What did I do wrong

[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.

[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.

[SARGE..g-47]

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...

[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.

[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]

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.

[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

[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.

I've seen that sliding miter setup. I worded the reply saying "if your saw has any type of miter slot..."

Some members may not have the saw, or may not be aware of alignment procedures, or use a different brand. So, between us, we covered a lot of ground.



A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER - John Keats

[Ed62]

One thing I didn't see mentioned here is about his willingness to change the circuit breaker to a higher load breaker. DO NOT do this unless you have number 12 wire (or heavier) feeding the outlet. The lower the number of the wire, the heavier the load it will safely handle. For instance, a number 14 will not be able to handle as much of a load as a number 12, 10 or heavier. If you replaced the circuit breaker with a larger one, but you are using wiring that will only handle 15 amps, you will start your machines, and everything will seem OK. But when you put a load on them, you might cause a fire in the wiring because the larger circuit breaker will not trip, thereby overloading the wiring. If you're not absolutely sure, ask someone with knowledge before doing electrical changes.

Ed

[LCHIEN]

One thing I didn't see mentioned here is about his willingness to change the circuit breaker to a higher load breaker. DO NOT do this unless you have number 12 wire (or heavier) feeding the outlet. The lower the number of the wire, the heavier the load it will safely handle. For instance, a number 14 will not be able to handle as much of a load as a number 12, 10 or heavier. If you replaced the circuit breaker with a larger one, but you are using wiring that will only handle 15 amps, you will start your machines, and everything will seem OK. But when you put a load on them, you might cause a fire in the wiring because the larger circuit breaker will not trip, thereby overloading the wiring. If you're not absolutely sure, ask someone with knowledge before doing electrical changes.

Ed

I think he said add a breaker, not change the breaker to a bigger one.
Adding a breaker would be acceptable, provided a new circuit and outlets were run as well.
Changing a breaker say from 15 to 20A is not recommended, for the safety reasons you suggest, also it still would not provide enough power for a 10A vac + the BT3 (would need 25A).

[Greg.B]

I run my saw on a 20A dedicated outlet. I would advise if you can upgrade to 20A (breaker, outlet and wire) then do so. If the saw is potentially hitting the 15A and you have a tad more resistance over the line, you can and are popping it. That can be due to the length from the panel to the outlet.

Also he stated the vac is on a different circuit a few pages back.

[Ed62]

I think he said add a breaker, not change the breaker to a bigger one.

Ooops! Good catch. I wasn't reading what I was seeing! But a discussion on safety never hurts. I've seen quite a few people change a 15 amp fuse to a 20. Not a good thing to do in most cases.

Ed

[mikedude]

Similar Saw Fun

I have a similar problem with my table saw. It is a Skill brand. It consistently binds when pushing wood through using the fence and at times kicks back. It regularly messes up the cut pulling the stock away from the fence and burns wood, leaves saw marks, etc. I just about can't stand to use it. It works OK using a sled. I've resorted to using sleds for must all cuts.

Through the powers of logical reasoning I'm pretty sure I have determined the saw is low end, cheap to the lay person; and basically not made for what I want it to do. The fence stinks, the saw is probably meant for rough cutting 2x4's at a job site. So that's my problem for which I think I have a solution.

Currently preparing to sell a generator and some other items on Craigs List to raise money for a new saw. There is a Jet Saw at Woodcraft for $399. I assume this will be a good entry level saw for fine woodworking. Anyone have any experience with one? Thanks!

Mike St Augustine, Florida

[Greg in Maryland]

On this episode of what not to do, Greg tries to cut hard maple on his BT3100, with a potentially misaligned saw blade and fence, an inappropriate, dull and “gucky” saw blade, all the while overloading the circuit with both his saw and vacuum. The result? Burned maple, even duller blade, smoke detectors going off and circuit breakers doing what they do best and general mayhem. Fortunately, for him no blood was spilled, the BT3100 did not die and the house is still standing. Very fortunate, indeed.

So, what did Greg learn?

1. The BT3100, while a great saw, does not play well with other tools on the same 15 amp circuit. Keep them apart and everyone will be much happier. Fortunately, he does not need to convince LOML that a new circuit breaker and line need to be installed, nor that he just fried the new saw and needs to replace it .….
2. A clean blade is a good blade. A clean and sharp blade is even better. A clean, sharp rip blade is the best of all. Amazon has the Freud LU87R010 10" x 24-Tooth, 5/8" Arbor Perma-SHIELD Coated Thin Kerf Saw Blade on sale for 34.99 with no shipping and handling. Will get it next week ….
3. While hard maple is inherently “hard” and therefore a bit more difficult to cut, it should not set off smoke detectors and trip circuit breakers. Greg must listen to what his saw is telling him and not be unsafe in his ignorance.
4. Hard maple can tend to burn, so cut a bit larger than needed and sand/plane down if necessary to remove burn marks.
5. Next time something unusual happens, stop what you are doing, turn the saw off and go upstairs to the computer. Someone always is on BT3Central to increase you knowledge and skill. That and stopping you from doing something completely idiotic.

Though I am looking at this episode with humor, I am quite aware of how lucky I was. I greatly appreciate all the thoughtful comments and all the time that went into the many responses. I definitely learned a lot over the weekend.

Happy New Year

Greg

[LCHIEN]

OK, Greg you get a provisional "A"
in the course for listening attentively and taking good notes but an incomplete as you have not turned in the final project yet.