dewalt 788 inserting blade for inside cuts

[Jesse St Louis]

My old Delta alowed the blade to swing forward to simplify inserting the blade into a hole for inside cuts.

My new DeWalt does not do this, and lifting the arm up does not provide enough clearence to insert a 1 3/4 stack.

I can see two ways to insert the blade:
1. Just flex the blade forward
2. take the time to loosen the bottom thumbscrew and remove the blade

How do you handle this problem?

Thanks in Advance
--Jesse

[lucky788scroller]

Its never really been an issue for me. I am a bottom feeder, and although I dont cut 1 3/4 thick wood much, except a rare 3D here and there, I lift the arm, and theres enough room to bend the blade over and feed it up througfh the hole. BEND the blade, not kink it! They flex pretty easily, and if your careful it will have no ill effects on the blades life. Dale

[Dragon]

I feed from the bottom up and just lift the arm. Never had a problem with the blade fitting at all.
Diane

[unixpro]

Another bottom feeder here with the same solution. If you decide to become one of us, though, I highly recommend you add the Easy Lift arm holder thing to your saw. It keeps the arm up while you mess around getting your wood positioned.

[keithmc]

I really didn't think much about inserting the blade for inside cuts, until today. I have been for some time now, just inserting the blade from the top right in front of the blade clamp. Then I clamp the top of the blade and it is simple to then clamp the bottom. I tried keeping the blade clamped to either the top or the bottom, it seemed to me I was always spending more time doing this than just taking taking the blade complete loose and repeating the same procedure. That way I didn't have to mess with lifting the arm up and down every time I needed to start another inside cut. It seemed to me to take less time. Having said that, after reading this thread and finding myself behind in promised out work, could you bottom feeders explain the process for me? I would like to try it to see if it is faster.
Thanks
Keith

[Paul S WI]

Keith, from my experience with the Hegner (bottom feeder) and cutting 1 1/2" - 2" thick material, compund cutting, I would have to lift the wood, bend the blade, enter the hole, and re-clamp the blade on top. Challenging, time consuming and at times a little frustrating .

I recently got the EX-21 and am now enjoying top-feeding. Haven't tried cutting thick wood yet. However, I visualize the process as being much simplier now. My reasoning is that the EX-21 blade changing does not require a tool. The arm lifts up enough to clear the wood and feed from the top. Maybe just a little bending of the blade but nothing like bottom feeding

I see no problem with your method, since it has worked for you, to remove the blade from both clamp holders insert in the hole and re-clamp. Especially with the Dewalts tool-less blade changing. Quick enough and you don't need to bend the blade, lift the wood, find the hole and hope the blade doesn't snag inside the hole and really bend.

[lucky788scroller]

Bottom feeding. I cut, then turn off the saw, and release tension.I loosen up the top clamp and raise the arm .I do have the easy-lift on my saws, so the arm stays up. I lift the wood, and at the same time reach under the piece and grab the blade. If it doesnt come all the way out of the last fret, i flex the blade until it comes out, then poke it through the next hole.Once its through the next hole, I release the blade from my grip, and reach over the wood and grab the blade from the top, as I lower the wood back to the table. Then, I lower the upper arm down and retighten the blade in the top clamp. I tension it up, and turn the saw back on. It sounds pretty involved, but it actually takes only a few seconds once your used to it. Dale

[Kevin12]

Guess I'm at a stage where I'm "ambidextrous". I learned on an old Delta, which was basically a bottom feeder and I continued bottom feeding even after I got the "quick-release" blade holders. Dale's description is exactly how I did it. But then I got a DeWalt, which is equally suited for either top- or bottom- feeding. Now I really like top-feeding (with the easy-lift arm) because I don't have to "peer under" the work piece to feed the blade. However, for some reason, I still find it easier to bottom-feed when I'm using very small blades in very small holes in a thick (1 inch) stack. And, who knows, if I were to cut 1 1/2 inch wood, I might like the release-both-clamps technique best.

Yes, blades can and do bend quite a bit. After I've used a blade for a while, it can become rather contorted. But that's okay - tensioning straightens it out. As was said, just don't kink it - then it'll break sure as anything.

Like Dale said, whatever technique you use, it becomes so automatic, it goes very quickly.