At the recent STAFDA trade show we got to see several of the new blade in person and had the opportunity to make a couple cuts with each. While we would not consider this a full blow product test it does give you a fair idea of what to expect. These new Freud Diablo recip blade are designed specifically to cut thick metals such as high-strength alloys, cast iron, and/or stainless steel from 3/16” to ½” thick. We’ve used many bi-metal, carbide and diamond grit blades in the past to varying success but until now there really has not been anything that we would really consider a good replacement to traditional pipe cutting tools. We still are not convinced in a production situation plumbers are going to replace their larger electric or hydraulic pipe cutting tools with these blades but for small jobs or the occasional cut in various materials an $11 blade is a pretty inexpensive solution or at the very minimum a cheap insurance policy.
The thick metal carbide blades come 8 TPI available as 4” DS0408CF ($8), 6” DS0608CF ($11) & 9” DS0908CF ($15). Promising 20x the blade life as compared to top bi-metal blades but from our experience this is really the first of its kind for recip blades as using bi-metal on cast iron is not going to get you very far. Next year there will also be a Diablo thin metal carbide blade with a higher TPI blade that will have a continuous carbide strip for stainless and other alloys thinner than 3/16”. We would expect these blades to have similar life expectancy.
We are very interested to see how well these blades work in heavy use applications but for tight spots or a variety of other applications this may be the best solution out there. For any Freud / Diablo question the pros at Ohio Power Tool 800-242-4424 are more than happy to help you find the right blade for your application.
