Help! Trying to rip 2x4 having lots of trouble!

[Knottscott]

Couple of things may help....if you've got a jointer, make sure the board is flat and square before sawing. A 24T ripping blade should strain less than the 36T stock blade.

[Russianwolf]

So, one thing that I am still not clear on is whether the splitter (which IS installed) should prevent the pinching or is the lumber being so cheap (stressed) going to overwhelm even the best efforts of the splitter and pinching will occur anyhow? (i.e. even if it is aligned correctly)

Thanks to everyone!

The splitter does not prevent the pinching the wood does, but is there in an attampt to move the pinch from the blade which could cause a disaster to the splitter which is merely an annoyance.

One option not mentioned earlier is to put a small wedge in the kerf once it starts to bind (assuming you have wood past the splitter. This will prevent the kerf from closing on the splitter and you should be able to continue the cut without backing it out.

If your blade is slowing down and the motor straining, the the pinch sound like it's on the blade and not the splitter. Be very careful.

[mpc]

To tweak the fence so it's slightly further away from the blade at the outfeed end of the fence you loosen the two black-headed screws at the front of the fence. Basically you're following the owner's manual process for lining up the fence with the blade except you purposely mis-align the outfeed end of the fence. A common method is to use a playing card as a thickness guage.

One thing you might try: with the saw OFF, get one of your cut pieces of 2x4 - about a foot long. Get one of the pieces that was originally between the fence and blade when you made the rip cut. With the saw OFF, set the fence as if you were going to make more cuts in fresh 2x4 material. Now slide that sample piece through. It should just graze the front blade teeth... how does it feel against the rear teeth? If it's harder to push once it reaches the rear of the blade, then the outfeed end of your fence is angled TOWARDS the blade which is not good. The tweak that crokett suggested would result in a little freeplay between this sample piece, the blade, and the fence at the rear of the blade. Also note if the sample piece snags on the leading edge of the splitter; if it does your splitter is misaligned.

If all of that is okay, run that same piece on the other side of the saw blade. Make sure it doesn't snag that side of the splitter too.

mpc

[davidtu]

Results

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and info... I printed this thread off for future reference.

So, turned out that the riving knife was not centered. It still isn't perfectly centered, but it is completely behind the blade so I guess its OK. There was only so far I could move it over with the shims. I have all shims except one on the right side (looking down from front) of the knife. Does that seem OK/normal? Wonder if somehow something is out of whack (bent?) or if I have assembled it all correctly.

There is a rectangular plate w/ screw holes that I put on last, other than that, its just the thin shims on the screws and the knife between the leftmost two. Sound right?

Thanks!

[John Hunter]

Must agree. My moisture meter shows a big difference between Lowes & HD wood. Go to Lowes if you have a choice... or get a moisture meter.

Don't go to the Lowes in my area! The wood is dry because they have had the same warped boards in the rack for years! Best lumber off the rack for a big name store in my area comes from Menards.