sliding miter saw problems

[ron ogle]

I have a bosch 10 inch and have problems with binding and burning.I am a using forrest chopmaster.If I dont do a relief cut by chopping down first on hard 1 inch wood when I try to start at the front and slide through it will most of the time pinch and grab the blade.If it does finish cut both sides of the cut will be burnt on the edge closest to the operator( Bosch nor Forrest know why. Blade seems to work well when cross cutting on table saw. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks Ron

[glenn bradley]

My first thoughts are that the wood warped or bowed so that it does not set flat on the table and against the fence. Do I understand that the binding starts within the first few inches of the cut?

[Chip Lindley]

Check that your blade is not skewed from the direction of travel of the sliding mechanism. Same as a radial arm saw, a sliding miter saw will bind and burn if the blade is not co-planar to the direction of travel. Certainly there is an adjustment for this in your manual.

[michael case]

Ron,

I had the same problem. I switched to a Freud thin-kerf slide miter blade and the problem completely disappeared - so far. I am not completely satisfied with this however, since I fear the use of the thin kerf Freud may not be a permanent solution. I fear there may be some creeping problem (possible a bearing or arbor) that gets worse with use and eventually even the Freud blade won't work. So far its been good (five months) but, I don't use this machine much at all as I do most of my cross cuts on my table saw. But the the Freud thin-kerf Slide miter blade made a huge difference for me. I hope it works out for you.

[Jamie Buxton]

Is the fence straight? If the fence is bowed so the middle is further away from you than the ends are, the workpiece would hit the ends of the fence when you start the cut, but the middle of the workpiece would sag in toward the fence when you're most of the way through the cut, pinching the blade.

[ron ogle]

thanks for all the replies I had not thought of checking the fence but I did think of skewing but it is burning on both sides, Ron

[michael case]

Jamie,
Not a bad idea. I just went down to the shop and checked the fence on mine with a Veritas straight edge. Sorry to say its straight. That would have been too easy I guess. Its a weird phenomenon. Just like Ron, mine binds like a son of a gun with blades that I have used successfully on other slide miters. Works with the Freud thin-Kerf slide miter blade, but not a Freud thin-kerf finish. So there's more effecting it than just changing to a thin kerf. I might also add that the brake heated up quite a bit with normal thickness blades. The lighter thin kerf has helped the brake also. When I first got this machine I would have recommended it to anyone. Seeing Ron's post has made realize it ain't just my machine. I'm going to think this over. This is first the Bosch tool of any sort that has given me any problems.