Replies

1. 
   forestgirl | Mar 01, 2007 08:59pm | #1

   [disclaiming myself as an expert, just bored with regular Knots today.  Hope I don't get in trouble!]

   80T is alot for a ripping blade!  Blades generally have specific purposes, and the all-purpose or combination blades generally have 40-50 teeth, a rip blade 24 or so.  'Twere I you, I'd get a rip blade, or at the very least a good combination blade.

   Past the tooth issue, ripping hard wood without burning requires a carefully tuned saw and excellent technique.  Check all the usual things (blade to table, blade to miter slot, fence to blade) and your splitter.  If the splitter is off, it can push the wood.  Has to be in line with the blade and 90° to the table.

   You can get a good rip blade at Home Depot -- 24tooth Diablo, by Freud -- for less than $30.  Or go more expensive and order one of the industrial rips by Freud, CMT, Forrest, whomever.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

1. 
   greg505 | Mar 02, 2007 05:19pm | #2

   I am no expert either, but I agree; I once was too busy (lazy) to switch from a cross cut blade to a rip blade and burned a leg being cut out of 8/4 cherry.  As soon as I switched to the rip blade all went smoothly. If using a rip blade doesn't cure the burn then your alignment is probably out of wack.

2. 
   MBerger | Mar 05, 2007 10:40pm | #3

   Thanks to everyone for pitching in ideas. While we promise an expert answer here, we also encourage everyone to chime in with advice.

   I agree that using a rip blade or combination blade will alleviate your problem if your saw is also properly tuned up. An 80-tooth blade is typically designed for crosscutting, whereas ripping blades can have as few as 24 teeth. A combo blade has about 40 to 60 teeth and a special grind.

   Also, maple is an especially hard wood so it is going to compound the problem of using the wrong blade.

   If you do need to tune up the saw, check out these two articles: Tablesaw Tune-Up and Tune-Up Your Tablesaw (boy you'd think we could be more creative with our headlines...)

   Matt Berger
   Fine Woodworking