Bosch 4000 Contractor Table Saw - fine tuning for woodworking

[Scott Connell]

Hello folks,

I have a Bosch 4000 table saw on their gravity rise stand that I originally purchased for various remodeling tasks around my house. Now that my interests have shifted to woodworking, I use the saw for that but find myself mildly annoyed by the quality of cuts that I get. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to have blade marks (and sometimes burn marks) on the piece I'm cutting. I've invested in a variety of higher quality Freud blades that are designed for specific tasks (e.g. cross-cutting, ripping) but they don't seem to help in terms of leaving marks on the cut edge. I've gotten to the point where I basically cut a piece of stock with an extra 1/16th so I can take a few passes on the jointer to clean up the edge with the saw blade marks instead of having to sand them down, which is a pain since I normally work with maple, cherry and walnut.

Unfortunately I'm extremely space constrained so I can't upgrade to a proper stationary table saw...I actually have to lift my saw up two small stairs from my basement to my garage when I use it so the gravity rise stand with the nice large wheels is ideal for that.

I don't typically use a riving knife or feather boards so perhaps that will make a difference, but I thought I'd submit a post here to see if any of you have advice on how to fine tune this type of saw for use in furniture building. Thanks for your help,
Scott

[Mac McQuinn]

While it sounds initially like a alignment problem, I would first put some feather boards to use and determine if the quality of cut is better or not, especially with the Cherry. Make sure your blades are kept clean and sharp, I like the CMT product for cleaning. What thickness of materials are you cutting? Is your blade speed constant or does it tend to bog down? Have you tried a thin kerf blade? I would also check if your fence is flexing or actually moving when ripping a board.
Mac

[Scott Connell]

Thanks for the advice Mac. I typically cut 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch material but every now again it's something a bit thicker....but overall, I don't think I'm trying to force anything through that the saw can't handle. The blade speed does appear to remain constant. I will try the feather boards and appreciate the recommendation for a blade cleaning product. Admittedly, blade cleaning is not something I've done yet.

Oh and recently, I've only been using thin kerf blades.

Thanks again,
Scott

[scott spencer]

How's the blade to fence alignment look? Do the blade marks exist on crosscuts as well as rips?

[Don Jarvie]

+1 on the alignment. The owners manual should take you through the alignment process. Also, how fast are you feeding the wood? I notice if I change my feed speed I get burn marks so its something to think about.

[John Schweikert]

I've been using my Bosch 4100 for the last year. Not sure about the differences between the 4000 and 4100.

I spent some time getting alignment to what I felt was good. I set the blade parallel to the miter slots. Set the fence to about 3 thousandths more on the outfeed end. It took some time to get the riving knife dead inline with the blade when riving is fully extended. I use A Freud ripping blade and Forrest WWII for finer cuts. I use a metal square to set the miter gauge to the blade when needing crosscuts. I recheck the miter gauge very often, since the stock miter is so-so but can still provide very accurate cuts.

Overall I've been very happy with the saw. It's portable, and takes up little space when folded on its stand. I have limited space for all my large tools.

A few things to consider. The infeed distance is quite short compared to cabinet saws. This makes getting longer cuts started a little more challenging. For every cut where it's physically possible, I use a featherboard in the miter slot. Makes a huge improvement in cut quality. I also have a Rockler attachement that allows a half fence up front using a piece of wood locked to the stock fence. It releases any chances of binding in the outfeed; this only works while using the miter gauge.

One project I'd like to do soon would be a sled. It can help a lot in increasing the accuracy on the infeed, aids in dead on squared cuts and eliminates burning. Of course the wood being cut will have a size limit due to the sled. I found a superb video on youtube on making a sled that would be accurate to 1/1000".

Investing some money in a table saw micrometer dial and quality square can make a good saw great and a great saw superb. I bought this and it has made all the difference in a well aligned saw: http://www.amazon.com/Woodpeckers-SG-WP-Saw-Gauge/dp/B002VRFM9Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348681704&sr=8-2&keywords=table+saw+dial

[Roger Pozzi]

Why don't you use the riving knife ?
Your wood doesn't have to close up much behind the blade to cause burning and the riving knife can help. And it's much safer too.
Featherbords, riving knife, full kerf blade, and a G-rrrripper is all standard on my Bosch 4100 and I haven't had any trouble.