Shopsmith Forums

What could cause one blade/arbor to cut straight and another blade/arbor to not? I don't know either. Try switching arbors onto the other blade and see how that works. Maybe you can isolate an issue. Seems to me that a mis-aligned arbor may cause a wobble, but that would still produce a square cut - just a wider kerf. Same thing with a warped or bent blade. However if you would try to align the table to a blade that wobbles and not use the same tooth on front and back - you may get pretty frustrated.

BTW it got down to the high 20s in Apache Junction and Mesa while you were gone. Folks had to cover their plants. Saw freeze warnings for Tuscon also The good part was it got up to about 60 most days. Billings is known as the banana belt of Montana.

I don't have any explanation, now even a wild one, for why one arbor/blade would work and another would not.

However, I have more comfusing information. I own seven blades mounted on arbors. Six of them cut fine. The seventh does not; if gives me an out of square cut every time.

The arbor/blade that is giving me the fits includes my newest blade. I had to purchase a blade when poor planning left me going into the Christmas period with no sharp blades. I packed five of them off to Forrest for sharpening and had been using the "one good blade" until this fiasco.

The suspect blade cuts clean.

I marked the blade into approximately equal 45 degree segments. I then mounted the blade on an arbor with one segment marking aligned with the set screw on the arbor. I then made a test cut. Same miscut. I then rotated the blade to each of the remaining segment markings and made a test cut at each. Same miscut.

I though this was going to show me a warped blade, or a bent blade, or a bent tooth or something, anything that I could see. Nothing.

You're right, charlese. A warped blade, bent blade or defective arbor would most likely give me something similar to the effects of a wobble blade. A wider kerf than expected but a square cut.

Unless someone from the forum points out some stupid error that I am making (and that is entirely possible), I'm going to just set this blade/arbor aside for awhile. The next time that I have to do a table alignment, I'll work that blade/arbor back into the picture.

Given the normal reliability of my Shopsmith and the consistency over time of the alignments, I may be a really olde man before that happens. I check table alignments regularly but I very seldom have had to make adjustments.

Now that I am no longer moving the shop from town to town, I may find that to no longer be true. In the past, whenever I moved I normally did some tweeking on the alignments. Now, the Shopsmith hardly ever gets dropped down onto its wheels, let alone get transported. My moving may have made the alignments seem more permanent than they really are because I expected to have to tweek after moving.

I also sit here wondering when the bearings are going to give out. I've begun accumulating replacements but the way it looks my grandson may be the first one to change bearings in this Shopsmith.

OK

Now you have me thinking of how can this happen???? A blade that doesn't cut square on a miter cut....

As noted something bent gives you a wobble dado but should do nothing to change the angle of the cut. So what would???

As I think of it it reminds me of what happens if the board moves when using the miter gauge.... mostly this happens at some angle other then 90 deg because of the forces involved but all things being equal at 90 deg things are nomally stable.

If a blade were not sharpened correctly and have the correct "set" they will like a bandsaw blade have "lead". Those of you old enough to have worked on the old steel blades will know about which I speak...

So the blade is likely bad and will pull the wood while cutting. Give the safety grip an extra shot of your super powers and try another cut and look at the kerf to see some staggering on one side... these marks will be missing on the other.

The second test is to see if the hub is moving on the shaft/the quill is moving out/the shaft is moving in the quill... unplug the machine, use some gloves and give a pull while checking with the gauge..... if you are seeing a lot of movement then the blade will be using this to make the cut at an angle...

For the moment I can only see two options, one the wood moving and two the blade moving.

Maybe some one else will have a different theory but for now this is the only way I can see this can happen.

Ed

Did you try switching the arbor from your "bad blade/arbor" combination to one of the good blades? I'll place my bet that you'll make both new combinations better!:)

If you can make another blade "bad" by switching arbors (But I don't see how) then there's got to be something like a blade that gets pulled into a truncated cone by the arbor. With the top of the cone being the mounting hole. This could possibly produce a crosscut with a sloped end, instead of vertical. Does this "bad blade/arbor" combination have an 1 1/4" hole?

But I really think I'm over-thinking.

Were you using the miter gage or a sliding table and did you switch back to a blade that previously cut well just to double check? Tho only thing I can think of is that the miter gage or sliding table may have come out of square and they can be checked with the Wixie angle gage. Remember it's usually better to set the miter gage protractor to the miter bar and not the saw blade.