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Cement Board Siding
I am putting the Hardy cement board siding on my house (finishing stages). We choose the cement board over the cedar as the bumble bee make short lunch out of the cedar here.
My question is I am using a 10" slide saw to cut the cement board. The blade is fine for cutting the board but now will not cut the normal lumber. There is some coating of the blade but it as if it has taken the set out of the blades teeth. The Skill saw is the same. I have not checked the table saw yet.
Does anyone know of a better blade to use than a regular carbide tip?
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Cement Board Siding
I have no direct experience cutting this material, but I have sawn tile. When you use a circular type saw on ceramics, steel or cement it seems to me that rather than 'cutting' the saw blade and the material just grind each other down. I would check out the labels on other types of saw blades such as one coated with industrial diamonds used for ceramic or the black composite blades used to cut steel.
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Cement Board Siding
Eric, I checked my saw drawer and found and old Vermont American “abrasive blade” still in the package. It is black and made from some sort of resin and grit. Its listed uses include: masonry, concrete, concrete block, brick, limestone, sandstone, slate and soft non-ferrous metals. Hope this helps.
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Cement Board Siding
Mark is onto something here. Abrasive blades are the most inexpensive way to cut cement board if you don't have a massive amount of cutting to do. Diamond impregnated brick saw blades are the best but they're expensive and need to be used in a water lubricated saw. Carbide blades work for a short period of time but you're wearing the carbide off as you saw, it's almost as if you are trying to cut a grinding rock and at that rate it gets kinda expensive.
Be sure to get the type designed to saw masonry. There is also a design meant to cut metal and it will work but wears more quickly.
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Cement Board Siding
This material is similar to the tile underlayment except it has more wood fiber in the board.
I have finished most of the walls with the one 10" blade on the side saw and if anything the blade is cutting the cement board better that initially. The carbide tips still feel sharp, but it will not cut a 2 x 4 for its life.
The blade grabs like the set is gone yet the tips still feel sharp.
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Cement Board Siding
I spent most of the winter pulling up hundreds of square feet of 30 year old decking, chicken coops and corrals and cutting it into firewood lengths with a circular saw. If I avoided any nails or dirt stuck to the boards, I could get about a days work out of a carbide tipped saw blade before it would start doing the binding, stalling and smoking thing. If I accidentally cut a couple of imbedded nails, it was all over right then. Those blades would zip right through the biggest nails like they weren’t there. Then the saw motor would start to overheat and act as you have described. Yet I could not tell any difference in sharpness between an abused blade and the new one I was installing. To my finger and to my eye they appeared the same.
So now I am wondering if perfectly square edge on a saw blade will cleanly cut wood until it gets a little rounded, why wouldn’t the same thing apply to the grass cutting blades we have been discussing in another thread? Maybe they are supposed to be square.
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Cement Board Siding
Ok;
You are telling me that I toasted 2 10" saw blade and a 7" saw blade. I guess I had better use them until I switch back to wood.
I think the question is; Will a dull blade cut as well as a sharp one? One can sharpen the blade with a tanto style edge, but the edge must be sharp. You need the lower edge to be leading as it cuts or it will simply push the grass.
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Cement Board Siding
Second time today I think I'm missing something. I think I recall reading in a book my wife bought about sheds where cement foundation boards are applied to a post and skirt foundation. The cement boards are supposed to retain ground heat better and prevent animals from living underneath the building.
I seem to recall that these foundation boards were made to size by scoring and breaking rather than by cutting. My memory might be faulty or cement siding and foundation boards may be different materials, but breaking sounds a lot easier than cutting if it's possible.
I originally wrote concrete instead of cement boards.
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Cement Board Siding
Peters, you are correct in your assumtion of the set of the teeth gone. In fact you will probably find that the blade has been 'sanded' narrower to the point where the set has been ground away by the abrasive material you are cutting. The best (and cheapest) way is to replace your saw blade with a fibrous one, most rental houses and (bigger) hardware stores will hve them. They are very commonly used on gas powered circular saws to cut masonry (such as concrete pavers) by landscapers, etc. The ultimate is a diamond-tipped circular blade, they will cut way faster, and last MUCH longer, but they are also 10 times the price, so if you don't have a lot to cut get a couple fibre blades. Of course I don't have to remind you (but of course I will) that any time you are doing this sort of thing, the cutter & and anyone nearby MUST be wearing adequate eye protection..... Best of luck.
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Cement Board Siding
As with a lot of information, it is on the web if we look hard enough or remember to look.
I made it to the building supply yesterday. People are using the electric shears or carbide tip blades to cut the board.
Although is shows it below the blades, it does not describe them. The blades have only a few teeth and large clearing rakers to remove cut material.
Link:
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07-13-2002, 08:21 
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