Ytdyklly

This may be the stupidest DIY question ever, but I want to make sure before I return it: is this non-ferrous metals saw blade faulty ? In the picture, see where one of the titanium carbide teeth seems to be too large and to extend into the expansion slot. BTW, I had made 4 cuts of 9-15" or so, in 3/16 aluminum plate, before I noticed this; it cut ok, seems like it could have been smoother, but I've never cut aluminum with a power saw before, so I don't really know what to expect.

Here is the blade:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LFCMI34/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

... and the picture of mine:

Yes the J shape is supposed to be there for expansion. If you look at a Diablo blade it has the J relief cuts at the edges and also d-shaped relief cuts within the body of the blade. The large tooth looks like it may be build up of aluminum on the carbide tooth. It definitely doesn't look like carbide. If it is Aluminum it should be easy to pull off with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Aluminum is really good at gumming up blades. I'm pretty sure they actually make blades that are specific to aluminum to avoid the gumming up issue.

The filling is melted aluminum that galled/melted and filled the gullet and is covering one of the Tungsten Carbide teeth. You can pull it off with a pliers.

The negative rake angle of the blade is fine for cutting aluminum, it will push your workpiece away instead of tending to grab onto it. It will generate more heat and be more likely to melt the aluminum. You can feed the work harder to generate a thicker chip to carry the heat instead of rubbing/melting it off.

A little spray of WD40 on your path can help immensely.

The J Shape is supposed to be there.

Yes, that is a defect. If you really need to use the blade now, you can chip or grind off that extra slag - it's just one tooth out of 80. If you have time to return it, it is a legitimate manufacturing defect.

As an aside, I note that blade has a negative hook angle, which is what you want on something like a radial arm saw. If you know what that is and bought it on purpose, that's great, but to learn more about the various aspects of a saw blade, check out this article at Rockler. Some people stop looking at the tooth count, but there are other important variables.