When you are working with tools like circular saws, maintenance, and good working practices are essential to ensure you get the most out of them. When issues arise, it may be worth assessing whether you’ve kept to a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule or have simply been using the tool incorrectly.
Issues like the all-too-common problem of the circular saw blades burning the wood you are working on. When this happens, even if you are one of the most contentious when it comes to using your tools properly and regularly clean them, you need to be open to the fact that it could be you that is at fault. In the following post, we are going to discuss three key reasons why your blade is burning the wood you are working on.
Incorrect Feed Speed
You will find if you are working with woods such as soft maple or cherry, which are more likely to burn quicker, need to be fed in faster to avoid burning. The same is true of other woods. As you work with different woods and gain experience with them, you will learn the best feed speeds for them.
Although slower feed speeds make it easier to achieve smoother cuts, they also mean that the wood is exposed to the blades for longer and all that kinetic energy over one specific area can result in burns. A lot of what’s involved in finding the balance between too slow and too fast when it comes to feeding the wood to the saw is down to practice.
Alignment Issues With Guide Fence and Saw Blade
Another reason why your circular saw is that the guide fence and saw blade are not aligned perfectly. This can cause the stock to push to the side and against the fence, while you feed it in, increasing the amount of friction and pressure there is against the wood you are working on.
The best way to check if this is the case is to measure between the fence and blade at the back and front of the blade and if the measurements don’t tally up, you will need to adjust the alignment. Once you’ve re-aligned it, your circular saw can continue to be a great investment for your workshop.
Dirty or Dull Saw Blade
It could be something as simple as the blade being either dull and in need of a sharp or dirty and in need of a clean, that’s causing it to burn the wood. Dull blades obviously make it much harder to cut wood quickly and as we’ve already discussed a slower feed rate increases the chances of the wood getting burned.
However, before you start thinking about sharpening the blade, it could be that the blade only feels dull and is just dirty. When wood pitch resins start to accumulate and build up around the blade teeth, the speed it cuts at slows down and that again can lead to burns.
It is for this very problem that you can invest in good quality blade cleaners.
Warped or Bent Blade
While we are discussing the condition of the blade, another reason why you could be experiencing a lot of wood-burning incidents could be that the blade has warped or bent. All it takes is just a minor bend or warp, so even if it doesn’t look like anything’s wrong with it, give it a check for any signs of these kinds of issues.
While there is a chance that it could be something completely different, the reasons we’ve featured above are the most common causes for circular saws burning wood.
