Apparatus for controlling work feed rate for cutting wood, metal and other materials

An apparatus for incrementally controlling a feed rate of material to be cut by a saw having a saw blade and a wearable guide block, said apparatus comprising:

• a sensor means;
• a control unit means;
• and
• a primary signal conditioning means;
• wherein said sensor means and said control unit means establish and update a zero reference point for a lateral position of the saw blade by:
• said sensor means determining the initial location of the saw blade before said saw blade is sawing material, said initial location stored in said control unit means as said zero reference point;
• said sensor means determining one or more updated locations of said saw blade when said saw blade is not sawing material;
• said control unit means storing said updated locations;
• said control unit means periodically averaging said updated locations;
• said control unit means generating an updated lateral position signal proportional to the averaging of said updated locations;
• and
• said control unit means resetting said zero reference point to conform to said updated lateral position signal, thereby compensating for guide block wear;
• wherein said sensor means detects lateral movement of said saw blade away from said zero reference point when said saw blade is cutting material being fed into said saw blade;
• wherein said sensor means generates a blade motion signal proportional to the average detected lateral movement of said saw blade over a preselected period of time;
• wherein said primary signal conditioning means establishes a first reference signal proportional to the blade motion signal generated at a preselected acceptable lateral movement of said saw blade;
• wherein said primary signal conditioning means establishes a second reference signal proportional to the blade motion signal generated at a first level of unacceptable lateral movement of said saw blade;
• wherein said control unit means compares said blade motion signal to said first and second reference signals, and if said blade motion signal is less than said first reference signal, then increasing the feed rate one increment, and if said blade motion signal is greater than said second reference signal, then decreasing the feed rate one increment, and if said blade motion signal is greater than said first reference signal and less than said second reference, then stopping the increase in feed rate.