"blueman" wrote in message
...
I was trying to rip a PT 2x6 that I had bought at the borg a couple of
days back. Now like most of the PT in the borg, the wood was pretty
damp and clammy when I got it and it only had a couple of days to dry
out in my basement.

When I tried ripping it on my $500 Craftsman Table Saw (1992), the
blade started to slow down and finally bind after ripping about 10
inches. This happened with or without using the splitter and
independent of the height of the blade. I ended up having to rip it in
2 passes and even then it seemed to struggle a bit on the second pass
(with the blade all the way throught the stock).

I had never had this problem before with regular wood.

Is this common with PT (especially if not fully dry) or is this more a
sign of a misalignment or lack of power?

Probably not a sign of a lack of power, and likely not a sign of
misalignment if you don't have the problem cutting well dried woods
(hardwoods especially) of similar size. Wet woods will show up a dull(ing)
blade faster than dry woods, and the type of wood you're cutting is beyond
wet. You've probably chosen a worst case with that 2x6. You can try using
something bigger than your splitter to wedge the kerf open. It's likely
that the splitter isn't keeping it open enough owing to how wet the wood is.
If that does not work, I'd try a new blade. I would not be too quick to
look at the saw though. A lot of very capable saws take the blame for other
problems that really are not the blame of the saw.

--

-Mike-