Festool PD561556 Sawblade Selection, Tooth Shape, Number of Teeth and Spacing, Hook Angle

Sawblade Selection

Festool sawblades are designed for optimal performance in a variety of applications. Choosing the correct sawblade is important for obtaining the best cuts and optimal blade life. There are several factors that determine which blades are best suited for the operation.

Tooth Shape
Festool sawblades come in two primary tooth
shapes. The Alternate Top Bevel (ATB) shape is
ideal for clean cutting of wood fibers. The Triple
Chip (TC) shape is very robust in holding sharp-
ness in hard or abrasive materials.
The alternating points of the ATB blade slice
through the wood fibers at the edges of the cut	ATB
to produce clean and efficient cuts. The lower
15° bevel angle of Festool blades allow them
to maintain sharpness of the points longer
between sharpenings.
The trapezoidal shape of the TC blade tooth	Bevel
maintains its sharpness by not having points
that could quickly dull. Each trapezoidal tooth
initially cuts a little of the center of the cut,
and then is followed by a flat-top raker tooth
to finish the cut and clean up the corners. The
TC grind is ideally suited for materials that would
otherwise quickly dull an ATB blade.

Number of Teeth and Spacing

The more teeth a blade has, the less work each tooth has to do by itself. This results in cleaner cuts in fibrous materi- als such as wood. It also makes the blade less aggressive in its cutting, which is beneficial in both hard materials and fibrous materials.

Another aspect about tooth spacing is harmonics. If each successive tooth strikes the workpiece in rhythm with other teeth, it can set up vibrations in the blade and workpiece. Festool sawblades use variable tooth spacing to prevent harmonics from happening. The spacing between successive teeth is constantly changing so that the frequency of suc- cessive cuts is never in a harmful rhythm.

Hook Angle

The hook angle of a sawblade is the angle between the face of a blade tooth with respect to a radial line to the center of the blade. This is most obvious on rip- ping blades, where the high hook angle is easily seen. The higher the hook angle, the more aggressive the blade will cut the

workpiece. This is desired for ripping, but Hook it is not desired for finer cuts, and espe-

cially not for vary hard materials.

Cutting harder materials is best performed with blades with lower hook angles. Metal cutting blades (and miter saw blades) actually have negative hook angles to minimize their aggressiveness in the cut. This means that the teeth are sloped slightly backward from the radial line to the center of the blade.

TCG

TS 55 REQ Sawblades

Fine Crosscut: 48T, ATB, 12° hook
This is the standard blade that comes	Ripping: 14T, ATB, 37° hook
with the TS55 saw. The high tooth	The high hook angle of the Panther
count, low hook angle, and ATB design
	blade makes for effortless ripping
make it optimally suited for cut-
	without burning the cut.
ting veneered plywood with minimal
tearout.
Combination: 28T, ATB, 15° hook	Fine Laminate: 48T, TC, 4° hook
This blade combines the geometries of
both ripping and crosscut blades. The	The ultra-hard TCG teeth on this blade
higher hook angle makes it cut more	provide chip-free cutting of laminates
aggressive like a ripping blade, and	and solid surface materials without
the moderate tooth count provides a	dulling.
cleaner cut like a crosscut blade.
General Purpose: 12T, ATB, 20° hook	Aluminum/Plastic: 56T, TC, -5° hook
	The negative hook angle and high
With a low tooth count and a high hook
	TCG tooth count of this blade provides
angle, this blade easily cuts through
	grab-free control for cutting aluminum
general construction materials.
	and hard plastic.

10 TS 55 REQ