I was trying to rip a PT 2x6 that I had bought at the borg a couple of days back. Now like most of the PT in the borg, the wood was pretty damp and clammy when I got it and it only had a couple of days to dry out in my basement.
When I tried ripping it on my $500 Craftsman Table Saw (1992), the blade started to slow down and finally bind after ripping about 10 inches. This happened with or without using the splitter and independent of the height of the blade. I ended up having to rip it in
2 passes and even then it seemed to struggle a bit on the second pass (with the blade all the way throught the stock).
I had never had this problem before with regular wood.
Is this common with PT (especially if not fully dry) or is this more a sign of a misalignment or lack of power?
Probably not a sign of a lack of power, and likely not a sign of misalignment if you don't have the problem cutting well dried woods (hardwoods especially) of similar size. Wet woods will show up a dull(ing) blade faster than dry woods, and the type of wood you're cutting is beyond wet. You've probably chosen a worst case with that 2x6. You can try using something bigger than your splitter to wedge the kerf open. It's likely that the splitter isn't keeping it open enough owing to how wet the wood is. If that does not work, I'd try a new blade. I would not be too quick to look at the saw though. A lot of very capable saws take the blame for other problems that really are not the blame of the saw.
: When I tried ripping it on my $500 Craftsman Table Saw (1992), the : blade started to slow down and finally bind after ripping about 10 : inches.
I had this happen when sawing wood with knots. The kerf pinched shut on the blade and stopped the blade from turning (on my underpowered contractor saw).
You may need a table-saw tuneup. Make certain that the blade is parallel to the fence and miter slot. Sometimes wood will have internal stresses which a splitter and feathers boards will help. Wet wood cuts very differently than kiln-dried.
Had this happen with my saw. I was using a "good" carbide blade with many teeth, the sawdust was not clearing the teeth causing binding. Changed to an old original carbide blade that had only 8 teeth (it was made this way) and it cut like a dream. The huge gullet between the 8 teeth cleared the sawdust and made for easy cutting.
open. It's likely that the splitter isn't >keeping it open enough owing to how wet the wood is.
Couldn't agree more. There is a lot of stored tension in those wood fibers, and when the moisture starts to leave that wood will warp on its own. Don't believe me? Take one of those treated boards out in the yard and leave it there in the grass on a hot day. Most of the time you will come back to a nice canoe shaped board.
When you cut it, the redistributes that tension immediately. When we used to cut the square ballusters on the job out of ripped 2X6s, by the time we cut from one end of the other on a 10' piece, it was not unusual for hte piece to be clamped closed, or for the ends of the wood to be 2-3 inches different from each other.
I don't build decks anymore, because all I could get was nasty wood. We have a two large PT plants on the outskirts of town, and they drop ship to all the local lumberyards. No exaggeration here, you could squeeze the treatment material and water out of the wood with your fingernail on some of that stuff. You can crosscut most of that stuff and see foam or water around your cut. Pure crap.
The splitter most likely won't keep open the slit left by the blade kerf enough to keep the blade from binding. When we cut a piece like that, we used little wedges a coupld oc inched long that were about
3/8" to 0" placed in the kerf to keep the blade clear.
look at the saw though.
Yeah, even those gawdawful stand mounted tornadoes with those universal motors have a surprising amount of power. Surprisingly, we had better luck ripping and (not crosscutting) with cheaper, heavier blades with wide kerfs. All our Freud blades have small teeth and low kerf, and they didn't work nearly as well as an Oldham with heavy, wide kerfed teeth. I am thinking it was the wider kerf and the chips/chunks/pieces that thing chews out rather than "sawdust".
A shot of WD40 on both sides of the blade didn't make it cut better, but it did help keep the resin buildup down.
Exactly, every deck I've done in the last couple years has been done with Trex or a similar composite product, not only because of the ease of construction, but the years of nearly maintenance-free use. I can't imagine why you'd want to use real wood for a deck these days.
floors ... and that >includes "wooden" rails and balusters.
For some reason, composites have never really caught on here and there are only a couple of reliable suppliers. I don't know why... I guess folks like the feel of cupped wood, popped fasteners and splinters beneath their feet. I personally just got tired of going back to the decks with my belt sander and some 80 grit along with some 3 1/2 screws to smooth out the deck surface.
And the fighting the shrinkage across the width.... yikes! You could lose a small dog in some of the joints I have had open up, and I lever the deck boards over and screw them closed. So the boards are straight, but still open too far for my taste at the lateral edges.
For some strainge reason, ipe isn't that popular, either. I actually think composite looks better than ipe, and for the price, I would go composite. A few leaves, some kid wear, some muddy foot prints, a little dust, a little mold... the composite cleans off with a hose and still looks better than the ipe (to me!) and certainly better than face checked PT YP.
I've been using "Weatherbest" for the decking lately, and "ChoiceDek" components for rails and balusters (the latter because they match the Southern architectural style we primarily use, you can run over to any BORG and get what you need of the ChoiceDek quickly, and it paints _white_ nicely (after priming) ... I'm not a fan of their Choicedek decking however).
The Weatherbest decking is pricey upfront (AAMOF, I have a fresh invoice, dated today, for 20 pieces of 5/4 x 5 1/2" x 20' (actual dimension) for $1354.80, or $3.39 LF), but it is _well_ worth even that cost in the long run.
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