getting horrible cuts on the table saw

[Brian Peters]

Haven't ever had this happen before and it happened yesterday with a brand new FSTool blade. I had only been cutting prefinished maple plywood until I cut this soft maple (5/4) and the blade is has hardly any use on it being not even a week old. The blade is sharp as can be and seems pretty flat. Yet when I'm cutting the plywood I can hear it every so often sound like its blowing out almost like you would hear if you hit a pin nail or a void in the plywood but it isn't hitting anything, a clean poplar core ply! Today was the test as maple is harder, still it should be a clean cut the blade is brand new.

As a test I tried another blade that I just had sharpened took the rubber off, ripped a board with it and it was clean as butter but still had burning on the cut off piece on the left. Could this be a bad blade or have my trunions finally gone out of whack? Thanks.

[Lee Schierer]

I would check the saw alignment starting with the blade alignment to the motor gauge slot and then check the fence. Burn marks are the result of misalignment and it appears there are tooth marks on the board edges as well.

Also check under your table and make sure the belts are tight and there is nothing trapped between the frame of the saw and the trunnions that might be pushing things out of alignment.

[Duan Packard]

Check your fence alignment.
Looks as if the fence is a little bit to the right ie the rear of the
fence is closer to the blade than the front. Based on the outside board
the one getting burned.

oops other way around. Fence away from the blade.

Duan

[Jim Summers]

Like Lee and Duane mention, I think a TS tuneup will help with the burn marks. I just finished doing mine and the fence alignment cleared up the burns.

HTH

[David DeCristoforo]

Another possibility is that the wood is "closing" on the blade as it is cut. If this is the case, no amount of adjusting the fence will "fix" it. This could be caused by "reaction" wood or wood that has been unevenly dried. Try another piece of wood and see if you have the same problem. If it was your fence, you would very likely have seen a similar effect when cutting plywood.

[Brian Peters]

Thanks for the info. Like I said I haven't really had this problem before, at least not in a long time and that was because the blade was on its way out and it was a hard wood. I will tune it up and recheck. If its still no good I will assume its a problem with the wood. My shop is pretty warm, 70f+- and it was stored at the lumber company pretty cold. However it was acclimating for 2 weeks to today should have been more than fine. Seems to be pretty dry too. I hope its not reaction wood. I know what that is like. And if it is I won't be building doors out of it. :mad:

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, as others have indicated, check your saw alignment.

You are also near the limit for thickness when ripping with a non rip blade.

What is the blade designed to cut?

Regards, Rod.

[Brian Peters]

Saw alignment is spot on. Went back today and made the cuts with another blade. Both are combination blades but this one was a Freud. Freud was just sharpened and the FStool was brand new. Got nearly a perfectly clean cut with the freud unlike the fstool one. Not sure though, FStool blades are good, great blades and I haven't had any issues with them in the past.

[Joe Chritz]

It could still be the wood. If it is you will see it close up on the kerf and kick a lot of dust back off the back of the blade. It is normally caused by poor drying or wood that grew someway other than straight up.

You can often make reaction wood work by cutting extra wide, rejointing and then taking less than 1/8" off to get final thickness.

You also may want to check the suspect blade with an indicator and make sure it isn't bent from handling at some point from factory to you.

Joe

[Brian Peters]

Thanks Joe, I will check the blade. It seems pretty flat and as I said they make good blades but things happen too. But the other blade proved today it wasn't the table saw alignment. And the new blade was a thin kerf and it still didn't bind up on the blade so I suspect the wood was pretty good. Maple is pretty stable if dried well and I have had problems with it before from another supplier with all of the wood twisting up 2 days later - I lost 10 divided light doors and the wood was the horrid "reaction wood" that we all try to avoid. Though from time to time it happens.

[Sonny Edmonds]

Hard wood, thin kirf....
Recipe for disaster. It could be alignment, but I kinda dought it.
I think what I read there is the thin kerf blade doing a harmonic wobble as it encounters harder and softer sections of the board.
That very thing is the reason there are only full kerf blades in my shop.
You could put a set of stabilizing washers (http://www.amazon.com/Freud-SC-001-2-Inch-Stabilizer-8-Inch/dp/B0000223O3) on your saw with the thin kerf blade.
But the right fix is to not buy thin kerf blades. ;)

[Tony Bilello]

I bought my saw new and it came with a thin kerf blade.
That blade is used only for rough cutting.
All of my 'good' blades are standard kerf.

[Brian Peters]

Hard wood, thin kirf....
Recipe for disaster. It could be alignment, but I kinda dought it.
I think what I read there is the thin kerf blade doing a harmonic wobble as it encounters harder and softer sections of the board.
That very thing is the reason there are only full kerf blades in my shop.
You could put a set of stabilizing washers (http://www.amazon.com/Freud-SC-001-2-Inch-Stabilizer-8-Inch/dp/B0000223O3) on your saw with the thin kerf blade.
But the right fix is to not buy thin kerf blades. ;)

Sorry by thin I meant a thinner blade, its a freud I wouldn't fully classify it as a thin kerf but its less than 1/8". But as I said the freud cuts perfect, the original FS tool was the one cutting bad in case you didn't read my previous posts.

[Chris Padilla]

If it is reaction wood, just ripping someting off the edge (like less than a kerf width) should take that out of the equation for determining the problem.

I don't think that Festool designs blades for a table saw nor is it the best blade for ripping. Is that a blade made for the Festool Kapex (Festool's power miter box)? The Kapex takes a 260 mm (10 1/4") blade that is 2 mm (~5/64" or 0.0787") thick and so that qualifies as a thin-kerf to me.

[Brian Peters]

No it's FSTool, they make blades, router bits, cnc tooling, insert tooling. Completely different company. :D

[Chris Padilla]

No it's FSTool, they make blades, router bits, cnc tooling, insert tooling. Completely different company. :D

Awww...my bad...thought you were just misspelling it for some reason. :o

[Phil Thien]

I recently had a very similar experience with a brand-new DeWalt combo (50t) blade. It is one of the all-yellow woodworking blades (nice blades, made the the U.K.).

I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I thought the saw, the wood, etc.

Then I tried some BB plywood and was still cutting like crap. I had an identical DeWalt, it worked fine. As did my Freud and my Forrest.

So I took the goofy DeWalt to the DeWalt service store and they gave me another one. And it works perfectly.

FWIW, I tried measuring the bad blade for runout problems, and checking each tooth for problems. Couldn't find anything. But it sure couldn't cut.

I agree with what has been said in terms of FK blades cutting better than TK. But I have an underpowered saw to I'm kinda stuck with TK.