Table Saw Blade Problems

[Clark Harbaugh]

I appreciate everyone's input on this. It's one of the most frustrating issues I've had to work through in the shop in a long time. The strange thing is that I've had this saw for about 8 years and never had an issue. My rips have always been glue ready. My next step is a flat fence face, but I can't see how that would be the route cause of my problems. Otherwise, I would have been having these issues all along with the original Shop Fox HDPE faces. Granted, I need the flat face (shame on me for never noticing mine wasn't), but it's not like the HDPE has suddenly moved with the weather.

Rich, I've tried swapping blades around. On the original 24T blade, I still only get marks on the lower portion of the piece and only from the back side of the blade. Also, went back to the piece I cut with the old 50T combo (that I noted earlier as not having the marks) and noticed it actually had similar marks to the 24T, just not as pronounced. So, I've basically been trying to make small changes then run through all 3 blades and at different feed rates to try and narrow down. It's not the blade to table alignment, so if it is alignment related it has to be on the fence.

The bearings is an interesting thought. I put the dial indicator on the end of the shaft and pried with a 3' length of 2x2. It deflects about .02" with a lot of force, but the deflection doesn't appear to be in the arbor bearings. I get the same deflection when prying under the arm that carries the arbor.

[Clark Harbaugh]

SOLVED! It was indeed the crappy plastic fence face. I fought with it for a while longer this morning to try and shim it out in places to hopefully get it as 'flat' as possible, but in the end I made a quick trip to the big blue store and bought a cheap $9 melamine shelf and cut it to size. It aint pretty, but it works. I'll make it pretty later. The important thing is I'm back to getting a glue ready cut with the 24T thin kerf. My assumption is that when I was setting up the fence with the old face, the waviness prevented me from getting accurate measurements. The new one lets me dial it in exactly parallel. The strange thing is the brand new 30T glue line rip still leaves saw marks. Not happy with that blade at all. Oh well, I guess I can use it for rough cuts.

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[Tim Janssen]

Glad you found the problem!

Tim

[Rich Engelhardt]

Yep - glad you found the problem, but, I'm sorry to hear you aren't happy w/the Glue Line Rip blade.

[Pat Barry]

It looks like those marks are being made by the back of the blade. That might be a clue to the problem. Is the fence parallel to the blade?
Worth checking. Could also be that the wood is twisting as it is being cut.

Tim

Just read your post again and you stated that the fence is parallel to the blade.

I'm a bit stumped about how the back of the blade could be making these marks although that is what the picture says. I think I would raise the blade and recheck before doing anything else. The marks should become more vertical. I suspect the material is not registering fully to the fence after the blade and the piece is vibrating.

[Rick Alexander]

Could it be fence flex? What sort of fence is on the saw? That would align fine but flex in use.

[Clark Harbaugh]

Shop Fox Classic (Bies knock off).

Could it be fence flex? What sort of fence is on the saw? That would align fine but flex in use.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Step 1: try a different blade.

If you have an alignment problem, I expect it to be visible with more than one blade, especially when you are talking about a newly sharpened blade.