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Splintering on cuts...
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Philip Tamarkin
I'm running an '88 BF-5 - has a scoring unit, but I haven't bothered using it 'cause
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I'm getting great cuts without splintering - NB: I'm not running melamine or 2-sided plastic laminate at all, thank God, and I'll use the scorer if I do! - here are the secrets I know. 1. Great blades make a difference - flatness of plate is most crucial - check a # of blades from the same manufacturor, and you'll find quite a bit of latitude in the plates. If you get something within a couple of thousandths of flat, cherish it, and use it for your finest cuts. I'm running Felder's 96 tooth "Silent Power", which does a good job of non-splintering, and a 96 tooth Tenryu (stock blade, made to fit Altendorf) that cuts perfectly-best I've ever used! At about $140 it's a little less expensive than the Felder. Don't mess with a thin kerf - some cut clean, but mostly the thin plate distorts when overheated, I'm sticking with only 3.2 mm kerf - saves resetting the fence every time I change a blade, too! Obviously, razor-sharp (and with sides of teeth jointed during sharpening) matters. 2. Check arbor run-out on the saw - best blade in the world will cut badly if the arbor's out - change bearings, if necessary, or have a machinist recut the arbor face accurately. 3. Zero-clearance throat plate will help a lot, but won't work w/your machine. The BF-5 blade sits several inches away from the slider, so I can make an insert, but haven't needed to. 4. Try to arrange that you're taking at least 1/2" or so off with every cut. The hairline cuts seem to want to splinter worse. 5. USING EXTREME CAUTION AND A BLADE GUARD make your cut with the blade raised as high as possible - this results in the tooth meeting the underside of the panel as near to parallel (no angle...) as possible, and will help minimize chip out. 6. High angle ATB blades (30 degree...) have worked well for me - cove-faced tooth configuration works well when sharp, but cut quality deteriorates rapidly, and tend to go from workably sharp to dead-dull without a moment's notice! Scorers are their own set of problems - try these tips, and maybe you can avoid! -Philip Tamarkin dolsid wrote: Scott: I didn't have any experience with combination machines when I bought |
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