw blade for removing the bolt safely without any harm and difficulties. In most circular saw blades, a blade locking button is attached behind the upper guard. What you need to do is press that locking button and rotate the blade in the direction of the arrow sign given there; after a certain rotation, the blade will be locked. Some locking button requires a single push, and some require pushing hold and rotating the blade for locking. Whatever option your saw blade has, you can lock it in the suggested way.
Step three: Remove the bolt
Placing the saw blade in a place where it is easy to remove the bolt. Your saw blade must have a wrench to remove the bolt and change the blade. To remove the bolt, you need to attach the wrench in the bolt head and rotate in the direction where the arrow indicates to loosen the bolt. Rotating the bolt in the wrong direction can make it tighter and hard to remove the bolt. It is possible that the bolt may not move because of junk. In that case, put a neodymium magnet in the bolt head after attaching the wrench and use a small hammer to slightly strike on the wrench to remove the bolt.
Step four: Remove the outer washer and lift the lower guard
After removing the bolt successfully next step is to remove the upper washer adjusted to the shaft and located beneath the bolt. It will set the saw blade free for removal, but because of the lower guard, it is quite possible that you might not remove the blade at all. And for that, you have to remove the lower guard from its place. In most, the circular saw blade lower guard could be lifted up using a lever, but if you’re lower guard has no lever in the saw body. You might require removing the lower guard with a screwdriver or wrench, and after removing the lower guard, your blade will be free to remove with your hand. And now you can have your blade removed for replacing or sharpening the old one.
When you should not remove it?
You should not remove your blade in cases such as
- When you are required to remove the saw blade, but you don’t have the safety gloves and don’t know how to remove the battery of the saw blade or how the saw blade is plugged in. The main point is, don’t try to remove the saw blade without your safety measures.
- When the blade has no broken teeth or the blade is not dull yet, don’t remove the blade
- When you don’t have the appropriate blade for a specific material, and the new blade does not match with the old one, it is not recommended to remove and change the existing one
Bottom line
These basic steps will allow you to remove your circular saw blade without any hassle. There are many types of saw blades available from different brands in the market, no matter what brand you have in your tool kit. Basic steps of removing circular saw blades are applicable in all of the available saw blades as every brand shares almost the same type of design.
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