TS 75 - a little tear out

[Deke]

So embarrassed. This has been happening since day 1 (almost 2 years now), but my neighbor said it was normal. I think he is wrong (I catch on quick don't i?). On all my cuts with the MFT I get a little stringy sort of tear out at the end of the cut. Am I missing out on cleaner cuts via some sort of adjustment?

 

[chrisrosenb]

If you mean you get tear out as the blade is exiting the wood, then yes that is normal.
I have only found 2 ways to limit this. One is to slow down the feed of the saw as it exits the wood.
The other is to have a sacrificial piece of backer wood to cut through as you exit the piece.

 

[ccarrolladams]

I agree, to get the best quality cut using a saw, it is ideal to support the work on a sacrificial surface. It is also important to press some scrap against the work where the cut will end.

When I make the first long trim cut on a fresh sheet, I save that scrap. Usually the end of that trim cut will eventually also be scrap, but if not a scrap piece is pressed against the work there to prevent tear out. The trim scrap becomes the backer for all the other cuts in that sheet.

This tear out is less of a problem when using a slider or beam saw with a scoring blade. Still nearly always when cutting sheet material on a slider saw I use a piece of scrap behind the work.

 

[Deke]

What I can't figure out is how I can use the fence with stop AND a backer board. If the piece is just sitting beyond the fence in the path of the blade, how do you hold it there?