I decided to go out and make some practice cuts, and get a little time on the saw. It was overcast and chilly but I decided to tough it out. { For those who don't know I've set up in my carport open to the wind. I do have a shop / storage building but it is 300 ft. from power. I won't go into what all brought that situation into being. Suffice it to say lack of foresight. }
About 10 minutes later the overcast was gone!
I had great lighting conditions and proceeded to practice making straight cuts and a few 90 degree turns, and checking to see how well the 2 pieces of wood matched up after the cut was complete. my wavy lines matched pretty good but the more angular cuts not so much. I decided to practice some straight lines on a piece of clear pine 1/2 x 3 x 4 inches. here is where my questions will start. I made a cut across the narrow part first cutting out a glue line just to see what would happen. that wasn't too bad, so I proceeded to do the same to the other end which had been broken of and was splintery. So I laid out a straight line to square up the end. Both of these cuts were rip cuts with the grain. I noticed the blade didn't really want to cut at the start going into end grain. I'd been noticing a little curl of wood in front of the blade and wondered if that is an indication that the blade may be getting dull??
After making the cut which came out fairly straight.
I cut all but about an inch from one direction, and finished that up from the opposite just to see how close I could get doing it that way. The longer part of the cut was ragged on one side of the material as though it was tearing the grain rather than a smooth cut, and the opposite sidewas relatively smooth, the short part that I back cut was much smoother on one side and the other not as badly torn as on the long part of the cut.
All this long winded dissertation is to set up to ask the question. Are all these signs indications of a dull blade, a too loosely attached blade, or technique of feeding the material into the saw. I'm counting on you
experienced people to set me straight. See what happens when a newbie O.F.gets a saw?
Last comment 2 hours vanished like smoke, I only quit because my fingers were getting a little numb!
Thanks in advance,
Gabby
