tablesaw not cutting straight

[bsa441]

I've been cutting up parts for a dresser and it seems that my tablesaw isn't cutting straight. Some boards do have internal stresses and are bending as they move past the blade, but others don't seem to have that problem, yet the boards also pull to the left. I checked to see if the blade and fence are parallel, and they are spot on. I also checked to make sure my splitter was in line with the blade. Yep.

I know that many types of blades can cut more on one side than the other, e.g., bandsaw, handsaw, chainsaw blades, and can thus pull the cut to the side that the saw is cutting more aggressively, but I've never heard of this happening with a tablesaw. Can it be happening to my blade?

Another piece of evidence is that I'm getting frequent burning in the cuts although the blade appears to be nice and clean.

P.S. Kudos to Nicky Hayden for his firt MotoGP win!

[Bob Schmall]

Could be your feeding technique. I had similar problems until I realized the I was guiding the work through the blade instead of simply pushing it straight ahead and letting the fence take care of the parallelism. Practice on some scrap and try it.

Bob

[bsa441]

I've been cutting on tablesaws for twenty years. I haven't had this problem before, and I don't think my technique is the problem. I always push the board against the fence as well as forward, and when possible, I use a featherboard to keep the board against the fence. The cuts still wander.

[Upscale]

When you tested parallelism between blade and fence, did you rotate and check parallel for a full 360° turning of the blade? I had a warped blade once caused by a wood chip that had found its way between the arbour and the blade when I changed the blade.

[bsa441]

Nope. I'll recheck parallelism tonight. Thanks.

[Lee Michaels]

Good point.

I had an old 12" Rockwell that had a bushing that fit over the saw arbor. It was the only way we could get a regular sawblade to fit. I developed a problem with burning on one side of the cut. I tried everything. Finally I took the blade off and cleaned up really good and put it back together. It didn't help.

Then I took it apart the second time and took some fine emery cloth and lightly sanded the bushing and rinsed it with some paint thinner. I put it all back together again. That did the trick.

It must of been some small imperfection that was introduced into the bushing when changeing sawblades.