Need Help !!! (General 350)

[Marty Rose]

I have a General 350 T/S, Made in Canada. Just lately, within the past 3 day's have been experiencing a problem that maybe someone can help me with. While cutting Hardwood or Softwood, I keep getting CHATTER MARKS on the wood I am cutting. I've Tightened the arbor nut very very tight. Smoothed the arbor washer on some 440 wet and dry, The Blade is a RIDGE CARBIDE 40 tooth. The sides are smoothe, showing no marks indicating any slippage. The results are many hours of needless sanding to get the CHATTERMARKS out of the cut wood. They look like a representation of half a saw blade. I have not burnt the blade nor tweaked it, It does cut like a hot knife through butter, but the chatter-marks are getting to me. Please help!

[Mike Marcade]

Have you checked your belt tension?

[Marty Rose]

One thing I did not think of.:o Thank You Mike.

[Bill Huber]

Have you tried a different blade?

My Forrest I blade started to chatter at one time and I pulled it off and did a complete clean up on the blade and then took care of the problem.

[Mike Marcade]

Hope it works. :)

[Walt Caza]

Hi Marty,
The Can. made General 350 is a sweet saw. I think of chatter as a
function of alignment, or lack thereof...
You have tried some fixes, but may have missed some fundamentals.
The arbour nut is under a tightening force as the shaft spins, so there
should be no benefit to over-tightening.

I would suggest you start at the beginning, and check and tune all aspects
of your cuts. Blade slippage is not a common tablesaw problem.
How about looking at the fence to blade (and miter guage slots) alignment?
I suspect one possible contributor could be the back of the blade rubbing the fresh cut.
Some old pros suggest you kick the far end of the fence just open wider
than true. Just a bit... Think: the opposite of pinching between blade
and ripfence. The cuts will stay parallel, but the back half of the blade
will 'unload' and not make contact.

Another thought would be your feeding technique through the cut.
Any hesitation or feedrate change, such as when shifting hands, can
degrade cut quality. Ideally, a smooth and constant feed, while
remaining safe, will produce the smoothest cut.
Do you get more chatter marks on longer cuts ?

Perhaps you could try some workaids, such as feather boards to hold the
work against the fence? Some Creekers swear by the help of Board
Buddies, both for safety and better cutting.

I have heard of bearings growing sloppy on older machines...
Let us know how you make out,
be well,
Walt
:)