Too Many Teeth

This isn't an AI hallucination, nor the trickery of the fae folk. It is, in fact, a saw blade with many more than the usual number of teeth.

The 32t blade in front is what originally came on my chop saw and it's been serving me well. For the most part I'm cutting construction lumber (and occasionally some aluminum extrusions) so the low tooth count makes for pretty quick and efficient cuts.

However, lately I've been noticing that the cut quality isn't quite flawless, and it might have degraded somewhat from how it was originally performing. Or I might be imagining things, I dunno. Either way, since I have some trim work coming up, I decided to add a fine cut 80t blade to my tool chest.

Swapping the blade isn't too difficult, luckily. You just loosen one screw which both props up the blade guard and lets you slide it back out of the way slightly, then unscrew (with a reverse thread) the bolt holding the blade in place.

So how does it cut trim?

Well, judging from this test cut on a piece of scrap MDF trim that I removed from around the old attic hatch, I'd say it does quite well indeed.

For the sake of comparison, here's a piece of universal wood cut with the 32t blade.

And the other side of the same piece, cut with the 80t blade.

Don't mind the fact that one side is soaking wet. It's raining outside right now. What's clear to see is that the splintering and tear-out is greatly reduced with this blade, which is exactly what one would expect.

The downside is, of course, that the cut speed is much slower, so I'll still be swapping back to the 32t blade for utility cuts. This 80t blade will just be for trim work when the need arises.