Hammer riving knife adjustment?

[Michael Drew]

My new K3 Winner's Riving knife is not parallel with the blade. It pinches the wood between the fence and the knife. There does not appear to be any adjustability to the swing arm the knife mounts to. I've been adding layers of Gorilla tape to the back side of the aluminum block, but after 3 layers of this tape, it starts to get squishy. My last try was to place the thin washer between the blade and the aluminum block. That seems to work OK, for now, but it's not a great solution.

I thought I would search the Felder's Owner Group forum, to see if anyone else has experienced this problem. Sure enough, many have. Looks like one solution is to print a new plastic spacer with set screws to move it to the left (while looking down at the splitter).

Adding tape shims to the knife might work for a while, but I can envision that becoming a hot mess after a while.

Curious to know if anyone on this site with one of these saws has come up with a solution?

I found this one, but not a big fan of it.... http://benchmark.20m.com/tools/Hamme...vingknife.html

I was thinking about having a friend of mine machine a new block.

I find this quite aggravating. This may be Felder's "budget" line, but common, Felder.

[Jim Becker]

I had a similar issue with the riving knife on my new SC3C...fixed it with a little foil tape to shim it to be in plane with the blade. I'm not worried about the tape as the riving knife is bolted in tightly and would only ever get loosened if I was going to use a blade that was not the same diameter.

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

Hi Michael,

I had that very same issue with my K3 in 2013, I guess they haven't fixed this issue. I ended up doing exactly like the link you supplied but out of aluminum. Once adjusted I never had to touch it again.

The tech support was of no help telling me that it never happens and wanting me to pay 8+ hours to send a tech over.

I can take pictures of my block if you'd like, it's basically 2 blocks separated by set screws and locked in with countersunk screws, the riving knife glides in 2 bolts that lock it in place.

Thanks,
Sebastien

[Derek Cohen]

Michael, fortunately I do not have this problem on mine. However, if I did, I would correct the position using brass shim stock. This comes in sheets thinner than the tape. I would use epoxy to secure them in place, building up the thickness until you reach the ideal setting.

I purchased shim stock on eBay.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Michael Drew]

Well it being East Sunday and all, I had to make do with that I have on hand. Ended up using some iron on maple edge banding, then wrapped that with some aluminum tape. That was the right side of the block. I then used some peal and stick Teflon I had on the left side of the block. There is a limit to what one can do on the right side of the block due to the little positioning tabs, so I split the difference. It moved the knife just enough to get a couple thou of clearance. Total amount needed to shim this thing was about .045". That seems pretty far off to me.

So it works for now, but knowing what I did to "fix" a problem will drive me nuts till I do something more permanent. I change blades often, including 10" to 12", and a thin kerf. My temp fix will end up looking like a hot mess after time.

I like the idea of machine aluminum blocks with set screws.

Sebastian, if you have pics handy, I'd love to see what you did.

[Chris Parks]

Like Derek I do not have the problem but if I did I would machine the arbour spacer to suit the knife or get a new one made leaving the original one alone. There has been a lot of discussion on the Felder user's forum recently and they have come up with an adjustable mounting block which is yet to be given a trial run but that sounds complicated to me.

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

Hi Michael,

Here's a few pictures. I guess I remembered wrong earlier, but I had used 4 set screws (which is a mistake, 3 would be better). I used a carriage bolt (shorter one), like the Hammer spacer to hold the new block in place.

The back part is bolted on the lifting mechanism, the front piece is pushed away from the back part with the 4 set screws and secured with the 3 big head screws, allowing for very fine adjustment.

I put a dial indicator in the wagon and measured the blade center, from there I moved the wagon on the riving knife and adjusted it to be middle aligned to the blade and repeated 2 inches higher, took about 20 minutes in all, but I think with 3 set screws it would be much faster.

IMG_0002.jpgIMG_0003.jpgIMG_0005.jpg

Sorry for the bad pictures and the sawdust. If you need more info, let me know.

[Michael Drew]

Hi Michael,

Here's a few pictures. I guess I remembered wrong earlier, but I had used 4 set screws (which is a mistake, 3 would be better). I used a carriage bolt (shorter one), like the Hammer spacer to hold the new block in place.

The back part is bolted on the lifting mechanism, the front piece is pushed away from the back part with the 4 set screws and secured with the 3 big head screws, allowing for very fine adjustment.

I put a dial indicator in the wagon and measured the blade center, from there I moved the wagon on the riving knife and adjusted it to be middle aligned to the blade and repeated 2 inches higher, took about 20 minutes in all, but I think with 3 set screws it would be much faster.

IMG_0002.jpgIMG_0003.jpgIMG_0005.jpg

Sorry for the bad pictures and the sawdust. If you need more info, let me know.

Thank you! That's a great idea and gives me a good start. The only negative I see, is moving the block when changing back and forth from 12" to 10" blades.

Chris - I did see the threads at FOG and agree with you.

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

At first I thought so too, but at some point I just put the block where both blade sizes would fit and adjust the height of the riving knife appropriately and it works really well. Because of the curve in the knife, it really is never more than 3/4 inch away from the 10 inch blade (the lower the blade, the closer the knife) and about 1/4 away from the 12 inch blade. So it still functions well and is no issue. If I had to change if, I might put the nut that locks it’s position accessible as soon as the knife is removed…

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I haven’t been on the site in a while, but I have the same issue with my K3 (purchased just about 2 years ago). The riving knife is like a 64th proud (right of) the tooth line. I had several conversations with Felder tech support about this…funny they acted like it was the first time they’d heard of the issue I was given the advice to shim it on the back side of the knife…and I had the same question about different size blades. But, with plenty of use over the last over the 2 years, I’ve found that I’ve not been temped to use the saw for “cabinet saw” style ripping (riding the fence to the right of the blade). I have done plenty of ripping with work on the sliding table. But I also have a band saw that I rough out rip cuts and a SawStop 3hp pcs still in the shop…but lately that saw has been mostly used with a dado stack set-up.

BTW—I can’t recommend highly enough buying a couple of Zero Clearance Inserts from Ramon Valdez. They are fantastic! I picked up three…one for the 315mm blade (doesn’t need an opening for the scoring blade), a second zci for the 250mm blade with slot cut for scoring blade, and a third zci with slots cut for 45d miter cuts.

[Warren Lake]

post says its not parrallel to the blade and it pinches, Is it not parrallel or just too tight or both.

I can see all saws being made too tight then you shim it out to where you want, you go the other way so too tight and add shims makes sense. My SCM had plastic laminate for a shim from past owner. Shim taken out the riving knife would be too tight. If I use it I just shim it back depending the blade, the kerf on some of the 14 and 16 blades are wider than smaller blades.