What did I do wrong

[Lonnie in Orlando]

No-Measure BT3K Alignment

Greg:
Here is a link to an old post showing the way that I align my BT3000. A .pdf of the post fell off of the BT3Central archives when the forum was updated.
http://www.ryobitools.com/dc/dcboard...ng_type=search

Lee:
Although a lot of people do it, I'm not a fan of kicking the outfeed end of the rip fence to the right.

Loring:
Thanks for the link to my "No-Measure" method on your website. But looks like the link has been broken.

Happy New Year,
- Lonnie

[leehljp]

Cabinetman:The alignment issue seems to be still up in the air. My experience is that to get good overall alignment you start with what is the most difficult to change. If the saw table has any type of miter slot, the blade should be in alignment with the slot first. The slot being in the table means the table does matter.

Cabinetman,

I don't think you understand the BT3000/3100 -> Alignment of the fence is in regards to the blade on this machine. The BT does NOT come with a miter slot as standard. The BT3x was designed with everything being made to go into alignment based on the Blades position, or in different words, alignment was intentionaly designed around the blade.

Most saws were designed around the table and then the blade, fence and other things were designed to be adjustable to the table. This is what you are thinking. But in the BT3X, everything has to go in relation to the blade. So the fence is intentionally designed to line up with the blade; the slideing miter table is lined up with the blade; the rails are ligned up prependicular to the blade. There are a few people who have a table that is 1/8 inch out of square to the blade but it doesn't matter as the alignments of everything is done in relation to -> the blade.

This is one of those machines that was "outside of the box" thinking when it was designed.

[cabinetman]

This is wrong (in bold). The fence should be aligned to the blade - the table is meaningless.

The alignment issue seems to be still up in the air. My experience is that to get good overall alignment you start with what is the most difficult to change. If the saw table has any type of miter slot, the blade should be in alignment with the slot first. The slot being in the table means the table does matter. There's a short tutorial about checking that alignment.

Next, to align the fence to the blade. There's also a tutorial about that alignment. Once these are in alignment, periodic checking is advisable.



A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER - John Keats

[leehljp]

I know you don't need any more advice, but I will affirm those above and recap the problems:

1. Put the saw on its own circuit breaker; no vac, lights or other.
2. IF extension cord used, make it short and large wire.
3. Align the fence to the BLADE, but make the rear of the fence canted away from the blade half a smidgen.

Now that the blade has done considerable burning in its maple cut, it is likely that your blade is NOT clean now. Clean it with Simple Green or other blade cleaner before using again.

Ditto about eveyone. You got too many teeth and not enough gullet for rippind extremely hard wood as hard maple. (24 T flat grind or at least a 24 T in some configuration). You have the circuit over-loaded borrowing from Peter to pay Paul on what is already a 1 1/2HP saw that probably doesn't generate 1 /1/2 HP unless pushed to the point of melting.

As others stated.. fence aligned with blade... blade sharp.. blade clean and proper feed rate.

Under the conditions you are not only burnig good hard-wood.. you're asking for trouble with possible kick-back as you're asking the saw to do what it is not capable of doing under the circumstances you described.

Regards...

[linear]

You're getting good advice, so I'll just chip in that when I put a kill-a-watt meter on my shop equipment, I was stunned to see my shop vac pulls 10A at all times, while the BT3 pulled between 2A and 3A while under no load (I didn't saw anything while testing--I couldn't read the meter and safely operate the tool).

I only use 1 tool at a time in my shop, so my current strategy is to dedicate a shop vac circuit rather than a saw circuit. But the intent is the same--don't feed saw and vac off one 15A circuit.

[drumpriest]

Greg, the newer BT saws come with a 36T combo blade that is NOT made by Freud, the older ones were. The blade quality can and will make a huge difference. I would agree with everone here that the things to do are check alignment, get a 24T ripping blade, and get the BT on its own circuit. The saw has a 15 amp motor, and it needs it when being used to cut thick hardwoods like 8/4 rock maple.

I like the suggestion of cutting slightly large and jointing for the finish. I do that with Cherry often due to the fact that it tends to burn.

good luck, be safe.

[Lonnie in Orlando]

Greg:

I read your post again - guess I missed the thickness of the cut the first time. Increase the number of passes to three or four to make the cut in stock that thick. For only a 10 inch cut, five passes won't take much longer, but will lower the chance of overloading the saw or burning the cut. The universal motor in the BT3K can't chop through 1-3/4" hard Maple in one pass. The suggestions in my previous post still apply.

- Lonnie

[LCHIEN]

There are a number of things and you may wish to read the BT3 FAQ linked at the bottom of my Sig line, bottom of post.

BUt I will tell you right away you are doing one bad thing. The Shop vac/autoswitch thing will work fine for light cutting but is a problem under heavy loads.

You have a 15A line. The sho vac draws anywhere from 5-15 amps depending upon its size anytime it runs (thats the way blowing/sucking type air moving motors work) in an open duct mode, lets assume 10A. That leaves just 5A for your saw to work. The saw motor draws some current as it spinns and then draws more current the harder its asked to work. Your saw is rated to draw 15A if it can to do the hardest work.

In your case you asked it to do more work and it could not find the power and slowed down to where it burned or it tripped the circuiot breaker when it tried to get more than 5A.

The way table saws are supposed to work:
You feed the wood quickly enough so that it spends little time being rubbed on the side by the blade. If you feed too slow then the repeated friction on the same point of the wood will burn the sides.

If the motor removes material fast enough then you can feed fast enough to prevent burning. If the motor does not remove material fast enough, then you feel like you are forcing the wood when you try and push, and it burns.

An underpowered saw will burn wood. An adequately powered saw will cut fast and allow fast feeding so that it doesn't burn. Thicker woods, harder woods, and bigger kerfs and fast feed rates always require more power, in your case only the feed rate was left in your control given the hard, thick wood so it burned and felt like it labored.

First thing you must do is give the saw free access to 15 Amps, that means ditch the autoswitch, run the vac off another circuit (breaker, not just outlet). This willmake the biggest difference.

After that, you can do a few things to help further:
Given that you must cut this piece of wood, (e.g. can't control hardness and thickness) and you are already using a thin kerf blade,
1) make sure the blade is sharp.
2) get a ripping blade (24 tooth, 10" blade that says its good for ripping) this will cut more aggressively (faster) and clear cuttings faster for rip cuts (and it really does).
3) make sure that all the fence is in alignment and some say that having the fence kicked away from the blade .003-.004" at the rear of the blade will reduce the tendency to burn by keeping the wood not pressed tightly to the blade.
4) Use no extension cords or if you must, use short (10 ft or less) 12 ga. cords. This will prevent voltage loss which is as damaging or more than being current limited.

And then last but not least, some woods are very prone to burning. Maple is one of the worst.

[TheRic]

Quick fix / test. Run an extension cord from another outlet to run the shopvac (forget about the sears switch for this test). Make sure that extension cord is heavy enough. Cut one piece, see if you see a major improvement. If major improvement, electric drop was problem. If only a minor improvement then you have something else also causing a problem.

The saw should be on it OWN circuit NOTHING else!!

[Lonnie in Orlando]

I hate cutting Maple ...

Greg:

I hate cutting Maple. It just likes to burn. I ripped both hard Maple and soft Maple with my BT3000 over the last couple of months. A cabinet maker has been building cabinets on-site for our kitchen remodel for the last eight months. Both of us end up with burn marks in our cuts. Smoke has belched from the cuts more than once.

A few suggestions:
- Sharp, clean blade.
- I got better results from a Woodworker II with a "few miles" on it than I did with a new Freud rip blade. (I don't think much of the Freud rip blade.)
- Raise the blade higher. With the blade buried in the cut, the teeth are always in contact with the wood, creating more drag and heat. With the blade higher, the teeth only contact at the infeed and outfeed side of the cut.
- If you can keep up the RPM's, experiment with the feed rate. Too slow will accelerate burning. Too fast will bog down the saw and/or produce a rough cut, but will burn less.
- Face joint the board to remove any twist.
- Watch for indications of internal stress that will cause it to pinch the blade.
- Rip wider than you need, then joint or sand to final width.
- I didn't have much success cleaning up a cut with a "half-blade-thickness" final cut.

I got a lot of (what I suppose was) harmonic flutter from the blade. Caused the teeth to gouge the edge of the cut. Never could find a solution to the problem.

I agree that the Shop Vac and table saw on the same circuit probably pulls too much current.

Good luck,

- Lonnie

[gary]

Warren

I have only had the saw for a short time (<3 months) and have not used the saw too much. I would think that the blades are still sharp.

Before I started, I verified alignment of the fence to the table, but not to the blade. I'll go back and recheck that part.

Thanks for the info.

Greg

This is wrong (in bold). The fence should be aligned to the blade - the table is meaningless.

[maxparot]

After checking your alignment and cleaning the pitch off the blade.
I'd wonder about the moisture content of the maple. If it isn't well dried out it could cause a quick pitch build up and cause your problems.

[gjat]

My first guess is to say the blade had built up gunk and needed cleaning.
Burning smell.
Laboring during cut.

It only takes a bit of built up gunk to cause the blade to heat up, attracting and building up more gunk, making the blade heat up more....

Combine the two tools on the small circuit robbing power...

[Greg in Maryland]

Not 100% sure, so I'll ask. The saw and vac are on two separate lines?!! If not there is your problem. IF two separate lines, hmmmm.

Saw and vacuum were on same 15 amp outlet.