Ahhh....a BS manufacturer supplied blade...in THAT case...
Here's a good one to try: cut the circle in the OPPOSITE direction.
Not a real solution, and I'm actually just curious, but that will tell you if
the teeth are worn (or bad) on just one side.
In any case, I'd go for a new blade.

Regarding the guides, they do help, but when and how much will rarely be found
in the books. It's the narrow blades that need the thrust bearings more
(fairly obvious), and the guide blocks do little except for cutting curves,
unless you hit the edge of a knot or hard curved grain.

Maybe four years ago on the wreck, a bunch of us looked at resawing 4-12"
hardwood, and what blades and technique would produce the best results. With a
good blade on a well tuned BS, one test involved setting the guide blocks
nearly touching, maybe 4 mils away, and removing them entirely. Examining the
roughness of the cut, I couldn't find any difference. A similar test with the
thrust bearing (note: 3/4" blade here) showed little effect until the bearing
was actually deflecting the blade at all times. Further examination showed the
blade weld wasn't perfectly straight (flat, linear, whatever). IOW, if you
placed the blade back down on a jointer bed, you could measure about an .032
gap.

This is an item I've never seen mentioned in any woodworking books. From
machinest's land, a typical tolerance here would be .004. The blade
distributor didn't know what it should be, but agreed .032 was too much and
sent me new blades. These measured (I think...) .010. Rerunning the previous
thrust bearing test, I found less effect from the bearing, and the resultant
smoothness was better in all cases.

An easy way to get a quick measure of this in place, is to rotate your upper
wheel by hand, while measuring the min/max movement of the back of the blade.
Of course this brings other adjustments into it, but it's quick, and if it's
good then it's good.

At the other extreme, both the thrust bearing and guide blocks helped when I
was cutting many curves in 6" hardwood. I also learned (after the fact, of
course) to vary the direction instead of cutting all curves the same, which
will wipe out only one side of the blade.

If memory serves me right, I believe that John White was the only author who
really discussed this in detail, and I highly recommend his articles.

GerryG

On 29 Aug 2004 18:41:20 -0700, wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am using the blade that came with the riser block kit, It is a 3/8"
x 105" x 6 TPI blade. I am not sure who is making them for Grizzly but
their site claims it is made in the USA.

Interesting that you say you test without the guides in place. I
always thought that was a no/no.

I just double checked all of the alignments on the BS and everything
looks fine. Table is is square and plumb to the blade, the wheels are
coplaner and the blade is ridding on the crown of the wheel.

I don't have another blade to test with so, I'll stop and pick up one
from the local Woodcraft store tomorrow. This is my second BS, I
originally had a 12" Delta but it was underpowered for what I want to
do. I wouldn't call myself a begginer but I am definitly not a season
verteran on the BS.

-Marcus