Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Accessories). This thread is read-only.
I just bought a Diablo 10″ blade and noticed that the stabilizer “vents” are filled with some sort of plastic material. The vents are not open, i.e. can’t see through them. I don’t remember previous blades having this filler in the vents. I would think the material is just going to burn/melt when I use the blade.
Has anyone else noticed this? Should I remove the material before using the vent? The instructions don’t say anything about this.
See pics.
Thanks.
Hrmm, I wonder what that is about. It looks like they were added on purpose though I can’t see why they would be needed in a manufacturing process the vents are more that likely laser cut.
I’ve written to Freud. Let’s see what they say. Hope my blade isn’t a knock-off.
Its some sort of wax lube or helps with vibration damping or something. One time had a dewalt fanboy go rogue and pick up yellow blades instead of red and they had something like that in the slots.
The cutouts prevent vibration and add stability to the blade to keep them quiet and smooth. One thing I’ve noticed is that pitch builds up in these cutouts sometimes with PT lumber, I believe these fillers are to keep matter from getting trapped and unbalancing the blade, meaning they can put them closer to the outside of the blade without worry of it causing the instability.
If it didn’t add to the quality of the blade, they wouldn’t spend the extra money and time to develop it and put it into production.
Thanks, guys.
Hugh, you just might be right. One thing I noticed is that my D1050X blade has a different vent pattern from the D1050X blade shown on Freud’s website where the vents are closer to the arbor (see pic below and compare with one above). They may have added the filler when moving the vents closer to the cutting edge.
I’ll let you know what Freud’s customer support says.
Here’s what Freud (Diablo) said:
Quote“The filler in the slot should stay in the slot. Was it out of the slot when you purchased it?
The one you have is the latest design. The web site just has not been updated yet.”
If you took one of these rubber jnserts out, how would one go about getting it back in!?