Cleaning and maintenance of your circular saw and its blade are extremely important at all stages of woodworking.
Cutting with a dirty blade will not only be less effective but it can also be quite unsafe.
Luckily, cleaning a circular saw blade is quite simple and doesn’t take a lot of tools, supplies or time either.
Quick Summary
In this post, we will discuss why it’s crucial that you take the time to effectively clean and maintain your circular saw blade.
We will also provide step-by-step instructions on how to clean it as well.
So, let’s get into it.
Why Should You Clean Your Circular Saw Blade?
As you perform woodworking jobs with your circular saw, dust, debris, pitch and resin start to build up on the blade’s edges and on its teeth.
This eventually evolves into a complete outer layer on the edges of your blade. As you can probably imagine, this effectively dulls your saw blade as the teeth cannot come in direct contact with the wood.
Not only does the blade become less effective at cutting but even the cuts that it makes are much rougher than when it was new and clean.
This may be counterintuitive to think about at first but dull blades are actually more dangerous than sharp blades are. That’s because dull blades can cause things to go wrong even when you’ve taken all of the necessary precautions.
Dull blades have a much higher chance of tearout, they also cause your saw to have much higher chances of kickback and they can also cause stress on your saw’s motor.
Make sure to inspect your circular saw blade every few weeks or months. If you notice that a lot of gunk, debris, or resin has started to build up, it may be time for a cleaning.
If you use your circular saw blade quite regularly on jobs, then we recommend cleaning it every few weeks or months. If you don’t use it regularly, you can clean it once a year.
In addition to ensuring that your circular saw blade is clean, you must also ensure that it’s sharp. If too many of the teeth are bent or broken, it can be a good idea to buy a new one or get the one you have sharpened.
Choosing a Cleaning Solution for Your Circular Saw Blade
There are a number of different cleaning products available in the market that you can choose from.
However, most woodworkers have their own preferences so we recommend that you try different cleaners out to determine which one works best.
Obviously, depending on the type of blade you have, one cleaner might work better with it compared to another. That’s why experimentation is important.
Many woodworkers favor citrus cleaners as they do a great job of loosening the gunk and resin stuck between the nooks and crannies of the blade. Not only that but they can also be used to clean just about everything else around the house.
You can also try oven cleaners to clean up your circular saw blade. However, we must let you know that oven cleaners are toxic. Hence, be careful when working with them.
We highly recommend that you don’t use an oven cleaner if you have a carbide-tipped blade.
Some manufacturers have stated that using oven cleaners with carbide-tipped blades can cause damage to them. Not only that but they can also loosen the binder that holds the carbide-tips in place.
Another household cleaner that can be commonly found and works great is Simple Green. It’s an all-purpose cleaner and degreaser that is easily found in most grocery as well as hardware stores. You can also order it online from Amazon.
The great thing about Simple Green is that it’s non-toxic and also biodegradable. In addition to that, it’s also quite strong and effective as a cleaner as well.
Cleaning Your Circular Saw Blade (Step-by-Step Guide)
Your cleaning solution will be concentrated or diluted depending on how dirty your circular saw blade is.
If you are using Simple Green, you can definitely use it straight from the bottle. However, we recommend that you only do that if there is some serious gunk buildup on your circular saw blade.
Step 1: Mix one part of Simple Green with two or three parts of water in a container that’s large enough to hold your circular saw blade along with the liquid solution.
Step 2: Remove the blade from your circular saw. Mind the teeth so you don’t hurt yourself.
It can be a good idea to wear protective gloves at this stage so you stay safe. It can be deceptive to hold dirty blades since you sometimes cannot tell where the teeth are and what their orientation is.
Step 3: Gently place the circular saw blade in the cleaning solution you made in step 1. Let the blade soak in the solution for a few minutes.
Step 4: Scrub the blade thoroughly with either an old toothbrush or a small brass brush. Clean out all of the gunk, debris, or resin that may have deposited between the teeth.
Take out everything from all of the nooks and crannies until you are satisfied with how clean the blade is.
Step 5: Rinse the blade one final time in the cleaning solution until it has been thoroughly cleaned.
Step 6: Dry out the blade with paper towels or a clean, cloth towel. Make sure not to be too rough with the blade as you can definitely tear up the towel with it if the teeth get caught.
Step 7: Insert the circular saw blade back into the circular saw and you’re good to go.
Wrapping Things Up…
Many people are extremely lazy with circular saw blade maintenance and cleaning.
This affects the quality of their work as well as the amount of time it takes them to do said work. That’s because a dirty saw causes imprecise cuts and can also cause you to waste a lot of wood because of tearout.
Hence, take care of your blades and you can rest assured, they will take care of you.
If you have any more questions, please ask us in the comments below.
Visit Tools Advisor Pro for more guidance on how to clean your circular saws.