Frustrated! Blade Question

[shwestley]

Hi everyone,
I have been happily cutting on my DeWalt 788 for a few years now and I have just run into a problem that is causing me major frustration.

I have attached two photos one is the top side of the piece and the other is a bottom side. You can see the major problem.

Is the table is at slope? Nope I have checked it twice.

Is the blade at 90 degrees. As far as I can tell no.

Have you tried Rick's blade alignment trick? Yes I have. It hasn't yielded any significant results. I am beginning to believe that the entire arm of the saw is misaligned.

There has to be something that I am missing? Does anyone have some hints?

I have spent the entire week tinkering with this saw to no avail. I am seriously considering leaving it on the curb on trash collection day.


I moved your thread to a more appropriate forum to maximize traffic and get you more responses to your post/request/question.

[Fretnot]

That is one serious problem you have there and one that has happened to me as well, but not as severe. I also have a 788. When it happened to me the problem was not with the saw. I too checked the blade alignment and the table. I checked everything. The problem was I was cutting 3/4 hardwood and I was going to fast, the bottom of the blade was struggling to keep up with the top side when i went round corners. I slow down now of course but also cover the hardwood with clear packing tape. I also found a new blade helps with a new pattern coupled with a high speed and a slow feed. I hope this helps.

[shwestley]

I have tried slower and higher speeds as well as different blades.
The problem is that the blade is already not at 90 degrees before I start cutting. The degree to which I am pushing might be exacerbating the problem. I have even tried adjusting the level of the table to see if I could combat the problem.

[wood-n-things]

I agree it probably is not the saws fault. You need to check your cutting technique. if you are seeing the blade continue to move forward after you stop feeding your work piece you are pressing too hard on the wood. Blade size can be a problem in harder & thicker woods as well.

[handibunny]

If the blade is not a 90˚ before you start to cut, in which way is it off--side to side, front to back, both? Since you've been using the saw for several years, assuming you're doing the kind of work that used to come out OK, it sounds more like a saw problem than a user problem.

Can you take some pictures of the blade next to an engineer's square or other right angle? It might help to see what it looks like to figure out what is going on.

Certainly must be frustrating!

[3_M]

I agree with Montana Mike.
Three basics are first have good tension, the blade should not move sideways more than 1/8" and that is almost to much in 3/4" thick wood. Have good speed and slow feed rate. Let the blade do the cutting. If you just push a little too hard, the blade will grab the wood and start cutting with a bevel.
FD Mike

[shwestley]

Retry

So I went back to the drawing board.
The wood is 1/2" birch plywood. The blade was FD 2/0 15tpi. The speed was 7 and I fed the wood as slowly as I could.

The results were about the same. Only about 1/8" protrudes from the bottom before the piece gets stuck.

When I first bought this saw, I was able to cut beginner puzzles in a few days. I don't know what happened.

[3_M]

The 2/0 is too small for thick wood like that.
Read the tutorial from Carter Johnson and look at his video.
New Page 1
FD Mike

[oily]

Squaring the table is first and foremost. It doesn't matter about the arm because you are squaring the table to the arm.
This I am telling from experience. 1/2" BB is some tough stuff and a blade killer so do what works best for you on that particular beast.
Next and remember it's my experience not my opinion. Others have perfect luck and love them. What few 2/0 blades I have left I am cutting and using as re-bar in soldiered joints in some of the rougher used RC boat models I work on. I can not drive a 2/0 blade if it would save my life. **** waste of good steel and I don't care who's name is on them, I've tried enough brands to satisfy my curiosity.
I would use an FD puzzle or FDUR #1 or #3 or Olson #2r.
I don't claim expert status but I attached some puzzles i cut a few years ago that to me is proof it's the blades (2/0)

[shwestley]

Trying Other Blades

I decided to try some other blades.
I figured this time I would "go big" and used my FDHD10 and my FDSR9.

When I used the FDHD10 the piece was able to go completely through in both directions, but there was still some catching when sending it from bottom to top. On the FDSR9, I got the same results as previous attempts, only about 1/8" of the piece was able to go through the bottom.

Oily what I meant about the arm was what if my top arm blade clamp isn't aligned with the blade clamp under the table. I had to tear my saw apart to fix the electrical connection on the switch. I didn't think that when I did that it would move the whole arm.

[SteveK]

.

I had to tear my saw apart to fix the electrical connection on the switch.

Is that when the problem started? Somebody asked before (Carole?) if this was something you have done successfully before. If so, what has changed?

Other than the saw repair, blade types, wood types?

[oily]

I decided to try some other blades.
I figured this time I would "go big" and used my FDHD10 and my FDSR9.

When I used the FDHD10 the piece was able to go completely through in both directions, but there was still some catching when sending it from bottom to top. On the FDSR9, I got the same results as previous attempts, only about 1/8" of the piece was able to go through the bottom.

Oily what I meant about the arm was what if my top arm blade clamp isn't aligned with the blade clamp under the table. I had to tear my saw apart to fix the electrical connection on the switch. I didn't think that when I did that it would move the whole arm.

got ya. is it more adjustment than you can take up with the set and t screw of the clamp?

[evilbadger]

I would think you could remove the table and use a small square to check the arm alignment.