But is it the motor, or the wood?
Yesterday I had to cut sorta raised-panels (14" x 4" x 1" stock) for two drawer fronts in African Mahogany, and there was what looked like smoke. But it did not smell like engine-smoke - more like burnt mahagony. It came out of the throat-plate, and out of the cabinet below. I looked but could not ascertain if anything was coming out of the motor itself. The sawdust generated too was dark, almost burnt.
My panels were 1" thick and just 4 inches wide. The angle was around 15 degrees, so the total length of the slope was around 2 1/2". I had almost the whole blade outside to cut this. This smoke generated for all the four cuts I had to make with this configuration.
Funny thing is, when I cut similarly along the length of the panel (14"), I did not get smoke, at least not discernible. The angle here was more like 25 degrees, so length of the cut was less, around 1 3/4", which meant less blade exposure.
In the past, I have found mahogany very easy to cut, soft, unlike red oak. But is it more susceptible to smoking?
As you can guess, I am worried about the motor. If the wood burnt because of bad technique or whatever, I'd be relieved!
So how do I go about it now - should I just be brave and rip a piece of red oak just to verify the motor functions fine? It's a 3hp unisaw on 240v 1ph.
Yesterday I had to cut sorta raised-panels (14" x 4" x 1" stock) for two drawer fronts in African Mahogany, and there was what looked like smoke. But it did not smell like engine-smoke - more like burnt mahagony. It came out of the throat-plate, and out of the cabinet below. I looked but could not ascertain if anything was coming out of the motor itself. The sawdust generated too was dark, almost burnt.
My panels were 1" thick and just 4 inches wide. The angle was around 15 degrees, so the total length of the slope was around 2 1/2". I had almost the whole blade outside to cut this. This smoke generated for all the four cuts I had to make with this configuration.
Funny thing is, when I cut similarly along the length of the panel (14"), I did not get smoke, at least not discernible. The angle here was more like 25 degrees, so length of the cut was less, around 1 3/4", which meant less blade exposure.
In the past, I have found mahogany very easy to cut, soft, unlike red oak. But is it more susceptible to smoking?
As you can guess, I am worried about the motor. If the wood burnt because of bad technique or whatever, I'd be relieved!
So how do I go about it now - should I just be brave and rip a piece of red oak just to verify the motor functions fine? It's a 3hp unisaw on 240v 1ph.
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