I am so frustrated

[zootroy]

Question: Anyone have this setup? Ridgid TS3650 w/ Forest WWII thin kerf? (Ken M maybe?). If so, are you using the factory splitter with the thin kerf blade?

The rest is just a rant to unload some frustration. Safe to skip.

Well, wife and baby are out of town for the weekend, so I thought I would get a lot done on my current project. I have a new woodworker II thin kerf that I put in today (I own the Ridgid TS3650). Since I have a new blade, I make a new ZCTP, checked all of my adjustments, and started going. Crosscuts were great. Went to rip a 1" thick poplar and she started bogging down as soon as I got about 10" in. Stopped the saw and started rechecking alignment, everything looked good. So, I thought that the splitter might be too thick for my new kerf thickness. Removed it and the cut was better, but still not like butter as most WWII user have described. Some burns and blade marks. So I spent most of the day messing around with my table saw alignment and haven't got anything to show for my time and an expensive blade except some burnt wood with a lot of saw marks and a serious fear of my table saw. I am going to clear my head and unwind before I do something stupid and hurt myself.

[Ken Weaver]

I'm sure Ken will come on line in the morning and help out. Don't think his WW is the thin kerf but the standard like mine. I have the BT and didn't have any change with the splitter on my Shark. It may be the difference with the thinner blade.

[LCHIEN]

Question: Anyone have this setup? Ridgid TS3650 w/ Forest WWII thin kerf? (Ken M maybe?). If so, are you using the factory splitter with the thin kerf blade?

The rest is just a rant to unload some frustration. Safe to skip.

Well, wife and baby are out of town for the weekend, so I thought I would get a lot done on my current project. I have a new woodworker II thin kerf that I put in today (I own the Ridgid TS3650). Since I have a new blade, I make a new ZCTP, checked all of my adjustments, and started going. Crosscuts were great. Went to rip a 1" thick poplar and she started bogging down as soon as I got about 10" in. Stopped the saw and started rechecking alignment, everything looked good. So, I thought that the splitter might be too thick for my new kerf thickness. Removed it and the cut was better, but still not like butter as most WWII user have described. Some burns and blade marks. So I spent most of the day messing around with my table saw alignment and haven't got anything to show for my time and an expensive blade except some burnt wood with a lot of saw marks and a serious fear of my table saw. I am going to clear my head and unwind before I do something stupid and hurt myself.

Two things come to my mind. One, did you check the width of your splitter with a pair of calipers - if its over .096 or -something then you may have some width problems.

the other thing is once a guy said he put his blade on backwards...

[zootroy]

Loring,

I don't have calipers. Best I can do is eyeball it. The kerf and the blade look to be the same size. It is spinning the correct direction. It could be that the splitter is not aligned. Getting that thing lined up is non-trivial.

I switched back to the old blade and have had better success. I think that I have found one source of the problem. The 10" poplar that I was cutting had some twist in it. I got one edge straight on the jointer, and was trying to rip it so that I could plane the one face flat on the jointer. I suppose that a slight twist in a 1" thick board could cause some binding.

I hope I can get the blade working with my splitter. I like a splitter, pawls, and guard. I get feeling very sketchy without them.

[kwgeorge]

Sitting here think about your post has me wondering about your thoughts on the splitter. It seems to me that if the splitter were too thick it could potentially make the wood harder to feed through the saw but not cause it the saw to “bog” down as you described.

I have this saw and I started using it with my old Freud thin kerf blade with little issue. I have since switched to the WW-2 standard thickness blade and I can tell you that thing will cut about anything with little issue. I have cut many very dense woods with it now including a 2X8 piece of Lyptus with no motor strain.

With all that I am thinking about what you may want to check for in looking at this problem logically. First would be power, is the power cord warm after using the saw? Is your circuit and perhaps extension cord rated to supply the necessary power? Do you have other things running that are using the same circuit? Also I would check the obvious things like the belt having proper tension and not slipping, the arbor nut being tight enough and lastly your alignment and blade parallelism to the fence. And don’t laugh about putting the blade on backwards! I did it not too long ago while switching blades a lot for a project. I caught it myself before using it like that and had to laugh at myself then fixed it.

[zootroy]

Troubleshooting (sorry so long)

Ok, I went back at it today with a clear head and started looking at some of the things that kwgeorge suggested.

1. Power - 20 amp (not dedicated), bathroom lights are on this as well, but everything else was turned off and saw was plugged directly, no extension cord. Still could be power, but I doubt it. Cord is not hot after use.

2. Belt Slippage - checked the tension and it seemed ok. Don't know how to tell if the belt is slipping while i'm running the saw.

3. Checked all alignments for the 6th time.

So, installed the forest blade and removed the riving knife. ripped a 1/2" thick piece of pine, about 15" into the rip I had to start putting some muscle behind it. Stopped the saw. Probably not the splitter as I initially suspected.

Took a look at the board and it had a slight twist.

Ran some mdf with factory edge against the rip fence. Butter. Installed the riving knife and ripped mdf again. Butter.

So the new question is, can twisted, warped wood cause binding, and how much twisting and warping could cause it. The pine board had a very slight twist.

If it is in fact warped, twisted wood, then I have a catch 22 on my hands. I have boards over 6" wide, I can't face plane then on my jointer. I can't rip them to <= 6" on my saw because of binding. What do I do (I hope the answer doesn't involve hand planing)?

BTW, thanks everybody. I feel like I have been hogging this forum for the last few days. I really appreciate all of the help.

[Jim Boyd]

A twisting warped board is the reason for using a riving knife. Lots of wood will pull closed after the cut and pinch the blade. Be careful, it sounds like a prime candidate for kickback!!!!!

[Ken Massingale]

Hey zootroy,
Sorry, I missed this post till now. I don't use the Ridgid splitter, I use the thin kerf MJ Splitter
I have milled stock with some warp/twist in it, I don't know how much yours is deformed so I can't comment on whether the Microjig splitter would help, but I have hogged some fairly rough stuff through the 3650. In addition to being a splitter, the MJ acts as a featherboard. There are 2 splitters in the package, each side of each one is thicker from it's middle. (hard to explain, see the website slideshow) Anyway, as the cut stock passes the splitter the splitter pressure is applied toward the fence, and the splitter keeps the wood from clamping on the blade. They demonstrate how to use 2 of the splitters to futher help with malformed stock. The price seems high for 2 little pieces of plastic, but it's a bargin.
Hope this is of some help, PM me if I can be of any help.
ken

[John Hunter]

I cut some hard maple that closed in on my splitter so tight that I could not push it any farther through the saw. The splitter did its job by preventing it from closing in on the blade and causing a kick back.

[zootroy]

John,

That may be what's happening.

I just got through ripping some 6' rails. This is how it went:

The first 1.5 feet - smooth
The next 2.5 feet - I had to put my weight behind the board to push it through.
Last 2 feet - smooth.

Maybe it's pinching my splitter/riving knife and it's more noticeable now that I have a thin kerf blade. If this is the case, is it safe? I would rather not have to push so hard.

[John Hunter]

I was cutting some pieces about 5 feet long, when I ran into the problem I simply stopped the saw, removed the board then flipped it end for end and completed the cut from the other end. It solved my problem.

[gimpy]

If it is the twist/warp that is doing it, there is a jig (right word?) that you can make. Put your piece on it (jig is straight alligned with the fence) and then cut a straight side. (I've never made/used one, but have seen it in magazines/books).

Yesterday, I actually had the same problem on my BT. The 2X4 I was ripping was twisted (not real noticeable) and really bogged down the saw. It was only one board and not too long. I did what John said and finished it. But, I think if I had quite a lot to do, I would make the jig/sled to use.

Frank