Question/saw issue...

[cabinetman]

First...make sure the blade is mounted to cut in the correct direction...the teeth should be pointing into the cut (towards you as you stand at the saw). That sounds like a no-brainer, but it has happened.

It could be an alignment issue, and that would be easy to check. With the saw unplugged, raise the blade all the way up, and pick one tooth. Lock the fence, and rotate that tooth to the front, and measure from the edge of the tooth to the fence at the table height. Then rotate that tooth to the rear, and take the same measurement. See if there is a deviation.

But, I'm guessing the problem is likely with the blade. It sounds like it's too fine of a cut. You may need a more aggressive one. What blade do you have exactly...brand, tooth count, tooth design?

.

[Knottscott]

Blade selection and alignment are key factors in the performance of any saw, and is the first thing I'd check into. A good 3/32" thin kerf blade is a good choice for your saw because it's easier to spin than a 1/8" full kerf blade. The stock blade on the original BT's was a thin kerf 36T blade made by Freud in Italy, and was pretty good....I have no idea what blade came with the Cman version, or what blade is on there now. Which blade to get specifically depends on your usage, but many use a good 40T or 50T general purpose combo type blade like a Freud Diablo, Infinity, Irwin Marples series, DeWalt Precision Trim series, or CMT. For thicker ripping you may need to go to fewer teeth with a steep hook angle. Good blades start at just under $30. I would avoid Irwin Marathon, Avanti/Avanti Pro, Workforce, current Ryobi, HF, DeWalt Construction series, Oldham Contractor series, Skil, Vermont American, and other off names blades.

Others can certainly explain how to align a BT saw.

[Carpenter96]

Binding

Hi Steve There are usually two reasons that a saw will bind one is that the fence is toed in towards the blade and the other is the operators method of pushing on the stock. If you push on the stock too close to the fence this will cause the wood to move away from the fence and cause problems. You can check your fence alignment by moving the fence a few inches away from the blade and lock it in place, raise the blade up all the way, then carefully measure from the blade to the fence both at front and back of the blade. I have had my BT 3000 for 12 years and have not had to adjust the fence alignment. Regards Bob

[steveg]

Hi all.

I joined the forum a couple of years ago, when I bought a Craftsman version of the BT3K saw at a garage sale, in excellent shape. I introduced myself then as a guy with an interest in wood, but since my 4 years of wood shop in high school, I have only dreamed of having a working wood shop of my own -- without the money or space to follow through.

As a result, I have had very little table saw use in 25 years, but I'm involved with a project in my home (building a theater room) which will require some trim carpentry, and decided that it was therefore time to buy a table saw. I did this two years ago (bought my Craftsman saw), found this forum, and began to dig into how to use it. HOWEVER -- my project stalled, and thus have not yet used the saw.

Fast forward to today, and I'm ready to start the trim carpentry on my theater room, and finish this project. So, I'm back to trying to "crash course" myself on getting up to speed in terms of being able to utilize this saw in (at least for now) a very basic way -- just some rips of 3/4" oak boards, and cutting some small pieces of 1/4" to 3/4" plywood and MDF.

NOW -- here's the issue (sorry for the long-windedness!) Back around the time I bought the saw, and was reading the forum, I recall this being a somewhat unique saw in terms of squaring up the fence to the blade. Not sure if the prior owner had done it properly (the saw appears to be nearly un-used), I ran a piece of 3/4" oak through the saw, and I found it VERY VERY tough to run the board through and make the rip cut. It almost acted as though the blade was dull or something (it is not -- it's nearly new). I had to push with alot of force to get the board to glide along the fence, once it encountered the blade and the cutting began. It made the cut, but only with considerable effort on my part to push the board through.

Clearly, there was something not right, at this point, and I assumed the solution was that I would need to do the "blade/fence" alignment. But then, as I said, my project stalled, and I never got it to the trim carpentry stage, so never followed through with solving this issue.

Now that I am back at it and ready to trim the room, is it fair for me to assume that this is, indeed, just a matter of aligning the blade and fence? If so, I think I recall the instructions for the saw detailing how to do this, but wanted to make sure that there isn't some other issue with the saw that I might need to address. From the information I have provided, is there enough for you to go on, to help me "diagnose" this issue -- and confirm that this is likely just an "alignment" issue?

Thanks in advance -- for any help, and for your patience with this long-winded table saw "novice!"

Steve