I don't know what's going on. I rip a couple slabs of wood, one edge tight against the fence for the length of the cut--and when I put the edges together and hold the seam up to the light, not only do I see light but there are irregular gaps you could easily slide a thick sheet of paper through. This will not a good glue joint make.
Maybe I should take up knitting instead :P
Naah, stick to the wood. And check yourself out on the following:
Bob
Check to see if your fence is properly aligned with your blade first. I sounds like your fence is toed in to the back of the blade making your saw very dangerous because the back of the blade will lift the wood kicking it at you. Also you will have to joint your wood on both sides if you plan on gluing it up together. If you have a planer, the steps you should make are: joint the face then plane to rough thickness joint one edge then rip to rough width plane ripped edge to width this will end up giving you a perfectly square and flat board to start with. Remember start square end square
Chris
First, is this something that just started? you used to get good rips, but for some reason suddenly you don't, correct?
are you using a good blade?
arbor nut's tight and no sawdust under the flange?
is there pitch or other crap on the blade?
is there a lot of stress in the wood? and waddya mean slabs?
how long a cut? is the cut surface ragged or smooth?
My .02¢ - - Haven't checked *that* closely on the rip seams on my Crapsman, but they_seam_straight(pun intended). As near as I can tell, the blade/fence are parallel, but the fence obviously toes 'out' a little on the tail, because if I just push a rip piece through, it seems to pull away from the tail of the fence, oh, maybe 1/32" but the cuts are straight. If I try to 'force' it to stay tight to the fence, it starts grumbling & sometimes a little burning. Hhhmmmmmm, maybe I should dig out the dial & recheck fence/blade parallel? Also check some rips against some fresh jointed stock.
For a rip, I just rip away. For a glue-edge, I rip close, then do a second cut taking off only the slightest amount to the line, or just to finish the edge if no line. The blade will tend to wobble even slightly under load, but will cut straighter and smoother with negligible load. If *really* picky, cut close then finish with a guided router.
Bill.
In addition to the other comments already given...
How old or used is the saw? Could the wobbly cut be due to sloppy bearings?
Are you using a thin-kerf (3/32"ish) blade? They tend to flex more than standard kerf (1/8") blades.
Nope, leave your fence the way it is. As you've noticed, the cut is parallel and straight, and you get a bit of anti-kickback protection.
For those odd times when you move the fence to the other side of the blade, however, things could get terse.
Wonder if the OP isn't overfeeding and getting some blade squirm. That's what I think of when I see "irregular gaps."
Knitting will not make a good wood joint. Stick to using the glue.
The first things I'd look at (given your description) are the condition of the blade and the speed you are feeding your stock through the blade. If your blade is dull (particularly with a thin kerf blade), it will flex a lot while trying to cut. As well, if you are pushing the stock through the blade to make it cut faster, you will end up flexing the blade. Let the saw do the work and feed, rather than push the stock through. If feeding the stock results in a wooden paperweight on your tablesaw, then split for a new blade.
I agree with the below response and would add chuck the thin kerf blade and rip with a full-sized quality blade.
I just finished ripping some 2" slices from some 10/4 walnut and two of the eight are stating to look like blanks for propellers.
Dave
I am not the original poster, but I have a very similar problem. No matter how careful I am when jointing the edge that runs along the rip fence, I invariably wind up with a small (less than one millimeter) concavity on the cut edge. I have done my best to make sure the fence is parallel to the blade, and I also do my best to keep the workpiece from wandering away from the fence (typically, one push stick behind the stock, pushing, and one push stick beside the stock, holding it against the fence) but this always happens.
When width is very important, I have taken to building single-use "rip jigs" that ride in the miter slot. It gets me a straight cut, but it's very wasteful of both time and MDF, and it's embarrassing, in a sense, when "rip to width" is typically described as though it were easy.
Can you explain what you mean by "overfeeding"? Another poster mentioned "pushing [the workpiece] too hard", I'm afraid I don't know how hard that is, or should be. Is there some kind of rule of thumb you can suggest?
OK, remember to hold the board to the fence immediately in front of the blade, leave your hold there and continue until you've cleared the measured piece past the entire blade.
I like the kids at school to use a featherboard with a handle to make the hold, so their fingers are out of the way, and they don't have to release pressure until the rip is done. That way the piece doesn't come away from the fence as they change grip. Might be what's happening to you. Could also be that you have a bit of flex in your fence or "sacrificial board" that's being moved by excessive sideways pressure, creating a situation where your fence is actually closer at the rear than the front of the blade.
Your ears are the best judge of feed rate, followed by your eyes. Keep a feed rate which makes for even pitch, and look at the sides of the cut as the teeth hit 'em to see if you're picking a bit of splinter, indicating blade squirm.
Although there is a little bit of irregularity in the gap, closer examination showed that the cut is, as someone else described, basically concave, that is, the ends of the board are very slightly wider than the middle.
That would be fine if I were *trying* to make a sprung joint, but I'm not.
The fence and blade are parallel, so it must be my technique.
Sounds like the fence is flexing away from the blade at the beginning and end of the cut - you're likely pushing against the fence harder at these times than when in the middle of the process.
Use a lighter touch and merely maintain contact between the wood and fence while pushing the wood forward into the blade at an even pace without forcing the blade to cut.
I think I was the someone else. Thanks for letting me piggyback on your question, and thanks to everyone who replied with suggestions. I am now keen to get back on my table saw and get this problem licked.
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