Stihl TS 460 Cut off saw

[nbrown9333]

My department has recently purchased several Stihl TS 460 Cut off saws and I am looking for feedback on blades. Stihl has a disclaimer stating how "Dangerous" it is to use a carbide tip blade with their cut off saws, but I think they are just trying to avoid liability. Does anyone have experience with using carbide tip metal blades with this saw? If so, what kind are you using? Are there any fire service carbide tip metal blades with 20mm arbors? I would like to avoid using an arbor adaptor.

[firebill911]

I work for a small rural dept in Oregon, we had same saw and had a carbide tipped blade on it for years, and it waorked awesome. Well Oregon-OSHA was doing a surprise inspection and made us tag saw out of service and finned us. They said that there was some problems with blades not rated for saw RPM more important (there opinion) that we had violated manfactures guidlines. It said on a warning label on the blade guard to not us a carbide blade (orsomething like that) anyways, we got a grant from hanburger helper to buy two partner saws, partner does not say you cannot use that blade, however there are all kinds of carbide tipped blades for fire service.

We went with a blade made by a company here in oregon for fire service, if you want i can look it up for you. THey had a dvd and showed Depts using it for different materials, then they gave us some to us to help us decide which blade to buy.

Good luck and be careful.

[truckie1018]

Our department prefers to use a carbide chip blade. We use the Lackmond 911 demolition blade. Piranha is another brand of the same type of blade. The blade pretty much chews through anything except heavy steel and concrete. The blade can also be reversed when it dulls. Downside is they are kinda expensive (fire service use go figure) and they are heavy compared to your standard carbide tooth/pallet blade. Remember to keep spare masonry and steel blades handy for the other work ya might run into.

[MG3610]

http://www.firehooksunlimited.net/blades.html