woodworker II blade sharpening

[Len]

I just had a rough time ripping a birch board using my Woodworker II blade. The board had been straight line ripped at the mill and seemed to be ok. The blade was recently sharpened by Forrest (3rd time I think) and straightened. The blade thickness is now about .1 inches. The teeth are sharp and about .125 inches thick. It could have been the board (birch) or, are the teeth too thin after the sharpening.

I have about 300 board feet to work into trim and would like it to be a bit easier if possible!

Thanks for any good suggestions.

Len

[dpb]

...

While a very good general-purpose combination blade, it _is_ still a
combo. You don't say but if it's the 40T version, or the material is
over 5/4 I'd say buy a rip blade.

Of course, how well set up the saw is and what if is (in terms of power
and weight primarily power) is significant, too.

Also you don't say what "trouble" means, precisely..

--

[Leon]

Straight line ripped often does not result in a straight edge, is it
straight?
Is your fence "Parallel" to the blade?
How does it rip OAK? OK? Not the blade. You night need a dedicated
rip blade if you are working with anything less than 3 HP.

I have been using WWII's for about 16 years and have never had any issue
unless the wood was wonky.

[Len]

I have already planed down to 3/4. The saw is a 10 inch Powermatic cabinet saw, and I checked for alignment problems when I began to sense the need for "extra" push power. All within 1 or 2 thousandths. The straight line rip was pretty good to begin with. I was ripping the other side and then went back and took out the "straight line rip" to get the desired final dimension.

The only thing I have changed recently is to have the blade sharpened.

Len

[Bill]

I would try cutting piece of wood you are familiar with to see if the
blade has changed much. Maybe it's not as flat as it used to be
(crazy-wild guess)?

[Leon]

So how does it cut other woods? Yo may have a lot of case
hardening/internal stress in those boards.

[John McCoy]

Len <l-l...@uiuc.edu> wrote in
news:1d0eb0ac-4763-4431...@googlegroups.com:

As djb said, you still haven't told us exactly what the
problem is you're having, altho we might assume that the
saw simply isn't cutting as fast as you'd like.

Anyway, as Leon said, did you try ripping something else,
to see if it might just be the one board? Bearing in mind
that birch can be tough, like oak.

What does the cut surface look like? Scored, burnt, or
clean and smooth?

When you were cutting, did it start easy and then bog down,
or was it hard right from the git-go? Did you look to see
if the cut was binding on the splitter? How much blade is
above the wood - they have to work a lot harder if they're
not going close to vertically thru the wood.

Have you checked the cut (and the offcut) to see if there
was a nail or other foreign object that you might have cut
thru and dulled the blade?

I don't have Leon's experience with Forrest, but I have used
them for a while, and it's my impression that if the teeth
would be ground too small by sharpening, or if the plate was
distorted, they would not sharpen the blade for you.

John

[Doug Winterburn]

Are the teeth pointing at you?


--
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure,the creed of ignorance, and the
gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery"
-Winston Churchill

[woodchucker]

On 7/1/2015 6:58 PM, John McCoy wrote:
> How much blade is
> above the wood - they have to work a lot harder if they're
> not going close to vertically thru the wood.

That's a big thing. I agree. if you have the blade all the way up, the
blade works much less than if it is cutting into the wood (kept low).

First you need to clean the gullets quickly, which raising the blade
will do. Second you are cutting down toward the table, so it is easier
to push.

A ripping blade is still the key to lots of ripping. I have one and use
it when I have a lot to do. The finish is not good. It's a rough cut,
but when ripping you have a lot of footage to do usually, so the trade
off is cleaning it up with a swipe or two of a hand plane, or the jointer.

--
Jeff

[woodchucker]

On 7/1/2015 7:30 PM, woodchucker wrote:
> On 7/1/2015 6:58 PM, John McCoy wrote:
>> How much blade is
>> above the wood - they have to work a lot harder if they're
>> not going close to vertically thru the wood.
>

see mod here. It didn't come out like I meant it.

> That's a big thing. I agree. if you have the blade all the way up, the

> blade works much better and you work less hard than if it is cutting into the wood (kept low).

[Len]

It appears to be a combination of things. First, the wood does look different from the birch. Much harder and with a slight reddish tinge. Second, I just looked at the cutoff; bowed! Third, I never thought to raise the blade. I was always told to keep the blade low with just the teeth showing. But the idea of raising it to make push easier is an obvious exception.

I finally cut some birch. OK!

Thanks to all for all the tips.

Len

[Kevin Miller]

Do you have a splitter on the saw? If you've got reaction wood it may
be pinching the blade. You want to make sure your kerf maintains it's
width.

...Kevin
--
Kevin Miller
Juneau, Alaska
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
"In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car."
- Lawrence Summers

[John McCoy]

Len <l-l...@uiuc.edu> wrote in
news:a843a8b5-ee15-48cb...@googlegroups.com:

> Third, I never
> thought to raise the blade. I was always told to keep the blade low
> with just the teeth showing.

Yeah, I was taught the same thing, and for crosscuts that's how
I do it. But ripping that puts the teeth at a bad angle - they're
basically pushing along the wood fibers, instead of shearing
across them as they do with the blade raised.

John

[krw]

I keep the blade low to improve dust collection. I don't use a
crosscut blade for ripping, though.

[Leon]

Ideally the gullet bottoms are just above the top of the board. Keeping
the blade low is mostly for safety reasons.