The saw is a hand held circular saw. And the blade is the most expensive one that Menards had.

Well there's your problem right there

The machine works perfectly. It's the blades that suck.

Pics of the saw and cedar please

Blade guard stuck?

I use Diablo blades with good results, I think Diablo is a Mexican fighting chicken.

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So's yer mom.

Won't go and no smoke? If the blade is touching the wood there would be smoke. Something else is holding it up. I'm guessing it's a 7 1/4" so I asked google. They showed a dozen and a half blades from Sears to Milwaukee, but none of the high end blades.

I'll go to my shop this morning and take Jim's pic's. And check it out there has got to be something else holding it up. Sometimes I'm a Stupid Fucker.

He said the blade spins, but won't advance. So it must be catching on the sled or something. If it wasn't the right collar, it wouldn't spin. If there were a nail in the wood he'd get sparks.

i don't know what it was today I went to my shop and cut out the transom piece just like it was supposed to yesterday. Sometimes I'm just a stupid fucker.

Catching the sled is what i was thinking too. (Assuming you mean the saw base was hitting a protruding knot or something.) I've run into that sort of thing before, when I am pressing down hard to be super sure to keep control of the saw, and some irregularity on the workpiece surface was grabbing the front edge of the saw's base and resisting the movement.

Glad you got it working, fargon!

Could have been standing on the power cord too

That's actually quite likely. I've probably done that before.

Good Possibility.