Shopsmith Forums

If my blade is square to the table where would I look to see where the problem of crooked cutting would be?

Now it just may be a matter of practice and I am fine with that.

I have used both a jig and free hand on the resaw.
I draw a line down the middle of the board, and when done, I have followed the line pretty good, but the bottom of the cut is way off center.

like I said, maybe it practice.
talking 6 inch wood on my SS BS
new 1/2 inch Olson blade

TIA

are you sure that you did not pop out of your lower guides. When cutting round bowl blanks, I have tried backing up a little and somehow pulling out of the lower guide and saw close to a half inch of wander on the bottom vs the top

Feed slower! Do not reverse direction of feed. Check guides and tension.

BTW How much is 'way off'?

1/4 of inch

I will take all into account next time, pretty sure none were the fault, but will double check.

Should one tighten the blade a little more?
what would happen if the blade was a little tighter?

Check your guide blocks and then check that the blade is perpendicular to the table.

Your drawing a line and following it is correct. I've found the best jig/fence to use is a single point fence. The protruding single point must also be perpendicular to the table and parallel to the blade.

Now all you need is to apply pressure to the side of the board to keep it in contact with the single point fence. You can do this by hand or use feather board(s). Somewhere Nick showed us how to stack featherboards. I prefer to use hand pressure if the board is thick enough to be safe.

Although I've seen them that are a lot more pointed than mine. - Here's the fence I use -
[ATTACH]11940[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]11941[/ATTACH]

that is the exact same guide I used, I know I didn't use any side pressure. I was so focused on the top line and pushing from the back.

It's not side pressure, it's feed pressure. It's *real* easy to push too hard, and almost all of us do it.

When you push the wood into the blade, the teeth dig in, cutting the wood. In a perfect world, with feed pressure matching the wood thickness, tooth count, sharpness and a few other things, the blade will cut perfectly true and straight.

But, invariably we don't change the blade, don't sharpen it, get impatient, and push the wood into the blade too fast and hard. So the blade deflects a little, to one side or the other. So now it's cutting into the wood at a not straight angle. And the walk and twist begins. Eventually, it reaches an equalibrium, and you get a nice warp in your cut.

I would say the problem is one of three things.
Feed pressure/speed
Guide block adjustment
Blade tension

If those three are correct then I would say your blade is damaged and the teeth set is off.

My guess is you guide blocks aren't adjusted correctly. Remove both the top and lower guides and make sure the faces of the guides are true. If you are using graphite cool blocks they can and will get indents that are not true to the angle they should be holding the blade.

Other words the top may be correct but the bottom is actually twisting the blade ever so slightly to cause it to track different than the top.

One thing when you resolve the issue be sure to post the fix. So others will know the fix. Thanks

Pressure:

Three directions are mandatory.

1) Press workpiece firmly against the table top.
2) Press workpiece firmly against the fence(flat or curved).
3) Gently press the workpiece into the blade. Allow the blade(and guides etc.) to do its job.

Finger boards may help maintain #1 and #2 if positioned correctly.