What should I expect from my BT3K and a new blade?

[LCHIEN]

was the motor smoking or the wood smoking?
Motor smoking is clearly a sign of overloading the motor - could be dirty as suggested.
A 24-tooth blade will help a lot - among other things its spcifically for ripping and has large gullets between the teeth so that wood chips (actually shavings when ripping) won't fill up the gullet and keep the blade from cutting efficiently.

Again, smoking motor = feeding too fast, smoking wood=feeding to slow, cherry is prone to burn more easily then other woods. 6/4 hardwoods should be handleable by the bT3 though.

[Taylormade]

Alrighty. Here's the latest. I took nearly every screw out of the saw and inspected everything there was to inspect. The brushes look good, new actually. The motor looks brand new inside, there wasn't a spec of sawdust anywhere. I put it all back together, took it apart again, and put it all back together again just for good measure (ok, I looked back on the table and found three screws, doh!). I put the new 24 tooth Diablo blade on and fired it up. I ran the same piece that burned and struggled last night and today it went through without much of a hassle. I'm interested to see if it'll be the same a month from now, but the new blade certainly made all the difference in the world. See pics below.





Slight burning on the brushes


Last night's cut through the 1040X



Same board with the 24T tonight. No burn.

[jking]

After seeing the pictures of the cuts I'm curious if you're using a feather board? I've found it improves the quality of the cut more than I would have expected.

[Taylormade]

I'm not using one but I do have one. I just don't have the tracks to use it, so I need to make one for use with the SMT.

[cwsmith]

The BT3100 manual has a plan for a feather board design for use with the SMT, if that helps.


CWS

[Taylormade]

The BT3100 manual has a plan for a feather board design for use with the SMT, if that helps.


CWS

It does, I'd forgotten about it. Thanks!

[dbhost]

FWIW, the long orange plastic featherboards work great on the SMT even with the miter slot installed (ripping wide boards, too wide to catch the miter slot...). I got mine at Harbor Freight as part of a "woodworkers safety kit" but I believe they are available elsewhere...

Try cleaning that Diablo 40T, you REALLY shouldn't have had that burning with that blade... Mind you, I don't even have a ripping blade, the Diablo 40 does what I want it to on my BT...

[pelligrini]

Try cleaning that Diablo 40T, you REALLY shouldn't have had that burning with that blade...

I was going to say the same, but he said it was a new blade.

You might closely inspect it though, maybe it has a bad grind or is possibly warped or bent. Just because something is new & out of the box doesn't mean it is defect free.

[LCHIEN]

I was going to say the same, but he said it was a new blade.

You might closely inspect it though, maybe it has a bad grind or is possibly warped or bent. Just because something is new & out of the box doesn't mean it is defect free.

he did say he cut some laminate flooring with it, maybe that has something to do with it. The laminates have some composite materials in the underlayers that might have some really abrasive stuff that dulled the blade just enough to make it underpowered or possibly some stuff that melted and adhered to the blade causing friction and burning.

And while a 1040 is a GP blade, the gullets will be quite smaller than those of a 24T ripper and on 1.5" thick material, the amount of material the gullets can hold per pass may be limiting the feed rate enough to cause burning. Remember cherry burns quite easily. So the blade change may have been a big factor.

[jdon]

IIRC, many laminate floor mfrs. incorporate aluminum oxide in the top layer to improve wear resistance- I recall being told that socks wear out more quickly on laminate floors.

So... sort of like cutting sandpaper, huh?

[Taylormade]

Well, all I know is that I put a new 1040X on without cutting ANYTHING else and it smoked. Burned the wood and the motor. With the 24T, no problems to speak of. I've been cutting melamine today (closets) with no resistance, but I'd expect that from my cordless skill saw.

I have a bunch of cherry ready to be planed and jointed (100+ ft) of varying lengths, and thickness, that I'm going to start cutting up for an entertainment center soon. I'll keep this thread updated.

[Knottscott]

It sounds to me like your 1040 was either dull, very gummed up, both, or even defective. Even though it was new, it might not have been sharpened properly. 1.5" hardwood isn't ideal for a 40T blade but it should still handle it...24T is a better choice.

[LCHIEN]

Taylor made,
If you are driving your motor to the point at whcih it starts smoking (you've mentioned 2 occassions now), then you are pushing the motor way too hard. You need to let up once it starts laboring and not drive it to that state.
Heat damage can be cumulative, what the smoke is telling you is that the insulation has broken down from heat. Keep doing this and your motor windings will short out.
Ease up at once when the motor audibly labors and slows seriously - you're driving it to an early death.

Burning the wood is not bad for the saw, but burning smells and smoke coming from the motor is BAD.

[Taylormade]

Taylor made,
If you are driving your motor to the point at whcih it starts smoking (you've mentioned 2 occassions now), then you are pushing the motor way too hard.

Hi, while I've mentioned it twice, it only happened once and that sole instance was the basis of this thread.

I'm happy with it so far, I ripped a lot of cherry yesterday, at least 40', with out TOO much hassle or resistance. It bogged a bit here and there, but no smoke and no burning on the wood, so that's good. It was 7/4 and 6/4 rough wood. Of course, it's a new blade. I'll be interested to see what it looks like after a few more cuts. I'll keep this thread updated. I appreciate everyone's input and suggestions.

[dbhost]

While I am very happy for you that the 24T Diablo is working for you, I am still stunned that the 40T was giving you problems. I have the same 40T Diablo in my BT3100-1, and it has been probably 6 months since I have cleaned it. On Friday evening, I ripped a glue up of 4 thick 7/8" curly maple with a fairly good feed rate.

Now Cherry isn't in my list of woods I have worked with, as I am in Texas I tend to work mostly with native woods, and things that get imported at a reasonable price like the maple... Most of what comes across the blade on my saw is Walnut, Mesquite, Red Oak, Pecan, and Southern Yellow Pine, and of course lots and lots of plywood and OSB for various home improvement projects...

Either that cherry is much harder than Mesquite, which I find hard to believe, or something is amiss... You mentioned, and I might be misunderstanding what you said here, but it sounds like you have tried 2 different D1040X blades... One that had been used on the laminate flooring, one that was unused, which makes me think that there might be motor issues.... Again, if I recall right though, you tore the motor apart, and even posted pics, it all looked clean, good brushes etc... That leaves power supply. Now you are running an extension cord, but you are running a heavy gauge cord designed for carrying a greater load than the saw can provide, so that shouldn't be a problem. There IS a possibility you have too much on the circuit, and are just not providing enough amperage, or even voltage to the saw....

I hate to even think this, but there is a possibility that the issue is with the electrical service into the shop.