Wood Tension While Cutting with TS 55 FEQ

[onocoffee]

Was crosscutting some 8/4 walnut slabs today and it had quite a bit of tension. Enough to stop the blade about 60% of the way through. With one, I had to pry the saw out of the slab. I ended up turning the slab over, aligning the rail to the cut and cutting from the opposite side to finish the cuts.

Then I needed those pieces ripped down and the tension was still there. Not enough to stop the blade but it put some strain on the saw. Rip length was about 20" and the cross cut was about 24".

Just wondering what might have been a better way to approach this? I haven't had much tension issues with slabs of similar thickness. Should I have done a few shallow passes leading to full-depth? Maybe slow down the blade speed?

Thanks!

 

[luvmytoolz]

Stick wedges in behind the cut as you go will usually work well.

 

[Hawkeye0001]

12T ripping blade, wedges and make sure that the board isn't cupped in a way that ripping it creates a pressure point (i.e. put the convex side down, that way the two pieces will drop outward instead of inward after the cut)

 

[smorgasbord]

Multiple passes, increasing the depth of cut with each pass can help, too.