Metabo Miter Saw - Blade Changing and Removal

I recently purchased a 10" Metabo C10FCG2 miter saw despite some negative reviews and comments on Amazon, Reddit and YouTube about how difficult the blades are to change the first time.  Those comments aren't wrong but I want to share how easy this was for me to fix.  Hopefully this solution works for you as well. 

For a homeowner this looks like an ideal and affordable alternative to 10" or 12" models from DeWalt and even from Skil. A major appeal of this model for me, being more of an engineer than a woodworker, is the shadow line cut indicator. 

If you need a sliding miter saw with a shadow line feature or dual bevel capability I encourage you to check out the Skil 10" Sliding miter saw which normally runs around $280. 

If you are reading this blog I imagine you have already run into the blade changing issue.  It's real.  It seems the blades they are shipping with vary,  but the blade that came with my saw is a 40 tooth Metabo, which is much better than the 24 tooth model I was expecting.  It worked just fine on primed moulding, by the way.  

I encourage you to remove and clean the blade as soon as you unpack your saw, even if you feel you would be happy with the original blade.  This will ensure you don't end up with grease on the saw bed, your cuts, or on you and when you do replace the blade later on it will be easy.

Tools and supplies needed: 

• 10" ratchet handle (pay attention to the "drive" size, your bit will have to match)
• 6mm  hex bit for your ratchet drive size, or use a short adapter (see my example, below)
• Mineral spirits and a rag to clean the original blade
• Cardboard to lay the greasy blade and parts on  
• Abrasion resistant gloves to protect your fingers from the blade as your remove and replace it.  Those teeth are sharp and you need to wiggle it on and off. 

Metabo and Archimedes 

The key part of this tool set is the handle length.  If you have to raid your portable screwdriver bits for the 6mm hex bit and nut driver go ahead!  Just don't use an under-sized bit.  You'll risk stripping the bolt. 

Remember, kids:  Archimedes and leverage are undefeated! 
 

 

Here's a picture of my own combination.   

 Starting from the left I used the following parts from 3 different tool sets:

• 3/8" drive, 10" long ratchet (Not sure where I got this)
• 3/8" to 1/4" adapter (tool kit A)
• 1/4" drive, 6mm nut driver (tool kit A)
• 6mm bit from drill set (tool kit B)

If I had patience enough to wait for Amazon delivery or drive to Lowe's I could have just used my ratchet and this 3/8" drive, 6mm socket.  For the bit length, shorter is better as it reduces the amount of bending leverage but the tools shown above worked fine.  You should only have to use a ratchet on this saw the first time anyway. 

Safety Notes

• I'll mention this again, but always unplug the saw from the wall outlet before performing any sort of maintenance that puts your fingers near the switch, blade or blade guard. I feel much less anxiety when I can actually look at the plug on my workbench while doing this kind of work. 
• On all circular saws, pay attention to the blade rotation.  For a miter saw the top of the blade should spin towards the user, and the bottom away from you.  The rotation markings on the saw and the blade should always match.
• Like other miter saws, the bolt that holds the blade in place (arbor bolt) is threaded backwards (i.e. left-handed) from what you normally expect.  Your muscle memory will get in the way more than once during this process.   As an aside, the paddle that loosens the bevel adjustment is also left-handed on this saw.

I suggest you split the process of removing the blade into two steps, below.

 

Arbor Bolt Loosening 

Some miter saw guards cover the arbor bolt as well as the blade, but this model does not.  This simplifies how many things we have to worry about at once.  I also found that by leaving the saw closed it was a lot easier to grip the ratchet and hold the spin lock button at the same time. 

1.  Prepare the saw by unplugging it from the AC outlet and locking it closed, as if you were going to transport it.  
2. Press the spindle lock button and turn the blade with the supplied Allen wrench until the spindle lock engages and the blade stops turning.  
3. Remember that the arbor bolt (the bolt that holds the blade in place) is reverse threaded, so you want to turn clockwise.
4. Try to loosen the bolt with the Allen wrench.  If it's too hard switch to the ratchet and hex bit. Remember:  CLOCKWISE! 
5. Turn the bolt enough so that you can easily turn it by hand, but don't pull it out yet. 

All I needed to do was give up on the Allen wrench and switch to the ratchet.  The bolt went from feeling like it was welded on to turning like butter.   Don't try to use a hammer or mallet or WD-40.  Just get a long enough ratchet and the initial loosening should take 2 seconds.

 

Desperate Measures 

If this really doesn't work for you what you need instead is a friend and a breaker bar like this to give you 24" of leverage.  Your friend holds the blade lock in place, while you climb a ladder and jump on the end of this bar.  😉  Just kidding, but you could.  Seriously though, I'm loathe to recommend this tool for a simple blade replacement but if you 100% can't get the bolt to let go with a long handled ratchet then this is the next step up. 

Blade Removal

With the arbor bolt loosened but the blade still mounted now we can remove the blade. 

 

1. Put on some gloves if you have delicate hands.
2. Prepare a surface to put the oil-slick blade on and the bolt and washers.  Sacrificial cardboard works and protects the blade teeth.
3. Unlock the saw and let it open normally.
4. Remove the arbor bolt and flange washer. 
5. Right hand: Lift the guard up
6. Left hand:  Hold your (gloved) hand under the blade and wiggle it out.  You want the blade to drop onto your hand, not the saw bed.
7. Remove the inner flange washer too.   

 

Cleaning

The blade in the Metabo is packed wet with anti-corrosion oil.   Use mineral spirits and a rag or similar to clean all  the pieces removed, in a well-ventilated space, of course.

• Blade
• Bolt
• 2x flange washers 
• This is also a good time to inspect and clean the saw bed for stray grease, while you have the rag out

Let all parts dry fully before replacing.   Remember to dry the cleaning rag flat so it doesn't ignite while evaporating. 

 

Blade Replacement

Steps to replace: 

1. Insert inner flange washer
2. Lift guard 
3. Insert Blade
4. Insert outer flange washer
5. Insert bolt and lightly hand tighten
6.  Lock saw closed again (optional)
7. Engage the blade lock button again
8. Finish hand tightening the bolt with your fingers until that stops by turning COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. 
9. Finish tightening using only the Metabo supplied Allen wrench and your hand.   From hand tight to fully tight is only about 1/8 of a full rotation. Don't be a monster, and don't tighten it more than you'd want to loosen it later.  Absolutely do not use your ratchet for this operation. 
10. Check that the direction marker on the saw and blade are going in the same direction which for this saw is clockwise as you face the arbor bolt.  

The force from your hand and the supplied Allen wrench is all you should need to keep the blade securely in place. The normal rotation of the blade will prevent it from loosening while being operated.  Now you can store the wrench in it's spot behind the saw table knowing when the time comes the blade change will be easy. 

Stream buffering and Audiophile Network Devices

This is yet another "this subject comes up so often I'm going to monetize it" post! 

In this case though I'm going to encourage you NOT to spend money. 

Audiophiles attempt to optimize the last 30' of what is hundreds of miles of journey of a stream, say from Qobuz, or Tidal or even Amazon or Netflix.  They spend hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars on "audio grade" network switches that promise noise elimination, jitter elimination, etc.  

They're all pretty much useless.  Let me give you a working metaphor. 

Imagine you have a factory which makes cardboard boxes pre-filled with Styrofoam peanuts.  On one side of the factory you receive the flat boxes, and peanuts and on the other you put out a 1 cubic foot box filled with peanuts. To extend this metaphor to our needs, the factory MUST produce 1 box every second. 

This is, of course, a metaphor for an audio streamer.  Network packets arrive on one end with music data, and an analog signal is produced on the other.  Among many other variables, the DAC must interpret a single sample at precise intervals in order to minimize distortion and jitter.  For PCM data these samples are usually 16 or 24 bits long.  Every clock tick consumes one sample and sets the DAC's output to a new voltage which is connected to your amplifier or preamp.  Where audiophiles go wrong is they think that this output is on a chain, and married to the rate of the input packets, like a bicycle's gears.  It is nothing like that.

We'll return to our metaphorical box factory.  Every six hours a shipping truck arrives with at least six hours of cardboard boxes and peanuts, but it can go up to 12 hours worth.  It depends on when the factory ordered, and how much free space is in the warehouse. 

Now imagine that the delivery trucks must pass many roads and toll bridges and traffic lights but just outside the factory the traffic light there uses a cesium clock of extreme accuracy so that the light changes from red to green only exactly every 120.0000000000000000000 seconds.  In a thousand years this clock may be off by 1 second. 

This is what network reclockers/regenerators offer you.  Absolutely nothing.  So long as the trucks keep arriving near schedule, even when delayed, the factory still produces filled boxes once per second and are completely insensitive to the clock of the traffic light outside the factory.

What about master clocks?  

It's a fact of physics and digital data transmission that the single best place to put an oscillator is on the same circuit board as the DAC chip itself.  Benchmark Media, Mytek and others have correctly written about this, and, correctly compared this to the maximum distance computer memory can have from the CPU.  The further the distance the less sharp the transient edges can be and the lower the precision. 

In music and film production master clocks are used not to reduce jitter but to synchronize multiple systems at once.  A good example is in movie production, ensuring that the audio track is precisely timed to the video, but this can also be needed when using multiple synthesizers and effect systems.  

Using an external master clock for playback can certainly change your jitter performance, but all things being equal, you want your best clock millimeters away from the DAC chip.