Saw bogged down -- and bogged me down.

[Vince Heuring]

I went out this morning and bought a load of maple for a shaker-style table that I'm building from my wood supplier, Diverse Hardwoods in Longmont CO. My plan was to begin by ripping the 1-1/2" legs from a piece of 8/4 maple. I get about 8" into the cut when the saw starts bogging down. I react by advancing the wood more slowly, but no joy -- the blade continues to slow even when I'm not advancing the wood at all. I managed to hit the off switch before the blade had completely stopped, but some smoke is arising from the wood. To my surprise I could not pull the wood back out from the blade. The board was gripping the blade so tightly that I ended up having to pound the wood backwards with a wooden mallet to get it out. It must have taken 50-100 hard blows before I finally get the wood away from the blade.

When I finally got the board out and finished sweating I checked the blade for runout and the fence for alignment, and everything seemed to be OK. (Saw is a BT3000 with a thin-kerf WW II blade.) The saw started up OK, so I started making test cuts to try to figure out what had happened. I first ripped a piece of 3/4" plywood, no problem. Clean cut, no burning. Being emboldened by this I ripped, in succession, a piece of 2x4 pine, a piece of 6/4 oak, and finally a piece of 10/4 poplar. All cut cleanly, no burning or other bad behavior.

Have I just had my first experience with reactive wood? What's up with this? Is it a common occurrence?

[George]

Well, case-hardening in the kiln and wild grain suggest themselves. The kerf was closing, apparently, on the back of the blade. If you had a splitter, and it was in place, you might have avoided the jam, though the burn would still have been there.

Get thee to a bandsaw and rough a bit more oversize.

[Mike G]

Probably and while not common too that point it's not rare either.

[Rich]

Planing down the wood is sometimes suggested for case hardened wood to reduce the stress once cut on the TS. Plane both sides equal is my guess.

Rich

[Howard Ruttan]

Interior stress in wood can occur naturally as well

Excellent advice. That is my preferred method.

[Vince Heuring]

Yup, that's exactly what I did, and it worked fine. BTW, the BT3000 has a riving knife but I guess the wood didn't even reach it.

As of this moment the sawdust has been removed from the 8/4 x 7 maple, leaving four table legs. :-)

Thanks to all!

[nospambob]

[George]

Wider splitter or a better kiln?

Of course, I'm using a Delta CS and no splitter, and air dry my own wood, so the few curly birch or nasty aspen (real poplar) that think of grabbing generally warn me by trying to lift at the rear of the blade. Whereupon I turn it off and go to the bandsaw. Hope the OP left the oversize roughs out in the open to relax before attempting to take them to final size. Favors the best outcome that way.

[bridger]

sounds like what wood does when it has been kiln dried too fast- pinch.

[bridger]

nope. said he bought it the night before.

[George]

Hope the OP left the oversize roughs

[Nate Perkins]

Hi Vince,

I had this experience once with a 5/4 piece of red elm. Since then I rough rip on the bandsaw, as the other poster mentioned. This occurred on wood that I get from a trusted lumber mill, but it was pretty close to an area with a lot of figure/crotch/knot.

Just curious. I am local to you ... have you been overall pleased with Diverse? I get wood in Fort Collins from either Sears Trostel or from Kyhlwood (comes in once a month from Iowa).

Cheers, Nate