Cross-post from the Inspection Pit: OK, I went out and bought a cheapo 4" table saw. The 10-inch radial arm saw is too much for many smaller projects. It came with a regular blade and a diamond blade (dry). I know you use big diamond blades to cut concrete, stone, tile, etc., sometimes wet, sometimes dry. But what do you use a 4-inch diamond blade for? In scratch building bridges and ships, I use a fair amount of brass and plastic. Is that what the diamond blade is for?
Same as the big blades, tile,stone etc. and fiberglass sheets. For non-ferrous metals, use a fine tooth carbide blade, don't try and cut anything real small, and make sure you have a zero clearance insert around the blade. For plastics, use the finest tooth standard steel thin kerf plywood blade you can find, and put the blade backwards in the saw (helps prevent chipping and shattering the more brittle plastics)
To answer your question. Yes. Diamond is one of the hardest substances. It will cut metal with less wear than a steel blade. Frank
Pete the Diamond Blade is in there to increase the price of the saw. Besides they didn't have anything else to do with the chips from Liz Taylors jewelry. LOL Mike
Thanks, guys! Anyone have a good supplier of fine-tooth blades. This el-cheapo came with a 40-tooth blade. Even that splinters off wood at the final edge of 1/4-inch stock. I'd just hate to have to go back to the old trick from cabinet making of cutting halfway through, then flipping a piece--at least not with 1/4 square stuff!
The second trick is rubbing the blade sides with a dry bar of soap as lubricant (manually, not with the blade going at full speed ) and taping the cut line with masking tape (both sides). PITA if you have a lot of cuts. If it's splintering just at the ends just rip overlong and trim, hey? I think Kapler and anyone who sells those tiny pieces of wood end up with lots of scrap and sawdust.
