I just had a rough time ripping a birch board using my Woodworker II blade. The board had been straight line ripped at the mill and seemed to be ok. The blade was recently sharpened by Forrest (3rd time I think) and straight ened. The blade thickness is now about .1 inches. The teeth are sharp and a bout .125 inches thick. It could have been the board (birch) or, are the teeth too thin after the sharpening.
I have about 300 board feet to work into trim and would like it to be a bit easier if possible!
While a very good general-purpose combination blade, it _is_ still a combo. You don't say but if it's the 40T version, or the material is over 5/4 I'd say buy a rip blade.
Of course, how well set up the saw is and what if is (in terms of power and weight primarily power) is significant, too.
Also you don't say what "trouble" means, precisely..
Straight line ripped often does not result in a straight edge, is it straight? Is your fence "Parallel" to the blade? How does it rip OAK? OK? Not the blade. You night need a dedicated rip blade if you are working with anything less than 3 HP.
I have been using WWII's for about 16 years and have never had any issue unless the wood was wonky.
I have already planed down to 3/4. The saw is a 10 inch Powermatic cabinet saw, and I checked for alignment problems when I began to sense the need f or "extra" push power. All within 1 or 2 thousandths. The straight line rip was pretty good to begin with. I was ripping the other side and then went back and took out the "straight line rip" to get the desired final dimensi on.
The only thing I have changed recently is to have the blade sharpened.
I would try cutting piece of wood you are familiar with to see if the blade has changed much. Maybe it's not as flat as it used to be (crazy-wild guess)?
Len wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
As djb said, you still haven't told us exactly what the problem is you're having, altho we might assume that the saw simply isn't cutting as fast as you'd like.
Anyway, as Leon said, did you try ripping something else, to see if it might just be the one board? Bearing in mind that birch can be tough, like oak.
What does the cut surface look like? Scored, burnt, or clean and smooth?
When you were cutting, did it start easy and then bog down, or was it hard right from the git-go? Did you look to see if the cut was binding on the splitter? How much blade is above the wood - they have to work a lot harder if they're not going close to vertically thru the wood.
Have you checked the cut (and the offcut) to see if there was a nail or other foreign object that you might have cut thru and dulled the blade?
I don't have Leon's experience with Forrest, but I have used them for a while, and it's my impression that if the teeth would be ground too small by sharpening, or if the plate was distorted, they would not sharpen the blade for you.
That's a big thing. I agree. if you have the blade all the way up, the blade works much less than if it is cutting into the wood (kept low).
First you need to clean the gullets quickly, which raising the blade will do. Second you are cutting down toward the table, so it is easier to push.
A ripping blade is still the key to lots of ripping. I have one and use it when I have a lot to do. The finish is not good. It's a rough cut, but when ripping you have a lot of footage to do usually, so the trade off is cleaning it up with a swipe or two of a hand plane, or the jointer.
It appears to be a combination of things. First, the wood does look differ ent from the birch. Much harder and with a slight reddish tinge. Second, I just looked at the cutoff; bowed! Third, I never thought to raise the b lade. I was always told to keep the blade low with just the teeth showing. But the idea of raising it to make push easier is an obvious exception.
Len wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
Yeah, I was taught the same thing, and for crosscuts that's how I do it. But ripping that puts the teeth at a bad angle - they're basically pushing along the wood fibers, instead of shearing across them as they do with the blade raised.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.