Scared the bejeezes out of me! Fired up the table saw the other day and something hit me in the ear, HARD! I had no idea what it was. A buddy looked at the blade and in just about 5 seconds he said "Here it is." A carbide tip had come off. He told me it was pretty common, I'd never heard of it.

I was not wearing safety glasses (I know, I'll never do it again I swear) and the tip could have hurt me bad.

Is this really that common? I use them on my Skill saw too and now I'm a little worried about it.

1st for me also...
I use a table saw almost every day at work and have used saws all my life.

Never heard anything about it before.

Never heard of that happening before, been a carpenter for 30 years. What brand blade was it.

Let the company know about it and they will put a check on that fault.

Carbide tips coming off isn't rare but not very common. Carbide maybe hard but it can fracture easily. Be carefull when you change blades and rest your blade on a piece of scrap wood (not a cast iron table top). BTW router bits are suceptible to this too.

i've seen alot of broken/chipped carbide teeth. the better the blade the less likely it is to happen, as well as paying attention to what you cut through (nails, screws, ect)

Freud has been a good blade and router bit for me. no complaints

Ouch! The rim speed of a 10" table saw is just over 100 MPH so that tooth was moving! Again a good reason to wear safety glasses.

Never had it happen to me, yet. Ive been very happy wih my Freud blades.

used carbide tipped blades for years, never had a problem. might have been a fluke or bad blade.

Buy a better grade blade if you can-skimp on something else. And ALWAYS wear your safety goggles. ALWAYS! We all admit they are a PITA but you could end up like one of my old pals.....he found he does not shoot a shotgun nearly as well now that he only has one useful eye. Ask HIM about wearing safety goggles.

I'm a Freud guy too. But I've used a variety of carbide-tipped blades for nearly 30 years of home renovation and finish carpentry and never had that happen.

Dang scary indeed! Makes a good case for a Lexan face shield instead of just safety glasses/goggles. I ALWAYS wear safety glasses when using the table saw. If I can't find the glasses, I don't flip the power switch on the saw.

Not so sure quaility of the blade has a lot to do with it, I'd think what you saw may have though, nails, stones, dirt, etc are all hard enough to cause a carbide tooth to chip or crack.

I remove blades often enough that I usually give them a once over before putting away, and when I clean them they get a look with my lighted magnifing glass.

I started all this right after I bought a used Woodworker 2 blade at a garage sale and had a piece come off, didn't hit me but it made eye protection manatory, along with the ear protection I had been wearing.

Stuff happens to fast in woodworking to not wear protection, both eye and ear.

Al

Great to hear you didn't have a serious injury Donbo.

I'm just as bad at wearing safety glasses because I wear glasses.

Not a good excuse for me. We all need to wear them.

We don't take the time for safety and after we lose an eye, its to late.