IDEAL Industries Long-Life Metal Cutting Recip. Blades

Yes. IDEAL's Long-Life metal blades use the universal 1/2 inch tang shank that every current Sawzall-type reciprocating saw accepts, so they run in Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, Bosch and Ryobi tools without an adapter.

Pick the length by stroke clearance, not by cut capacity alone. The 6 inch blade is the shortest and stiffest of the three and is the one to use in tight work like a panel interior or above a ceiling grid. The 8 x 3/4 gives extra reach without much loss of rigidity. The 12 x 1 inch is the one for cutting through bundled conduit, thick stock or where you need the blade to pass fully through a deep section, and its 1 inch width is there to resist flex at that length.

No. An 18 TPI cobalt bi-metal blade is a metal-cutting tooth pitch, and running it through wood or nail-embedded demo material loads the fine teeth and dulls them fast. Use a coarse 5 to 10 TPI wood or demolition blade for that and keep the IDEAL Long-Life blades for conduit, strut, all-thread, sheet metal and light angle.

IDEAL rates the Long-Life blades to perform up to three times as many cuts as comparable metal cutting blades, which comes from the 8% cobalt cutting edge. For a crew cutting strut and conduit all day that means fewer blade changes per run; for occasional metal work a standard bi-metal blade will do the job. The shatterproof bi-metal body also matters on overhead and one-handed cuts where a hardened blade would snap.