On Mar 13, 12:37*am, Jon Elson wrote:
...
If you have hydraulic feed, the welded bimetal
blades are supposed to be great. *Starrett sent me
an unsolicited bimetal blade, of the $50 sort. *I
had doubts, but put it on the saw to see what
would happen. *Well, with the spring feed, it
stripped teeth off within the first minute, and
quickly lost inches of teeth. *Glad I didn't pay
for that mistake! *So, unless you have a hydraulic
feed (which some people have retrofitted to these
saws) or are cutting some very large diameter work
where you will hand-feed at the beginning and end
of each cut, I don't think you want to mess with them.

Except for cracking I've had good luck with Lenox bimetal blades,
cutting mainly mild steel with a little stainless. I set the spring
light and add hand pressure to get large chips, then adjust the
spring.

Currently it has a $12 tool steel blade from Grizzly, at the lowest
speed, to see how well they hold up. I've seen mixed results from
blades, some wear dull, others break while still sharp enough.