Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ

On 5/27/2015 2:27 PM, wrote:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ


I'm no expert but the only thing I can think of is little cuts at a
time. Keep raising the blade until you're all the way through.

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On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 at 1:27:08 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling.

Describe the problem more, for us.

Was this wood given to you, free wood?

Is it your saw that is weak, as to why it's hard to cut? A sharp blade may help.

Is the wood pinching your saw blade, as you cut? This may be because the wood has been case-hardened, i.e., improperly kiln dried. Some folks give away case hardened wood, because of this/these sort of problems with working it.

Sonny

wrote in message
...

Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The
grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table
saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on
how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half
and plane them to flat.

A dedicated rip blade would be a good place to start... large gullets to
remove waste and rip teeth to sever the fibers. Alternatively, perhaps gain
access to a bandsaw and buy a suitable resaw blade for it?

As an aside... I never thought of mahogany as being a tight grained wood nor
particularly hard to cut. Sounds more like Ipe... ?!?

John

wrote in
:

Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told.
The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy,
my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor.
Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in
half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ

It might be worth giving your saw a minor tune up. Check the belt
tension (too loose or too tight give poor results) and make sure your
fence is aligned perfectly.

I wonder if applying a lube (such as wax) to the blade would help. I've
done it with Forstner bits and it helps.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

wrote:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The
grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table
saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on
how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half
and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ

Hard to tell what the bro blue might be, BUT you can over tax the motor if
you are going to plane the boards flat after ripping, as possibly indicated
by the order of operations that you mentioned.
If you are trying yo cut a board that is not flat or straight you are very
likely binding the blade in the cut.

And FWIW, mahogany is typically pretty soft compared to oak but then again
any rip that is over 2" thick on a non flat or straight board is going to
be tough with only 1.5 hp.

wrote:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told.
The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy,
my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor.
Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in
half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.


Using a combination blade? Don't. Use a 20-30 tooth flat ground blade; a
real rip blade. If your saw continues to struggle, set cut depth a bit over
half the thickness, rip, flip the board and rip again.

I'm with others, your boards sound like ipe, not mahogany.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Taxes out of hand? Maybe just ready for a change?
Check it out... http://www.floridaloghouse.net

writes:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?


Mahogany isn't usually that dense. I'd suspect jatoba is much more likely.

Using a combination blade? Don't. Use a 20-30 tooth flat ground blade; a
real rip blade. If your saw continues to struggle, set cut depth a bit over
half the thickness, rip, flip the board and rip again.

I'm with others, your boards sound like ipe, not mahogany.

Well, this is more likely that I was using the wrong blade. I had high tooth count blade I was using for plywood. I've got a ripping blade that I will switch over to.

I'm not sure it's ipe, wrong part of the world. Wood came in on a Japanese cargo ship. I suspect jatoba as a possibility.

When cut, it's a nice brown color.

MJ

Can be teak or anything. When living in the south pacific for a few
years we would get ships in from South East Asia and the US. The Asian
ships would brace the cargo with what I determined to be Mahogany. I
got the entire shipload of heavy and wide lumber. We could not handle
most of it due to size but we had a warehouse that the big Hyster fork
lift machines walked the load in for us to make smaller.

The wood lasted for some years with people building all sorts of items.

Good luck with your load. It might help if you knew where the ship
loaded. That is your wood source, not the flag country.

Martin

On 5/28/2015 6:36 PM, wrote:


Using a combination blade? Don't. Use a 20-30 tooth flat ground blade; a
real rip blade. If your saw continues to struggle, set cut depth a bit over
half the thickness, rip, flip the board and rip again.

I'm with others, your boards sound like ipe, not mahogany.

Well, this is more likely that I was using the wrong blade. I had high tooth count blade I was using for plywood. I've got a ripping blade that I will switch over to.

I'm not sure it's ipe, wrong part of the world. Wood came in on a Japanese cargo ship. I suspect jatoba as a possibility.

When cut, it's a nice brown color.

MJ

As mentioned by others, use a dedicated RIP blade for all ripping. As few teeth as possible. 24 teeth maximum. Also try one of those thin blades.

I'm not sure it's ipe, wrong part of the world. Wood came in on a
Japanese cargo ship. I suspect jatoba as a possibility.

That explains it. You are feeding the wood wrong.

In Japan, they drive on the left side of the road. Feed the wood from
the other side and it will go through the blade much smoother.

Glad I could help.

Martin Eastburn wrote in
:

Can be teak or anything. When living in the south pacific for a few
years we would get ships in from South East Asia and the US. The
Asian ships would brace the cargo with what I determined to be
Mahogany.

Teak is _very_ unlikely. That's been a valuable wood for
a long time, I doubt someone would just randomly leave a
chunk around (and they certainly wouldn't use it for dunnage).

Real mahogany doesn't grow in the far east, so it wouldn't
be that, either. The various trees that are called things
like Phillipine Mahogany (lauan, etc) are all rather soft
compared to true mahogany, which as mentioned is itself
softer than oak, maple, etc.

If the wood was dunnage, there's a whole slew of little
known tropical trees it could be.

John

wrote:
Using a combination blade? Don't. Use a 20-30 tooth flat ground
blade; a
real rip blade. If your saw continues to struggle, set cut depth a
bit over
half the thickness, rip, flip the board and rip again.

I'm with others, your boards sound like ipe, not mahogany.

Well, this is more likely that I was using the wrong blade. I had
high tooth count blade I was using for plywood. I've got a ripping
blade that I will switch over to.

I'm not sure it's ipe, wrong part of the world. Wood came in on a
Japanese cargo ship. I suspect jatoba as a possibility.

Both ipe & jatoba are from South America. Japanese cargo ships go many
places...where did it come from? If SE Asia, maybe its apitong.

On 5/27/2015 2:27 PM, wrote:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ


I have never thought of mahoganny has a dense wood . Mahoganny is one of
the lightest woods on the Janka scale.

Check your blade, get a rip blade.
That's some thick wood, and if you are not using a rip blade it will
only take a small cut before filling up.

--
Jeff

On Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 3:27:08 AM UTC+9, wrote:
Came into a stash of very dense wood - mahogany is what I was told. The grain is super, super tight. I tried to rip some of it and boy, my table saw was struggling. The saw is a 1 1/2 horse Jet contractor. Any ideas on how I do this better? Blade choice?

The wood is 2 3/8 by 3 1/2 and 76 inches long. I want to rip them in half and plane them to flat.

Appreciate some pointers.

MJ

Need some pics. Could be keyaki (zelkova), a common very hard wood in Japan..