Thread: Average result

Harry, thin kerf blades shouldn't be used on Tritons, because the riving knife is thicker then the saw blade, It is possible that the timber is coming up against the riving knife and having to deviate slightly to get past it, causing those marks. Try another thicker blade and see if you get the same result.
You should use a 2.8mm or thicker blade.

Originally Posted by Chrism3

Harry, thin kerf blades shouldn't be used on Tritons, because the riving knife is thicker then the saw blade, It is possible that the timber is coming up against the riving knife and having to deviate slightly to get past it, causing those marks. Try another thicker blade and see if you get the same result.
You should use a 2.8mm or thicker blade.

Hi Chrism3, thanks for your suggestion.
Before trying a thicker blade, I took some measurements to get a baseline. The blade carbides are 2.6mm wide and the riving knife (it's actually a support spine for an overhead blade guard) only measures 1.5mm wide. I set up a straightedge on both sides of the blade and the knife has clearance both sides, it is more or less center of the kerf. I should also mention that I was doing finishing cuts and only taking off 1mm or so.
The saw carriage is solid with no discernable lateral play and the saw itself is securely mounted, the blade has negligible runout and there is zero end float in the arbor shaft.

In view of your latest tests I suggest you look at your saw blade to see if any of the carbide teeth are out of whack.

Fair chance that the thin blade is flexing. Try a full size blade on the same timber. What is the finish like on a thinner piece, say 20mm thick?

Also, check the mounting of the Hitachi saw is solid, could be a loose mount.

Alan...

Sorry to be a bit argumentive, but I suspect that the combination of a thin kerf blade allowing blade flex, and a crosscut blade with 60 teeth, plus a slower than normal feed rate are likely causes of the problem. The 60 tooth blade has 2.5 times more teeth than a 24 tooth blade and way less gullet to clear chips, so the chances of dust and small chips migrating into the voids between the saw kerf in the material and the blade disk, and flexing the disk are greater, and the slower than normal feed rate can exacerbate this problem as well. Also consider how much error there may be in getting the rip fence exactly parallel to the face of the blade, the issue illustrated in the picture is a common occurrence if the fence toes in or out slightly from the blade face.

Hi Mal, I understand exactly where you're coming from. There is plenty of room for user error in my scenario and setting the fence parallelism on the earlier Tritons is more guess work and good luck than accurate practice. I'm in the midst of making one adjustment or change at a time to see if I can swing the tide of success my direction. First off, I'm changing the blade to a 24T rip with the same fence setup to see how that goes.