cutting 2" hardwood

[cameronj]

Hi Steve,
I am trying to do some compound cutting using  1 3/4 x 1 3/4 cherry.  I am using a #9 reverse tooth blade.  I am getting alot of blade stretching resulting in smaller openings in the bottom of the workpiece than in the top.  This happens even though I stop and tighten the blade ofter.
Is there another blade that would work better, and give more even cutting?
Thanks,
Jim

[jimbo]

There is a thick wood blade you can get, sounds as though you are pushing the wood to fast through the saw, turn the speed up on the saw and feed the wood through it slowly
Jimbo

[dgman]

Hey Jim, In addition to Jimbo's advise, make sure you have enough tension on the blade. It sounds like you are pushing to hard against the blade, making it flex. The more tension you have on the blade, the less it will flex.

[julief]

The problem with the thick wood blade is it is hard to make tight turns.  Depending on your pattern, you can actually back up to a #5 but slow way down.  You might also go to a skip tooth blade to free more sawdust.  A reverse tooth blade is unnecessary because you don't care about tear out at the bottom.  I generally use a #5 skip tooth blade on 1 3/4" compound patterns.

[Dan]

You might check to see if Your saw is out of alignment. I have found that myself. It happens all by its self. LOL

Dan

[cameronj]

Thanks everyone, for your tips.  The pattern I am cutting is all straight or gentle curved lines.  I received some #12 skip blades on Friday that I had ordered.  I tried them that evening, and they are definitely too big--they were catching in the wood and lifting the workpiece off the table.  So tomorrow, the first thing I will do will be to check the alignment of the table.  Then, I will try the #5 blade, and watch the tension, as well as go a bit slower.  I will agree, that I was probably pushing the workpiece too quickly since there were no tight turns to do.  Thanks again to all of you.  Now I can hopefully finish this project.

[dgman]

Post pictures when you are done!

[cameronj]

Well, I succeeded   My sawblade was only 1 degree out of alignment, but what a difference making that slight adjustment did.  I was able to cut out 2 of my projects tonight so much more easily, and it seemed like it took no time in comparison to last week.  The blade didn't even seem to stretch as much as it did last week, but maybe that was partly because I was going at a faster speed, and not pushing as much.  I will post some pictures eventually, once they are done and have a finish sprayed on them.  Thanks again.  Jim