Jet Proshop series - riving knife on the way?

[David Stoner]

A poster yesterday said that a Jet rep had told him that Jet plans to offer a riving knife for its Proshop series of hybrid tablesaws later this year, probably around September. Has anyone else heard of this? If I were to buy a JPS-10 saw now, what chance do you think there is that I would be able to retrofit it with the new riving knife?

[M. A. Espinoza]

Suggest you e-mail Jet directly.

They answered my question about the riving knife, however it took a couple days.

[Jason Beam]

I think the chances of a retrofit riving knife for any saw is pretty slim. The mechanism to keep the knife rising with the blade is complex enough that almost every saw i've seen with a real riving knife has a completely different means of blade elevation. If there was a simple bolt-on modification, I'd bet someone would have found it by now - I do know that there's a chance that Lee Styron (of sharkGuard fame) may be collaborating on just such a project, but I don't know any more than that.

[Jim Becker]

It was mentioned in another thread earlier this week that the next version of the saw would have the riving knife. I'm skeptical about any kind of retrofit on any saw for this, however...likely very complicated if there is, in fact, space to do it for any existing machine.

[Jesse Taylor]

THis is the response I received from Jet:

Thank you for writing. We are expecting, in fourth quarter 2008 to come out a saw similar to the Proshop except it will have a riving knife. You won’t be able to retro-fit the new riving knife because a riving knife requires a different trunnion system than what is on our current saw.


Aundrea Berkey
Internet Customer Support
WMH Tool Group
Makers of POWERMATIC®, JET®, and WILTON® products


Seems as though they are behind in current production so we will have to wait and see if this time frame holds true.

[Prashun Patel]

I just spoke with Customer Service. The ProShop will NOT have a riving knife. The new 2008 riving knife saw may be a cheaper cabinet saw or a more beefy hybrid, but it won't be a Proshop.

[Jason Hausman]

I just asked and recieved the following response.
"Thank you for writing. It will be 8-9 months before the ProShop saw is available with a riving knife."

[Dave Lehnert]

Riving knife is going to be mandatory by law. All saws will have it or be discontinued.

[Jason Beam]

Close, dave.

The riving knife is required to get UL listing. It's required on all new models today and will be required on all existing models by ... shoot, i forget the year - 2010? 2014? i can't remember.

Not quite law, but it may as well be.