Tablesaw burning cuts

[Ed in Tampa]

> Maybe the blade needs cleaning.

It almost certainly needs cleaning now. It was pretty clean when I started. Maybe it was/is dull?

I swapped out blades - for my SS rip blade - worked fine. I also reduced speed to M/N.

I guess the 5/8 arbor could be at fault - but looks pretty hard to damage easily.

Anyhow, now I can finish cutting the MDF sheet into shelves for my Mom's cabinet.

Thanks for the help,

Jim

Jim
I think you answered the question, you said you had two blades a rip blade and an 80 tooth blade. You said the rip blade worked fine.
I think the problem was MDF and an 80 tooth blade. MDF generates huge amounts of dust (huge amounts.. cough... choke...) I think with the speed and the dust getting packed into the teeth and the friction was causing the MDF to burn almost instantly. Once you switched to the rip blade which had much more spacing for the (huge amounts of dust... cough... choke...) and lowered the speed your burning ceased.

I do hope your using a dust mask as MDF creates a huge amount of nasty and toxic dust.

Also is it near fatal to most saw blades so I would be looking in the phone book for sharpening service. I have a designated MDF blade that I use whenever I cut MDF. The blade was sentenced to cutting MDF when it made me mad because it cut some very important wood too short. Hey I had to blame something.
Ed

[Greenvilleguy]

Ed,

I too have had to place misbehaving blades in timeout! It's important for them to know that they can be replaced. (Timeout really doesn't work. To cause a permenant behavioral change, I usually break down and take them to a sharpener.)

[Nick]

Tim & Ed, while you're correct in saying that some woodworking materials and some operations require deeper blade gullets and different speeds for increased chip clearance, I don't think you've nailed it. Remember that (1) a neither a combination blade nor a ripping blade is the optimum blade for MDF and (2) Jim said the burn was just on one side of the material and occured when he was ripping and crosscutting. Most woodworkers have better luck with ATB, STAB, and triple-chip blades when sawing sheet materials, and burning on one side of the blade is a tell-tale that the table is out of alignment with the blade rotation, especially when it occurs consistently -- no matter what his (cheap) combination square is telling him.

Jim, there is a possibility that changing blades worked for you simply because the second blade had increased clearance between the edges of the teeth and the blade body, not because it was sharper or a better blade for the job. I suggest you watch http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/shopvid ... gnment.htm . Ignore this clown's whiny little voice and bad stammer, and just try to follow his instructions. See if that doesn't help. To help match a blade to the materials you're sawing, see http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... Blades.htm .

With all good wishes,