Thanks everyone for you input. The "more coarse" blade that I used was a wood bit (I think). I was using it to try and rough cut around the pieces to make them a little more manageable on the bench-but the could have been dull.

I'm going to run to the hardware store and see if I can pickup a "plywood" blade or something with 10 TPI like recommended... after I double-check the book for the type of connection the saw expects. It's just a cheapy Craftsman.

And.. I'm sure that I'm not hitting the table (but it's wood so it shouldn't matter) and I'm pretty spazzy about the cord, so I don't think it's that.

Thanks again everyone.

Doug