SCMS Electric Question / Burning wood instead of cutting it

[Scott Vigder]

My 12 month-old Hitachi 12" SCMS requires 15 amps. I just plugged in to a socket with a 15 amp breaker at the main panel.

Virtually every cut is burning the wood, no matter how slowly I go, whether I chop or slide. It's only 1" thick poplar. It did the same burning/smoking on a piece of decking. The blade is a brand-new Freud with no noticeable nicks or gouges. Everything is properly aligned and square. I can't find any other power draws on this circuit.

Is it possible the circuit is not supplying the full 15 amps to the motor? How do I test that?

Any other suggestions as to what to look at?

I am stumped!

[David L Morse]

If it were a circuit problem it would be the motor smoking, not the wood. Are you sure the blade isn't backwards?

[Scott Vigder]

If it were a circuit problem it would be the motor smoking, not the wood. Are you sure the blade isn't backwards?

Fortunately, it is not backwards...or I would have felt Uber dumb!

[ken masoumi]

Have you tried it with a different(new) blade?

[Pat Barry]

Is your blade clean? Maybe you were cutting some resinous pine and the blade got gummed up so it doesn't cut clean

[Perry Holbrook]

If the decking was pressure treated, you probably dulled the blade when you cut it.

Perry

[Jerome Stanek]

Is the blade spinning the right way

[Steve Baumgartner]

An issue with the power supply would result in the motor running slow and getting hot, not with burning of the wood. You say the blade is not backward and is not loaded up with resin. In my thinking, that leaves dull or defective blade (e.g. no side clearance) or misalignment in the saw (i.e. the blade is not in the same plane as the plunge/slide motion). The latter would produce burning, much like a table saw fence that is not parallel to the blade.

[Scott Vigder]

I'll be cleaning and re-aligning this afternoon.....Thank you all for the suggestions. I almost wish I had been dumb enough to put the blade in backwards..that's an easy fix!

[glenn bradley]

Fortunately, it is not backwards...or I would have felt Uber dumb!

So true. I had read about people doing that and couldn't imagine how that would happen . . . until I did it. But enough about me and my abilities, on to your problem.

Burning material can be from a dull blade but, a poor feed path is more common IMHO if you are using a quality cutter. Since on an SCMS the material sets still and the blade moves through it let's look at that. The way your thread reads, it sounds like it has done this from day one; is that correct? If so we can go back to your initial alignment of the tool. Did it fail any setup checks you might have done; slide path remains true throughout, blade perpendicular to the table, fences coplaner and perpendicular to the table, etc.?

A quick test would be to mill a piece of stock straight and true via the usual jointer / planer / tablesaw steps. This gives you a known entity. Does this blank set true on the saw table / fence? If so, cut it. You should get a burn free, clean smooth cut. I'm assuming we're not using the stock blade but, that could be a bad assumption. If the saw still burns, I would re-check alignment and of course, the blade. A cutter that feels sharp to your finger can still have geometry problems that no adjustment will fix. Have you tried a different blade with the same result? So many questions . . . sorry.

[Scott Vigder]

Everything is true as true can be. Great suggestion, Glenn. Off to the local big box to get a new blade!

[Scott Vigder]

A new blade seems to have fixed the problem! What a shame the "old" blade, a 100-tooth Diablo, lasted less than a year and probably less than 100 cuts total. So I bought a General purpose blade and a nicer 80-tooth blade and will only use the 80-toother for final dimension cuts. THANKS for everyone who contributed!

[Keith Weber]

I bought a brand new Dewalt reciprocating saw blade once for my PC saw. It was dull right out of the package. I haven't bought anything yellow since.