Hmm, Table Saw is Burning

[Floyd Mah]

How about checking to see if the fence is straight and not slightly curved? I bought and installed the Delta fence for my contractor's saw many years ago when I discovered that the front bar that the fence was clamped to was curved. A curved fence would start out well until it directs the wood into the rear of the blade.

[Lee Schierer]

Okay, here's my shot at your problem. The saw worked fine before the dado cuts right. You checked the alignment at various points on the blade.

Here's what I would suggest. First take off the blade and make sure your arbor flange, sides of the blade and washer are clean, then check the belt tension. Dado blades are a lot of metal to swing and your belt may have worked in a little so it is now slightly loose. If the saw is bogging down you will get the burn marks. Tension the belt(s) Do a test cut.

If you still get burning, recheck your alignment of the blade to the miter slot with your dial indicator. Mark one spot on the blade with a magic marker (not on a tooth, but near the edge of the blade). Then raise your blade as high as it will go. Check the distance at the front of the blade and the back of the blade using the dot you placed on the blade. They should be exactly the same. If not adjust the alignment.

Personally I keep my fence exactly parallel to the miter slots and blade.

Finally, you may not want to hear this. Get a 24 tooth rip blade. Combination blades are a compromise when it comes to ripping and they don't cut as clean or as fast as dedicated rip blade will.

[Dave Hasson]

Finally, you may not want to hear this. Get a 24 tooth rip blade. Combination blades are a compromise when it comes to ripping and they don't cut as clean or as fast as dedicated rip blade will.

Let me second this comment by Lee. I had a 50 tooth Infinity Super General blade and kept getting the burning even though all my measurements were good. I bought a Freud glue line rip blade and the difference was night and day. No more burning and I didn't feel like I had to muscle the wood thru the blade.

[Brian Kincaid]

James, I know you tried to chop a tree down with your tablesaw, but cutting the lawn with it too?

Coffee into keyboard funny!

Are you running the thin kerf or full kerf? I always felt like the full kerf gave me the best cut, I even used a blade stabilizer on it though it probably was not needed.

You mentioned that the blade was fairly new, but I think I should mention a dull blade will burn wood (slow feed) or scratch (fast feed) no matter how well set up.

How many teeth did you check with your miter slot alignment? To do this right you have to measure from a single tooth in the front, then the same tooth in the back. Do several teeth this way to evaluate if the sawblade is flat.
Can you tell if pitch / burn marks are building up around a certain section of your saw blade?
These would indicate a warped saw blade.

-Brian

[mark mcconachie]

Maybe too obvious, but I wonder how many teeth you blade has?

For a short time, I thought 'more was better' but found that to only work with ... well, we'll let that one go. Anyway, if you are running a blade with too many teeth you could end up with lots of burn marks too.