Just realized I was running my tablesaw blade too high for years

I always set the blade to clear the wood by maybe 2 inches because I thought it cut cleaner that way. A cabinet maker I sub for in Denver pointed out my burn marks on a piece of maple and told me to drop it to just a quarter inch above the stock. Has anyone else had that moment where a simple adjustment fixed everything?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tara1mo ago

A lot of this stuff comes down to that old saying 'less is more' in my experience. The same thing happened to me with my router bits a few years back, taking too aggressive a pass just created tearout and a rough finish. Your mileage may vary, but I've noticed that pushing something too hard often makes the problem worse, whether it's blade height or the speed you feed stock through. It's like one of those life lessons that shows up in the shop.

kelly38528d ago

Gotta agree with @the_tara here. Tried rushing through a dado cut last week with a stack set and ended up chattering the whole thing. Slow feed, lighter passes, clean result. Its almost like the wood rewards patience or something.