Shopsmith Forums

All good advice... I might add that I have been known to stop and wax the blade now and then when rough ripping a batch of 2" stuff.
Some general stuff...
I used to rip quite a bit of stuff on my SS-510 because my old Craftsman table saw only had a 3/4 HP motor on it running on 110V and a heavy extension about 12' long (this was in the old shop). It was always stalling and the 510 did much better on the same circuit as long as the feed rate was conservative. I finally ran a dedicated 10 gauge 220V circuit to it and converted it over to 220V operation. I suddenly had power to waste after that and could rip anything with a decent feed rate.
My Ridgid TS-3650 is still on 110V and will rip about anything just fine on a temporary (long story) wiring hookup (new shop - about 225' of 10 gauge bury wire in a 4" underground conduit). I will be also be converting that saw to 220V soon. That will be a #8 feed from the breaker box just because I got a steal on the wire even though it could be "much" lighter. The same goes for my 5 HP Foley Belsaw planer/molder/ripsaw. That BTW, is my weapon of choice for ripping a big bunch of stuff. It will zip through anything up to the full depth of cut of the 10" rip blade and is power feed to boot. If anyone has a need to do "a lot" of ripping I can highly recommend that unit if you can find one in decent condition. I used to use it behind my small commercial sawmill operation of some years ago. It is still like new.
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Gee, I sure wish I could pull off a little plate and convert my SS's motors to 220V... Before I retired I was running most of my many farm electric motors (augers, grain cleaners, blowers, conveyors etc.) on 220V. The difference can be remarkable...

Basically, if you hear the motor slowing down, you are feeding too fast for your saw setup. Proper, sharp blade, waxed table, fence properly aligned to the blade, blade is not slipping on the arbor and improve feed rate.

My Goldie has a 3/4 HP motor and I have succesfully ripped 2x6 and 2x4 stock using a ripping blade. Any other blade spells trouble - but the ripping blade gets the job done. As stated above - slow and easy, with a ripping blade and splitter/guard. Did I mention that I used a ripping blade? Alec

allsas wrote: The resulting 2 x 2 's are so curved that they can't be straightened on the jointer. I assumed it was #2 common 2 x 6.
If they matched, I could build a rocker!

I'm really not picking on allsas here! REALLY!! - - - I'm posting this because an understanding of lumber grading is a subject matter that we (woodworking hobbyists) should understand, but often do not.

Please, don't be misled that "appearance lumber" and "dimension stock" have anything in common when it comes to grading. There is no such thing as a "common" grade of structural softwood boards. "Structural", or "Dimension" are terms used to describe all of the "2 bys" or "4 bys".

The appearance lumber (or those boards described as 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4, etc are graded seperately (entirely differently).

We sometimes will use some structural lumber (after machining) to be appearance lumber, but we shouldn't be surprised by released stresses when machining. For this reason, structural lumber should be used for that purpose and if we are looking for appearance lumber it is usually better if we obtain boards graded for that purpose.

Here is a reference I found that briefly describes softwood lumber grading.
http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/softwood_grades.htm

charlese wrote:I'm really not picking on allsas here! REALLY!! - - - I'm posting this because an understanding of lumber grading is a subject matter that we (woodworking hobbyists) should understand, but often do not. ....................

Here is a reference I found that briefly describes softwood lumber grading.
http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/softwood_grades.htm

Good info Chuck. Thanks. It's more technical than I thought. Always viewed lumber as lumber and my sorting through the pile determined the grade I took home because it sure does vary.

charlese wrote:

Here is a reference I found that briefly describes softwood lumber grading.
http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/softwood_grades.htm

Thanks Chuck great information. It truly amazes me what I can learn from the folks posting here. Jim

I once ripped some long 1"x6"s from Mennards into 3 strips. I don't recall what Mennards said it was. I mistakenly thought it might have been white pine but I was wrong. It turned out to be pretzelwood...