Miter saw is used for cross cuts, bevel cut, and miter cut mostly. Miter saw is powered by electricity. When you use the miter saw you can see a few problems due to its performance. Miter saw smoking is one of them. When the saw is used you can feel the smell of smoking. So do you know why does a miter saw is smoking?
A miter saw is smoking due to workpiece burning or motor inside melting. If the smoke feels like wood smoke that is due to workpiece burning. But it is a kind of chemical or plastic smoke probably it comes to from the electric motor.
Normally miter saw smoking due to the burning. So let’s see what are the reasons for the miter saw smoking and how to prevent that easily.
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01 – Dull Miter Saw Blade

A dull blade or blunt blade is not a sharp miter saw blade. Due to many reasons, a blade can be dull. As a result of this its cutting edge can be damaged. When the saw blade is sharp it can easily remove the chips from the material. When it is blunt, it will scratch it. As a result of this additional power will need and it will increase the temperature due to friction.
Hence we can see smoke has risen from the blade. This smoke feels like wood smoke. So you should stop the cutting process and use a sharp saw blade. Due to the wood-burning, you will have to re-prepare the wood surface by sanding.
02 – Dirty Miter Saw Blade

If the miter saw blade is not cleaned properly it will be a dirty blade. Due to the sawdust and heated lignin you can see additional sawdust layer has tightly adhered to the saw blade surface. When the saw blade is used the lignin can be melt due to heat generation because of the friction.
As a result fo this we can see smoke. This smoke is the same as the wood smoking. It is better if you can clean the saw blade by using any suitable liquid
03 – Improper Sliding Rate and RPM
When you use a miter saw with a lower RPM rate with a slow sliding speed you may see there is a smoke rise from the workpiece. This is a very common factor. When the sliding rate is slow it will rotate much time in the same position and as a result of this heat can be generated.
When the heat is generated you can see some burning marks, as well as wood smoking, from the saw blade.
04 – Number of Teeth of the Miter Saw Blade

The saw blade needs to take out the cutting chips from the cutting path. If the saw blade is with a lower number of teeth it can remove a high amount of chips. If the number of teeth is higher less amount of chips can remove. If you cut cross cut you will need a higher amount of teeth. If you cut the rip cut you will need a lower number of teeth.
If the chips are clogged inside the cutting path additional friction can increase and as a result of this smoke can arise. So select the proper saw blade.
05 – Lignin Melting
If you use a miter saw for a long period you can see some sawdust have entered everywhere in the motor. When the dust is spread into the motor it can melt due to high heat. When these are heated we can name this a lignin.
Dust can be added to the melted lignin and when the saw is stopped this lignin can be turned to solid. This solid paste can clog the brush’s mechanism, rotational mechanisms, etc.
When the miter saw is started you can feel some smell if there is no workpiece on the table. So this will be the reason.
06 – Brush Heating
Most miter saw motors are made with carbon brushes. These are scratches with the commutator when it is rotating.
if the inside heat is rise too much the coil can be burned. Or sometimes plastic parts can be burned. At this time you will feel a chemical smell or plastic smell from the miter saw table.
More than that most of the smoking problems arise due to the improper miter saw blade. If your problem is not solved check the below reasons also.
- Miter saw blade wobble
- Use a brand new blade
- Use hardwood
- Higher cutting depth
- External force to the workpiece