Carvex chatter and vibration

[CNX]

Hi all,

I had been a happy user of a Carvex, but today, I was cutting 2.5 inch hard maple and noticed quite a chattering and vibration. This is one of the thickest and toughest woods I ever put up against the Carvex and not sure if this is something expected. The cut surface was smooth and perpendicular. So, there was nothing to complaint but it was indeed a battle against the Carvex; I had to place a good pressure on its head and fight against the vibration. The pendulum setting was 3. The blade was 105/4 FSG. The speed was "A".

I am wondering if I did something wrong or there was any trick for smoother cut. The video from Festool shows  a Carvex smoothly cutting a 4-inch board, which makes me feel I'm doing something wrong.

Your advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

If you have an extra piece of scrap maple from the same piece you might want to try doing a test cut using a lower orbital setting and see whether you get the same amount of excess vibration. If this gets rid of the excessive vibration, then try to adjust the speed up so you get a decent cutting rate but without burning.

 

[CNX]

Thanks Rip,

Is there any general rule like, the thicker the stock, the slower (or faster) the oscillation rate?

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Stock thickness can matter, but I think the problem you're having has more to do with wood species.

Hard maple isn't only fairly hard, it's also very dense, and has a very fine grain structure. Because of the hardness, density, and fine grain of the hard maple, the oscillation gets transferred to the jigsaw rather than assisting with cutting speed, similar to what happens when cutting some metals.

One of the other problems with hard maple stock, especially when it's very thick, is that it usually has a high moisture content towards the center of the stock. Once you start cutting moisture gets released and it tends to lead to higher friction while cutting, or blade binding in the cut. Less oily woods like maple seem to be more of a problem in this regard than more oily woods like some exotics, such as Cocobolo.

 

[CNX]

Make sense. Thanks Rip.