Wood burn...

[peter slamp]

What's the best course of action when you burn wood? I seem to especially have this problem when using a taper jig on the table saw. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Hmmm...

[Roy McQuay]

First, what kind of wood are you cutting. Some woods burn very easy, Cherry and maple come to my mind. Is your blade sharp ? The burns should sand off easy.

[Roy Clarke]

I start with a couple of large pieces at the back of the woodburner, then build a pile of small sticks in front on a couple sheets of paper. Light the paper and give plenty of top and bottom air for the first 15 munites or so. This building the fire upside down reduces the amount of smoke going up the chimney.

Once the fire is going well, you can shut down the air supply with enough air to maintain the temperature, then you can add the sections of legs you have sawn up.

Hope this helps
:D

[Jake Helmboldt]

Nice one Roy, exactly what I was thinking.

On a more serious note, in addition to what has already been said you might want to try pushing the piece thru the cut more quickly. It seems counter-intuitive, but that will often make a difference.

[Mike Parzych]

If your saw blade isn't parallel to the fence burning can happen.

[peter slamp]

First, what kind of wood are you cutting. Some woods burn very easy, Cherry and maple come to my mind. Is your blade sharp ? The burns should sand off easy.

Yes it was maple actually. Also an old table saw my dad gave me. It's all I have right now. Probably a combination of all factors caused the burn.

Good to know it's so easy to sand away. I did a little sanding and didn't notice much change. I guess I'll do some more. Thanks!

[Jim W. White]

Sanding will EVENTUALLY work...

but what really makes short work of this is a finely tuned block plane!!

Jim in Idaho

[chris fox]

Tune the blade parallel to the miter slot and then to fence. This should help considerably.

[Jim Becker]

Sharp blade, properly adjusted tool and steady, even movement through the cut are the key to keeping burning to a minimum. Species that have a higher sugar content are more prone to burning. All of the above applies to routing, too, but you don't want your final cut to be really "hogging" material. Bring the profile to "almost there" in steps with the very last pass being extremely light with a minimal amount of material being removed. That should also remove any incidental burning...most of the time.

[Don Bullock]

...All of the above applies to routing, too, but you don't want your final cut to be really "hogging" material. Bring the profile to "almost there" in steps with the very last pass being extremely light with a minimal amount of material being removed. That should also remove any incidental burning...most of the time.

Thanks Jim. That's one I need to remember.:D

[Jules Dominguez]

I've had the problem, especially with cherry and a fine-cutting glue-line blade. Based on suggestions here in a previous thread, I tried the method of raising the saw blade higher above the table, and believe based on the results that that helps. You should be able to search that thread, which I initiated.

[Brian Tuftee]

I was having this problem as well, when first starting out with my new table saw a few weeks back. For me, it was a combination of having the blade too low, and having too slow of a feed rate for the workpiece. Now, I raise the blade so the gullets completely clear the top of the workpiece, and I push the workpiece as quickly as I can (while being safe of course!), until I get a feel for the proper amount of resistance the blade should give to the workpiece. That will vary with the thickness and species. I know this helped my work a lot.