After this video you'll make better table saw RIP cuts

hi I'm James Hamilton from stumpy nubs woodworking journal and this is part two of our five-part tutorial covering table saw safety how to make effective rip cuts on make effective cross cuts how to cut better miter and bevels and finally how to get the best cuts in plywood if you're a veteran table saw user you'll find some useful tips and maybe identify some areas you can sort of tune-up your skills in and if you're a new woodworker these videos will give you a big head start and help you keep your fingers on your hands where they belong as each of these five videos are released I'll add links in the notes below this video just click on show more if you're on YouTube and if you haven't watched part 1 on safety yet you really should it's an essential video for all table saw users but today we're gonna focus on RIP cuts or cuts with the grain we'll start with the fundamentals we'll throw in some tips and then we'll troubleshoot the problems you may be encountering this is a rip blade it features ftg teeth that means all the tops are ground flat making it ideal for cutting with the grain if you're a seasoned woodworker you probably have one of these that you use for your fast rips and thick stock and for other specific purposes but I'll bet more than three-quarters of you don't have one of these blades instead you have one of these a general-purpose or combination blade now I'm not going to go into all the differences between the blade types we already made a video about that which I'll also link to in the notes below basically a combination blade has some teeth that are pointed on the top to help you cut across the grain and some that are flat across the top to help you cut with the grain that way you don't have to switch back and forth between rip blades and crosscut blades and most stock 3/4 of an inch thick a 40 or 50 200 per pass our combination blade will work just fine so I've got my blade installed but before I cut I have to make sure the area around the saw is clear some folks neglect this especially if they keep their saw in a garage or a shed that's not a dedicated shop space so they'll step over the kids bike and brush aside some junk that's piled on top of the saw so they can get at the blade and they think they'll just make one quick and everything will be fine and that's how people get seriously hurt ripping is the most likely table-saw operation to cause kickback so you want your wits about you you want your feet planted firmly on the floor with clear space to walk and no obstructions or distractions on or around the saw you also want enough room behind the saw to complete the cut without your board hitting something and you want outfeed support so your board doesn't flip up towards the end of the cut you might notice I also don't have my blade guard on the saw that's only so you can see what I'm doing I use my blade guard whenever I can and when I don't I install a riving knife or a splitter to protect me from kickback that's all covered in the safety video linked below I've also got my push block Within Reach I've got my safety glasses ready to put on and my hearing protection around my neck my workpiece is flat there are no cups and warps and the edge against my fence is nice and straight as I make a rip cut my hands have separate job my right hands job is to feed the stock through the blade with smooth even motion my left hands job is to hold the stock against the fence as the board slips past my fingers your eyes also have a specific job and it's not what some of you may think new woodworkers tend to watch the blade but the blade will do its job without you watching it what you should be paying attention to is the fence making sure no gap appears between it and the board if you don't keep the workpiece tight against the fence through the whole cut you're going to get scorching blade marks and even a crooked edge but wait if you don't look at the blade how do you keep your fingers safe well your right hand is going to come into view well before it comes near the blade and your left hand is stationary it never moves toward the blade at all in fact you may even hook your thumb over the front edge of the saw top so you can feel where it is and you know it's not drifting towards the blade seriously keeping your eyes on the fence instead of the blade will help you to avoid most of the problems people have with rip cuts since a rip cut requires your left hand to let the board slip through the fingers while applying pressure toward the fence you may end up with splinters especially if you're trimming away edge some people wear tight-fitting gloves though I would strongly urge you to avoid anything that make dangling get caught in the blade I sometimes use guard Tech's tape it's this gauze covered in silicone that vets used to wrap animal splints because it only sticks to itself so I can put a wrap around each finger and they'll be protected from splinters then when I'm done it just pulls right off another option is to use a feather board like this one that locks in your miter slot feather boards do the job of your left hand during a rip cut they apply even pressure toward the fence but keep in mind that you should only amount to fender board on the infeed side of the blade the side closest to you you'd never want to mount it next to the blade or on the outfeed side because that can cause the kerf to close back on to the blade and the wood to kick back at you I like feather boards if I'm making a bunch of the same cuts on identical work pieces but if you're ripping boards of varying widths you'll have to adjust the feather board every cut and that is a bit of a hassle that said there's another clever way that you can use a feather board which we'll discuss shortly I'll link to the feather board I use a on that tape and the notes below this video as I make a rip cut I'm feeding the wood is evenly as I can and I'm letting the blade do the work if I want to cut faster the answer isn't to overfeed the workpiece the blade can only handle so much and you may stall the saw or more likely end up with a rough cut with lots of blade marks if you want faster cuts you should install a blade with fewer teeth because the fewer the teeth the wider the gullets in between the teeth and the wider the gullets the more efficiently it can clear the dust from the kerf and the faster it'll cut that's the trade-off you make when you use one of these general-purpose or combination blades they'll make both rip and cross cuts which is really handy but the shallow gullets require a bit more patience during heavy ripping operations to achieve good results as you reach the end of a rip cut you should use your push block as a general rule if you can spread your fingers out and touch the blade with your thumb and the fence with your pinky you should be using a push block but don't engage it until the end of the workpiece is on top of the saw if you do it too early especially with shorter boards you might flip the workpiece back up off the top of the saw so wait until the end when the workpiece is fully supported then use your push block to finish the cut and the cut is not finished until you push the workpiece safely past the blade sometimes you'll want to cut thin strips of wood on your table saw let's say a quarter inch and the easiest way to do that may be to set your fence a quarter inch from the blade and make the cut like any other rip in that case I would use a wooden push block like this and let the blade cut right into the bottom so I can safely clear the strip pass the blade at the end of the cut but if you need a strip that's narrower than a quarter inch this method gets a little iffy because really narrow strips are more likely to get caught between the blade and the fence and shoot back at you so I prefer to let the strip fall on the other side of the blade but this presents a problem when you need several strips of exactly the same width because with each strip you cut away your workpiece gets narrower so you'd have to move your fence the width of the strip plus the thickness of your blade and that can lead to errors the solution is to get your featherboard back out line up your cut for your first strip but before you make the cut lock your feather board in place with its backside not the flexible fingers the back against the edge of your board now as your board gets narrower with each strip you cut you can quickly and accurately reset your fence using the feather board as a positive stop one final thing about cutting thin strips if your table saws throat insert is has open space beside the blade the strip may fall down inside there a quick way to fix this without making a whole new insert is to place a strip of blue tape on either side of the blade to temporary close up that gap let's do some troubleshooting what if you're following all the rules and your rip cuts still come out with scorches and blade marks on them here are six things to check out number one is your blade dirty if it is it'll cut like it's dull and if your blade is dull it's gonna burn and chatter in the cut clean your blades regularly and if cleaning doesn't help send it out for sharpen number two are you using the right blade for the job the more teeth you have the smaller the gullets in between them the smaller the gullets the harder it is for the blade to clear the in the kerf while you cut this can cause heat and vibration especially if you're trying to force the blade to cut faster than it's capable of you may get a better cut with a 24 tooth replayed especially if you're ripping thick hard wood number three is your blade aligned with the saws miter slot if it isn't your blade will have to work what's harder because it's plowing a kerf wider than the width of the blade through the wood you can quick check the alignment of your saw with a combination square number four are you maintaining even lateral pressure against the fence feeding the board through as smoothly as possible you may even leave a workpiece a little bit wide and then follow up with a final cut that just skims the edge and takes off any marks left behind during the initial cut when the blade was working a lot harder number five are the teeth of your saw blade clearing the top of the workpiece at the top of the cut by raising your blade so the teeth are just above the board you keep fewer teeth in the kerf at any given time and reduce friction and finally are you just expecting too much from your material some wood such as cherry mahogany and soft maples just scorched easily the solution may be to sand or playing the edges smooth later in our next part of this series we'll take a look at cross cuts if that video is already posted I encourage you to watch it now using the link below this video again if you're on youtube just click show more below see you there rockler Woodworking and Hardware is simply a great company they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to support the online woodworking community and to help preserve this craft we love for future generations I hope you return the favor by visiting their website using the link below this video you

Channel: Stumpy Nubs

Views: 333,772

Rating: 4.9627233 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, stumpy nubs, table saw tip, tip, trick, rip, crosscut, push block, stick, featherboard

Id: bADmnDEcuYo

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 04 2019