guidance with my tablesaw, very new to the sport.

[aideym]

I am very new to woodwork and splashed out on a 10" tablesaw. I'm not sure if it is good etiquette to mention names but it may be applicable to getting an answer. It is a Charnwood W616.

The saw works wonderfully on plywood and stuff up to 25mm but it really struggles on anything much thicker. I tried to cut an oak board recently and buggered up the brushes. Charnwood replaced the motor for me, in a stress free and perfect customer relations way.

The problem I am having is trying to get it to cut vertically straight through anything thick. The blade is at 90deg at rest and is aligned to 5thou (my dial gauge is the old currency) front to rear. The fence is at 90 deg at rest and doesn't seem to move. As you feed the piece through it cuts an angle of 5 to 10 degrees away from the fence. I have tried cutting the full height which the motor hated and stepping in 20mm stages without any success .

I have watched loads of people on you tube having no problems at all cutting wood, in fact they make it look easy, so am I doing something wrong or did I make a poor choice of machinery? On a saw with a 75mm cutting depth, how thick a piece could you reasonably expect to cut ?

 

[Dominion]

Something not right there, I've never seen a table saw deflect by as much as 5-10degrees. I'm not familiar with your particular brand of saw but it must be the whole motor body that is moving for it to be so far out.

What blade is in? A fine tooth blade will happily cut up sheet materials but cause problems if you are ripping thick timber.

 

[kostello]

You may need to use a different blade........


For ripping 3 inch oak you will need a blade with a low number of teeth, probably around 20 to 24.......

Most likely the blade that came with the saw is around 40 teeth....


More advice will be along shortly

 

[aideym]

Thinking about it I swapped the original blade after I damaged a tooth on it with a 40 tooth blade as I really only use plywood and it was ripping it up badly. Never even considered it. Feel a bit stupid now. Another lesson learned

 

[Dominion]

Yeah, 40t is probably a bit fine for ripping, especially something hard like oak and with a relatively small motor.

Also consider the angle of the teeth, for a table saw you want a positive rake.

 

[Pond]

For advice on blades, give Doug a ring at Cutting Solutions.

He will sort you the right blade for the job and his prices are good too.

http://www.cutting-solutions.co.uk/

 

[aideym]

For advice on blades, give Doug a ring at Cutting Solutions.

He will sort you the right blade for the job and his prices are good too.

http://www.cutting-solutions.co.uk/

link bookmarked. Thank you

 

[Steve Maskery]

+1 for Doug Perry.
40T is OK for ripping thin stuff, but if you are ripping thicker stuff you need bigger gullets to carry away the larger amount of sawdust waste.
I cannot see how a TS can cut that far out, though!
S

 

[MickCheese]

As a novice can I suggest you get Steve's Workshop Essentials CD no 9 (I think), I have bought it and found it very informative.

http://www.workshopessentials.com/shop/

You must be using a lot of force to push the blade out of line by that much, there is something wrong.

Mick

 

[SurreyHills]

A bit obvious but have you checked that your fence is square. Also wax the table to make it easier to push the wood through.

One other thing to try is make the rip cut without a fence - you will need to support the wood with the sliding table or if your saw doesn't have one a cross cut sled.

 

[Timberfreak]

With my previous saw which had a fence that clipped on the rear of the table as well as clamping on the the front rail, I regularly used to put an addition clamp on the rear in order to prevent any deflection of the fence. (Despite its' clipping on the rear it still wanted to move a little without the extra clamp.)

My current saw has a short fence which doesn't reach the rear, and before I attached an over-length auxiliary fence I used to clamp a piece of timber behind the fence (at the R.H.side) to prevent deflection which I found it wanting to do.
When the fence flexed (before the remedies) it was all too easy for the blade to get bogged down.

Once there's no scope for the fence to move, I found both of these saws were quite happy to cope with 3" thick Oak which I use regularly as well as the odd bit of Maple.

Just wondered if the fence may be a factor in aideym's problem?

 

[pip1954]

hi is the problem, if pushing to hard to try to cut thick timber with the wrong blade, i wonder if once the right blade is fitted cut angle may well improve.
pip

 

[Steve Maskery]

As a novice can I suggest you get Steve's Workshop Essentials CD no 9 (I think), I have bought it and found it very informative.

http://www.workshopessentials.com/shop/

Whey-hey! Two rec's in one day, I'm on a roll!
TVM.
Can I suggest you start with WE7, though, for this particular issue?
S

 

[adidat]

it might be worth checking the blade is in the right way, you wouldn't be the first person to have a problem due to that issue.

if the blade is deflecting that much, i would certainly invest in some adult nappies.

adidat

 

[aideym]

Thanks for the replies, the blade is in the right way round and works fine for board. I suspect I am using the wrong blade as I swapped the original out to make the cuts in ply more attractive and completely misunderstood the importance of using the correct blade for the job.
I will dive in the shed after work this afternoon to try it out.

 

[devonwoody]

I never used a ripping blade for a couple of years on my tablesaw, and regulary cut 50mm hardwood with a 40T, its only when I went above that thickness I took pity on my motor and got the 24T blade.

Something wrong is my view.

BTW are you cutting green wood or tanalized timber? That would give you trouble perhaps with a 40T

 

[aideym]

Well I swapped the blade out this afternoon to a 24t and whilst it cut a lot nearer 90deg, the motor was straining quite badly. I gave up in the end and let it eat 25mm pine. However, it was even struggling through that. I am a little worried that I may be on the verge of breaking another motor. For peace of mind I will be looking out for something more up to the job in the new year.

 

[Steve Maskery]

No saw should struggle with that. Have you checked the belt tension? If it is too slack andslipping, that would account for lack of power (although not the strange angle).

 

[aideym]

To be fair I haven't got a clue. I will buy a new blade and try again. Failing that I will take it back to Charnwood and ask for their help. Trouble is, it's a bloomin long way to go again.

 

[stoatyboy]

Hi Aideym

For my 2p's worth I don't reckon it's set up right - to get that angle of drift either your fence or your blade is off square - they are usually never right from the shop

as it's not square your pushing the wood against the side of the blade not the teeth and that's sapping the power (and dangerous)

there's loads of vids and threads (and some excellent dvd's!) about setting up a table saw watch them, read them and give yourself a whole day set aside to sort it out, and don't get bladdered the night before you need a clear head! - you won't need a whole day if you've got it but will if you haven't - if you get my drift.

fences can and do move under load so check that and don't under estimate the amazingly improved performance that a decent blade can give.

go through all the possibles one by one and check them off - and then check them again

I don't know the saw model you have but looking at the prices it's at the 'good value' end of the spectrum so make sure you're not asking too much of it - just cause the blade has 75mm clearance at 90 degrees doesn't mean it can cut 75mm thick hardwood no problem. I have an axi TS200 and it struggled with ripping 35mm ash it did it but it didn't like it - I did it again a year later with a better blade and 12 months more tweaking and user experience and it was a lot happier (for both of us)

final point did a search on you tube and the charnwood co have got something up about the saw - it did seem to slow down when he rips the fat bit of wood - and he wasn't going fast.

it's here - sure you've seen it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtYiplplG4Q

Table Saws are like any tool it takes time to get the best out of them and understand them

good luck hope that helps