Having a hard time cutting red cedar boards

[CJR]

Long-time lurker on the site, but figured I'd pick the brains of folks here about a problem I'm having, since I'm still kind of a beginner. I have a friend who cut down a truckload of dead red cedar trees from his property and sent it off to a mill, so after a bit of planing and jointing, I've got relatively flat (but not perfect) 3/4" boards which I was going to use to make some adirondack chairs for the backyard, but I'm having a heck of a time ripping these boards.

I've got a BT3100 that I keep in pretty good shape. 40T Freud blade, rip fence is aligned, and using the stock blade guard and splitter. I cut mostly plywood or pine for various projects, although I've ripped oak before with no problem. When I try to rip down this cedar, though, the saw just bogs down while cutting it. It looks like the kerf is closing down around the splitter quite a bit (I'm really glad I have the splitter and pawls installed...), but even apart from that, the saw is having a really hard time getting through the wood.


Any tips or ideas? I don't have any trouble cross-cutting it with a circular saw and speed square, and I suppose I could use a circ saw with a fence if I needed to, but a table saw would certainly be easier...

Thanks everyone in advance for your help!

[LCHIEN]

try this:
when it starts bogging down, shut off the saw motor - does is coast to a stop or does it stop real fast like something's grabbing it? That'll tell you if the blade is pinched or the splitter/riving knife is being pinched.

If the kerf is closing on the riving knife, then make a small wedge inserted into the kerf behind the riving knife will keep the wood open, then you can resume your cut. If the blade is not pinched in this case, then you can easily turn the saw back on with the wood in place.the wedge should be a little bigger than the splitter width.

If you have a bunch of parallel boards resawn from the same log (You can tell by looking at the grain pattern) then they may have the same built up stress problem and they will all behave in the same way. Do you have boards from another log section which you can try?

[cabinetman]

How dry is the wood, and how high above the board do you have the blade set to cut?

.

[toolguy1000]

24 tooth ripping blade. 40 teeth may not have deep enough gullets to provide for adequate dust removal. i'd probably use a full kerf 24T blade, splitter/riving knife and a feed rate that keeps the blade from stalling.

[LCHIEN]

24 tooth ripping blade. 40 teeth may not have deep enough gullets to provide for adequate dust removal. i'd probably use a full kerf 24T blade, splitter/riving knife and a feed rate that keeps the blade from stalling.

Red cedar is one of the really softer woods. I'm sure a 40T blade would easily rip 3/4" cedar.

[toolguy1000]

Red cedar is one of the really softer woods. I'm sure a 40T blade would easily rip 3/4" cedar.

just exploring all possibilities. if it's really green, wouldn't it be harder to rip?

[CJR]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the replies - been a bit slow in replying since Real Life has interfered over the last few days.

The wood was cut down last fall, and has since been stacked in my buddy's barn, but's been sitting in my basement for a few months now. Don't know if it means it's really green or not. (See, told you I was a newbie.)

I tried what LChien suggested, and switched the saw off when it started to bog down. The blade doesn't stop right away, but it doesn't spin down easily either. It looks like there's some stress built up in the wood, and while it's closing down around the back half of the blade a bit, it's really closing down tightly around the splitter. I've got the blade set so that the bottom of the gullets are just a little bit above the top of the wood.

The suggestion about putting a wedge in definitely seems to help - I feel like a dummy for not thinking of that earlier. So what I've done is cut a few more pieces by pushing it through (with some effort) until it clears the back to the splitter and pawls, stopping the saw, putting a wedge in there, and then going back to start the saw and continue ripping the piece. I'm open to suggestions if someone's got a better way, if there is one...

Also, anyone got any ideas for a pile of cedar scraps? There's only so many blocks that we need for our dresser drawers...

[Mr__Bill]

I am thinking that the splitter on your saw is the thickness of a thin kerf blade and you have a full kerf blade installed and that is contributing to the drag. You should also check that the splitter is centered on the blade. There are shims to adjust it's location and if all the shims are on one side or the other the splitter likely will not line up with the blade.

Long scraps make good garden stakes or simple trellises. It's a good fire starter too.

Bill
on the left coast