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I just bought a new Hitachi miter saw. I replaced the 24 tooth blade that came with it, with a 60 tooth blade.

When I started cutting the bamboo planks the saw would stop spinning midway through the board. I will pull the saw blade up and it will get to full speed again and then I will try to cut the bamboo again and the blade will stop.

If I repeatedly cut and stop and then let the blade speed up and then cut and stop and then let blade speed up about 7 or 8 times I can get the board all the way cut.

This takes a long time, and was wondering what might be wrong with my machine. Anyone have any ideas? The bolt holding the blade is super tight.

I am using an Irwin blade instead of Hitachi. Could that be the issue. The holes on both the blades seem the same.

Is bamboo that hard? It seems like something is wrong.

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  • By the way the motor keeps spinning fine. It is like the blade is loose. – adjc98 Jun 23 '17 at 12:15
  • Are you sure you installed the blade the right direction? – mikeazo Jun 23 '17 at 12:59
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    If the blade is on right, since the saw is new, I'd take it back and get a replacement. Make sure you put the original blade back on. – mikeazo Jun 23 '17 at 13:01
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    Then do a few test cuts with the replacement saw and the blade it comes with to see if it has issues. – mikeazo Jun 23 '17 at 13:02
  • Bamboo is hard, it's maybe 15% harder than sugar maple. But even so your saw should be able to not choke on something harder than maple and from your comment above it does sound like there's something wrong inside the saw. – Graphus Jun 23 '17 at 15:52
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Ok, so I called Hitachi to see if the machine was broken. They had me try and put the original blade back on, but the bolt holding the blade would not come off. It was like it was wielded on, even though I had taken the bolt off the night before.

The guy at Hitachi said I should just bring it back to the store I bought it from saying, the bolt is supposed to loosen easier and the stopping of the blade was not normal. He agreed there was something wrong from the get go.

I returned the saw and exchanged it for a new one. I tried cutting the same bamboo with the original blade the new saw came with and it cut it like butter. So the original machine was just defective.

Thanks for your comments.

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  • I replaced a tablesaw blade later and had no issues. – adjc98 Jun 24 '17 at 23:14

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