Ripping rock maple

Aug 01, 2004 9 Replies
F

Greeting from a novice!


I was recently ripping some 8/4 hard maple for table legs and I noticed that the feed pressure was a lot more than I anticipated. I had some burning and stunk up the shop pretty good (enough for the wife to complain ;-) ) I am using a brand spankin new Forrest blade 40T with an 1/8" kerf.........should I be using a 24T for this kind of ripping? I also noticed that two of the four legs I cut had a slight bow in them.....the block I cut them from was jointed, planed, and perfectly square......any ideas??


Thanks Again!!


Frank


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C

Frank & Renee asks:

Yes.

Charlie Self "Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame." Laurence J. Peter

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J

kerf.........should

Seems possible to me that, from the "had a slight bow in them" reference, that the stock had some internal tension and these were released as you ripped. I've had more than one piece of badly dried wood grab the blade pretty badly and put up a smokescreen. As always, a real ripping blade will probably outperform a combo blade when the going get tough but when the wood is grabbing the blade even that might not help.

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G

Welcome to the world of case-hardening. The burning was likely the pinching of the wood into the blade. R Bruce Hoadley _Understanding Wood_ is an excellent preparation for woodworking.

Fewer teeth generally means deeper gullets and better chip clearance.

kerf.........should

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L

The wood is most likely the problem providing your saw is also properly tuned and you are feeding parallel to the blade. Maple is prone to burn if everything is not perfect. I "resaw" 5/4 Ipe, 3" wide and seldom get burning using the same 40 Tooth

1/8" kerf blade.

kerf.........should

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J

A splitter might help too.

JP

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G

I air dry my oak, so it's "popple" that gets me.

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