capnharv2

Tony, I've had a few issues with clamping the fence too. What do you do? Also, I didn't realize the Byrnes saw blades would fit my saw. I guess I'll be sending Jim a check soon . Harvey

Alex, Mark, Is it possible the 80 tooth blade works better is because there's less solid disc at the cutting surface and slightly more room for expansion? I haven't looked at blade temperatures at the tooth, but I'd bet the 80 tooth blade runs cooler. If your experiment works, do you have a place we can send the blades to for cutting expansion slots? And Alex, thanks for pursuing a solution to the blade issue. This problem (and my chronic grumpiness) aside, I'm pretty happy with the Proxxon saw. Harvey

MIchael, Thank you for sharing your experiment with us. I know next to nothing about electric motors, but I know that automotive engines often have low torque issues at low RPMs/ Tony, Michaels advice on Model Engineering groups is excellent. Depending on the tool, there may be Yahoo groups dedicated to that. I follow the Unimat and Unimat 3 groups on Yahoo, and they can be very helpful. Harvey

Michael, I've tried to find some documentation, but I also believe it's a rheostat control. I tried a couple things last night. I waxed the table and fence. The waxed table made not difference, the waxed fence did. I was surprised the waxed table didn't help-on my big saw the wood just glides across. Not on the little one. I waxed the 230 tooth blade too-no change. I read a little more on the saw at the MicroMark website (while looking for info on type of control). It said the saw is good for softwoods like bass and balsa up to 1" thick, and hardwoods up to 1/4" thick. That's about the thickness I've been pushing thru, so I am probably at the saw's limit. To try the ripping test with cherry and the waxed table, I tried cross cutting the 1/4" x 1/4" cherry with the 230 tooth blade-I had the same wobble and bucking I had before (I couldn't even finish the cut). So I switched back over to the old 80 tooth blade-it worked perfectly smooth. No bucking, no wobble, and no burn. The motor slowed down only a little. And the finished cut was very nice. So, I'm coming to some conclusions here. I see more and more that I am using the slitting blade for the wrong purpose. I know better the types of cuts I want to use the slitting blade for now-making shallow cuts. If I want to rip or crosscut a thicker piece of hardwood, I need to go with a coarser blade. It looks like the 80 tooth blade and zero clearance insert will probably give me what I'm looking for. I'm going to order a new 80 tooth blade today (and probably a 160 tooth, just to see what it does) and I'll probably be okay. One more caveat. All these observations have been with a small sample of cuts (one or two), not 10-20-30 cuts to establish a more statistic baseline on what works and what doesn't. But the observations and comments here lead me to believe I'm heading down a better path. Thanks! Harvey

Yes. I found that out the first time I had the problem (because I didn't). I don't really like the adapter. Even though it centers the blade on the arbor, and the blade has no runout, it just doesn't feel secure. I tried some test cuts-one with boxwood and one with cherry. The blade position was all the way up and the blade speed was set to max. The cut with the boxwood came out good this time. I stopped pushing when the motor started to bog down and kept the feed speed as slow as I could go. The cherry, on the other hand, was a problem from the start. The motor bogged down and the blade kept wobbling. The burn marks are obvious. I cut the cherry twice-I lost the first piece in the carpet. I cut the second piece thicker because the Accuriser fence didn't come back far enough to give the cherry good support Again, this time the boxwood cut very true. The cherry came out a mess Here's a picture of the blade after cutting the cherry. It did not look like this after cutting the boxwood. I don't know if that's discoloration due to the cherry, or due to the blade being burnt or what. One thing I did not do (and should have) was wax the table. I didn't think of it till now. I'll clean the table off tomorrow and put some wax on it. I don't know how much that will help, but it won't hurt. So, I've learned a few things from this thread and the test cuts tonight: 1) Keep the blade up as high as possible 2) Keep the blade speed up as high as possible 3) Keep the feed speed down 4) Wax the table-I was amazed how much it helped my 10" table saw. I'm not expecting miracles, but it will be interesting to see the results. If you have any questions or comments, I'd like to hear them. Thanks again for all your help and support. Harvey

Janos, thank you for the clarification. I'll need to up the blade speed and reduce the feed speed (although I don't know how much more I can reduce that). Mark, the blade was wobbling out of plane at least the width of the clearance in the insert (about .06" each side)-it may have widened the slot in the insert while wobbling. It was wobbling after I pulled the wood out and was fumbling for the saw kill switch. If the blade was deforming that much, I wonder how close the blade was to flying apart (and taking everything in the blade of the plane out-including me). Maybe inquiring minds don't want to know that Harvey

Hi Everybody, Sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet. I just got home. Tony, Janos, I haven't seen improvement regardless of blade speed. I generally like to run the saw a little slower anyway, but I haven't tried it yet at the slowest speed. Something to try tonight. Michael, I hadn't thought about bringing the blade up as high as it will go. I think about injuries from blade exposure and have kept the blade low because of that. I agree that a higher blade setting makes the teeth more vertical. I'll try that in conjunction with a slower speed and see what happens. I used an 80 tooth blade for a long time, but didn't like the finish I was getting. I went to a 24 tooth carbide blade and it got worse. Maybe I'll order a new 80 tooth blade and a 168 tooth blade (simply because I haven't tried it). One comment about the vibration and bucking. What bothered me was watching the blade wobble for 4-5 seconds after I removed the workpiece. It lasted long enough that I thought the blade had come loose or I had damaged a bearing. Thanks again everybody for your comments and suggestions. I'll try the slower blade speed with max blade exposure, and a coarser blade.. And I'll report back. Harvey

Mark, you sound like me! Maybe we should start a thread on "I'm so cheap that I...." Harvey

Thanks Von Stetina. One of the reasons I use the thinner blades is to cut down on waste due to the wide blade kerfs on my big saw. I have a 24tooth Carbide blade that I tried for a bit, but it ate too much wood. I also didn't notice any improvement between the .020" slitting blade and the .025"slitting blade. I may try my 80 tooth blade-it's .032" kerf and worked well before (but I wasn't cutting boxwood then). I'll check with MSC to see what they have. I probably shouldn't be so stingy when cutting the boxwood. I have a big box of pear and maple and cherry that I could use (and refill with no problems) but I really like the look of the boxwood. I've thought about buying a Byrnes saw too. But I can't justify it (and I have a friend who will let me use his ) Yes, the plastic inserts melt. I have to cut away the melted plastic so I have a smooth cutting surface. I may make some up out of hardwood and plywood to stiffen the insert area. I glued 2 of the inserts together and it's still pretty soft. Thanks for your comments and suggestions! Harvey

Hoss, You're correct about the tooth height. I'll have to go slow and clear the blade more. Mark, I put wax on my big table saw before and it made a huge difference. I guess I figured that I hadn't used this saw very much and it wouldn't benefit. I'll give it a try. BTW, on my 10" table saw they recommend using Carnuba wax. I don't know if Pledge leaves a deposit on the wood or not (but it has a nice lemony scent ). They say carnuba won't. Alex, I haven't had this problem with either the 24 tooth or 80 tooth blade. But then I haven't tried cutting boxwood with them. Also, I didn't know that there was a Yahoo group for Proxxon saws. I'll be joining it soon. Thanks again everybody! Harvey

Okay Mark. I'll bash those kits-but not with a hammer Harvey

Dave, The MircroMark/Proxxon has a variable speed motor, and problem happens regardless of blade/motor speed. Alex, thank you for your comments. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I always thought an underpowered saw would just slow down till the motor stalled. The blade flex is one of the things that has me confused. I thought I would see an improvement (reduction in blade flex) going from the .020 thick blade to the .025" thick blade, but it didn't make a difference. My old 80 tooth blade is .032" thick, and I didn't have problems with it before-but then, I wasn't cutting boxwood before. As far as ripping vs. cross-cutting, what I've been doing with my cannon carriage sides is kind of a long cross cut (perpendicular to the grain as opposed to ripping parallel to the grain). But the end result is similar-a long cut thru a thick section without a lot of room for the dust to escape the blade. I thought cutting completely thru the piece would help this problem, since the sawdust would have more of an escape path. I too would like to see someone with more understanding of this chime in. I'd like to know more about why Jim's saw doesn't have these problems. Thanks again everybody! Harvey

Thanks Mark. I think you've found the basic problem. I guess I need to think about how to solve this problem. Any place sells gage blocks in 1/32" increments? But now we know the problem to address. And that's progress!! Harvey

Mark, Every time I see your work, I want to throw my kits away and start scratchbuilding. But then, there's the guilt factor Nice job on the capstan! I understand not wanting to wait to work on it more. Thanks, Harvey

Mark, I think you're right. I finally was able to cut the pieces. It took 3-4-5 passes to get them cut. Another thing I noticed when doing this. After the first couple of passes (the slot in the wood was fairly deep then) I noticed that, in trying to hold the workpiece against the fence, I was squeezing the blade. So I was very careful how much I pressed against the fence, and backed the work out whenever the motor bogged down. I checked parallelism again-.004" out from one forward edge to aft edge of the blade. Is that enough to cause binding? Thanks, Harvey

Mark, I checked-yes the blade is parallel to the fence. I'll check again. William, It's not grabbing-the motor is loading up. But I may try flipping the blade around anyway. Here's a thought-could I be overloading the motor? I haven't cut much boxwood on the saw before. It's mainly been basswood. I've been trying to make a long (>1") 3/16" deep cut in boxwood in one pass. I'm wondering if it would work better with multiple passes. I don't know about the Micro-Mark/Proxxon saw capabilities, but I do recall seeing that the Preac saws are underpowered. I'd look into getting a Byrnes saw, but I can't justify it. Besides, I'd need to find a home for my current saw (and it does work-just not in the capacity I want right now) I was going to take the table off to see if there was anything loose in the motor attachment to the table. Screws are too soft and too tight. I can't feel anything loose, so I'll have to assume it's okay. I'll check the parallelism of the blade to fence again. Thanks again for all the suggestions. Harvey

Well, that didn't work. . . The zero clearance insert has about .06" clearance on each side of the blade. I cut up and old plastic insert to glue to the bottom to stiffen it up. When I run my piece thru, the first .25" goes well, then the motor slows down, it starts to grind and I can see the blade wobble-even after I remove the workpiece. I turn the saw off, and the blade and arbor are tight. No movement in any direction. I checked runout again, and the blade is centered on the arbor. I checked that the blade is parallel to the fence-it is. I'm perplexed. I was going to take the table off to look at the motor/arbor attachment, but the screw heads are stripping out. I guess I'll go find another tool I can break. . .

Mark and Tony, Thanks for those ideas. I can take part of the old insert and glue it to the bottom for stiffness. Until you brought up the clearance issue, I was thinking the problem could be flexing of the plastic insert or flexing of the blade. The insert stiffening will help one of those worries. Thanks again, Harvey

Sorry for the late response. Mark and Alex, thank you! I've been away from the shop all day, but it does make sense. I'll widen the slot tonight and try again. Dave, I thought about making my own inserts, but the thickness of the plate didn't seem to fit a standard plywood thickness. I could thin one out of hardwood, but my thickness sander isn't working. I was going to take them to a local plastics shop and have some made, but they moved. I finally got lazy and ordered them from MicroMark. I have made zero clearance inserts for my 10" table saw-they work well. Thanks again for the help! I'll report back when I try later tonight. Harvey

I've had this saw for 10 or so years. It's always worked well, and still does-under certain conditions. I've cut thin pieces before with an 80 tooth blade and a zero clearance insert. I want a smoother finish, so I bought a couple of 230 tooth blades (.020" and .025" thick) and some new inserts. I cut the slot for the insert and notice a lot of "flash" around the slot-where the plastic insert has melted. I scrape it off till it's flush and try to cut a piece. I'm cutting boxwood, about 3/16" thick by about .08-09" wide slabs (that's the plan at least). When I start to feed the boxwood into the blade, the motor bogs down a LOT, and the whole saw starts making grinding noises and shakes a lot. I take the plastic insert out and put in the standard Al one (I can't cut as thin, so they're about .125" wide slabs). Not a bit of trouble. I put the plastic insert back in, and it bogs down again and starts shaking again. I've tried both the .020 and the .025 thick blades-no help. I've checked to make sure the arbor centers the thinner blades-it does with no runout or vibration. I've varied the speeds from slow to fast-again, no help. And I did install the blades with the cutting teeth facing the correct direction. I've checked all the fasteners (fence, insert, arbor screw) and they're all tight. I've gone thru 2 zero clearance inserts to see if there was a problem that the first one was causing, No help. I couldn't find a web site or user group to ask this problem, which is why I've asked here. Any thoughts? I'll try the 80 tooth blade again tomorrow and leave some additional material for finishing up-if it works. Right now I'm stumped, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Harvey

Mark, My 1:1 scale Friendship Sloop Harvey

Michael, You want to come down and work on the rigging on our boat? It's not much larger, and yours looks so much better. . . Thanks, Harvey

They look good Steve. Ship's boats can be a lot of fun (as I will soon find out). If you want an interesting side project, you could rig the sail on one of the boats. AOTS has pictures of the boats rigged. I'm going to try to rig one of them for my Constitution. Harvey

I'll want to do more checking too Mike. What I recall as "Butcher's paper" is brown. I don't know, maybe I grew up in an alternate universe Harvey

Here's a dumb question-is Freezer paper the same a Wax paper?