DIYbanter - View Single Post

In article .com,
says...
This saw plate bending is not an obvious phenomenon.

Andrew Barss is correct in identifying the most important pressures on
the saw blade. However, as those forces are equalized, and the blade
gets thinner and is run faster and fed faster other, more minor
pressures, start to become more important.

Sawyers have been seeing plate bend for years due to cutting pressures.
"Self Bending" plate came as a surprise as saw blades got much
thinner. The forces on each side are roughly equal but the plate
wants to cup due to forces from the outside in. You are correct that
it could bend either way.

Think about a 30" mill saw that is 0.070" thick. What they do on
these blades is to use pressure rollers to roll compressed bands on one
side of the saw blade to prevent cupping. This is called tensioning
and compensates for the tension created during running. (Freeborn
covers this briefly on p. 25. If you don't have his book I can email
a copy free.)

This issue is not fully understood. It is an important part of the
Wood Machining Institute Seminars annually. In addition Forintek
(Canadian Forest Industries Technology) continues to do work on the
matter. Anyway, the point is that thin kerf saw plate bends more easily due to
outside forces but also wants to bend on its own.

.... snipped

Tom.

P.s. The Freeborn Carbide Saw manual is free. Lowell wrote it and let
me put it on the web. there is no fee and you aren't on any mailing
list. Just email for a copy.

Unless I need to cut something at the full height of the blade I always
run a stabilizer plate between the blade and the nut washer (the fence
side of blade). It definitely keeps the blade more stable but I wonder
if it matters which side of the blade it is mounted on. Hmmm ...