Blade Remove

[Corker2]

Hello to all:

As I had mentioned before, I had just purchased a new Craftsman 16" Variable Speed Saw that I'm learning to use as time goes by.

One of the things I've noticed, just today, is that changing the blade on the saw is not that easy!  Trying to install the blade in the guide seem's to be giving me a problem.  These are pin-blades.  It took me more than a hour to get in back in the right position!

I thought that changing the blade to another part of the work piece should be easy to do.  Guess that I was wrong about that one.  I'm doing something wrong, but don't know what it could be.  There has to be a easier way.

Thanks
Les

[TripleB]

Did you loosen the tension on the blade? With the tension loose, pinned blades are usually pretty easy to change, you just slide them in the holders and then re-tension the blade, there is nothing to tighten. However I am not familiar with your saw.

[Danny]

Another 2 cents worth....  Use PIN-LESS Flying Dutchman blades.  Danny  :+}

[Corker2]

Thanks for all your help.  I do have a Craftsman 16" Variable Speed Saw, just like the one that Steve has on his Tutorial.  As he stated it is a entry level saw, but seems to work good for me right now.

I have gotten better in changing the blade, but found that some blades are thicker than others.  I had purchased some blades from the Sears store, where I bought the saw, but not sure which ones work better than others.  It seems that the thicker width blade does not work as well as the thinner one's.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I also see that some of you out there use PIN-Less Flying Dutchman blades.  Just what are some good quality blades to use?    Let me know your opinions.  

The first project I did was a duck made of 3/4 white pine.  Worked pretty good.  Then I tried doing something a bit more challenging.  I picked a cross that I had to cut out a few different area's, by changing the blade more often.  I used a 1/2 in. plywood that I had left over from other projects in my small shop.  That was a wrong thing to do!     The plywood chipped out at places, thus making my challenge worse.  I scrapped it!  I will never use that type of wood again!  This is what I got for trying to stay on the cheap side for wood.  I'm going to try it again, but this time using a better grade wood.  I learn as I go along.   

Les