Situations where a Riving Knife would cause problems?

[Jason Beam]

A new cabinet saw with a warranty and everything for $1700 isn't a horrible price to begin with.

If you can settle for contractor saws, there are a few coming out lately that would be priced a bit lower than that. I think grizzly has one (or will soon?). I haven't shopped yet, for two reasons: I don't need a new saw yet, and I wanna let the new feature mature and get all the bugs out.

Do you currently have a saw? If so, I might consider riding it out a little longer to see where the dust settles. This is the year all "new models" had to include the riving knife on in order to get UL listing. Surely there will be some bugs to work out on these first generation saws.

The technology may be sound, but a budget-minded execution may have unforseen challenges, so I would wait a year or two, just to see who shines brightest. Of course, I can say that: i already have a saw that works fine and can afford to wait. But if you're someone looking for a new saw, you may not have that luxury.

Even benchtop models have 'em - they're not what I consider "True" in that they stick up well above the blade to allow for those silly kickback pawls and a blade guard to attach. Plus, they're aimed at the construction market, not so much the furniture building market, really.

[Daniel Hillmer]

A new cabinet saw with a warranty and everything for $1700 isn't a horrible price to begin with.

If you can settle for contractor saws, there are a few coming out lately that would be priced a bit lower than that. I think grizzly has one (or will soon?). I haven't shopped yet, for two reasons: I don't need a new saw yet, and I wanna let the new feature mature and get all the bugs out.

Do you currently have a saw? If so, I might consider riding it out a little longer to see where the dust settles. This is the year all "new models" had to include the riving knife on in order to get UL listing. Surely there will be some bugs to work out on these first generation saws.

The technology may be sound, but a budget-minded execution may have unforseen challenges, so I would wait a year or two, just to see who shines brightest. Of course, I can say that: i already have a saw that works fine and can afford to wait. But if you're someone looking for a new saw, you may not have that luxury.

Even benchtop models have 'em - they're not what I consider "True" in that they stick up well above the blade to allow for those silly kickback pawls and a blade guard to attach. Plus, they're aimed at the construction market, not so much the furniture building market, really.

I just bought one on ebay, the grizzly 1023SL for 750 bucks after the microsoft cash back deal. BUT, I have not sent grizzly the money yet, still waiting for pay pal to get the money so I could always change my mind.

Your idea has merit - the first of anything can easily have design flaws, I know that well from PC software and operating systems...

[Greg Peterson]

I'm not aware of any inherent limitations in a riving knife.

Fortunately, getting a new TS is not on the horizon these days, so by the time I am ready to buy one, riving knife equipped TS will be more prevalent. Eventually, every TS will be required to have a riving knife. Right now only new designs or models are required to have a riving knife. I believe that by 2014 all TS will be required to have a riving knife regardless.

[michael osadchuk]

I just bought one on ebay, the grizzly 1023SL for 750 bucks after the microsoft cash back deal. BUT, I have not sent grizzly the money yet, still waiting for pay pal to get the money so I could always change my mind.

...

...daniel,
I believe you can achieve a large portion of what I consider the safety feature of a riving knife - namely a reduction of kickbacks because a piece of wood gets 'caught' on the rear teeth of the blade - by fashioning several zero insert plates out of wood and epoxying in a simitar-shaped splitter/riving knife at the rear of the plate, with a couple or more plates having the homemade knife at different heights to accommodate different thicknesses of wood being sawn while the "riving/splitter" is still in very close proximity to the back and top teeth of the plate..... I make these riving/splitter knives out of phenolic material (cast off circuit board material) which is very tough yet not 'harmful' to carbide teeth.....

.... I could also make zero insert plates with such a homemade riving/splitter to accommodate common bevel cut angles, say 45 degrees but so far I have not done so as I do bevel cuts infrequently.

...I acknowledge that "true" riving knives rise and fall with the height of the blade as well as follow the blade when it is tilted for a bevel cut......

.... I am NOT saying that factory installed riving knives being mandated on new models of tablesaws is not a step in tablesaw safety but am saying that with ingenuity and a little labour you can achieve a signficant measure of the functionality of a riving knife on a older tablesaw such as you are thinking of buying .......

....btw, to my mind, the safety feature that really works to virtually remove the hazard of finger amputations is the Sawstop but, as you as a new purchaser and many prior owners of otherwise perfectly fine tablesaws have realized, it is a significantly bigger price step ...again, I'm not saying it is not worth it and I haven't read no personal account of such a tablesaw accident not saying that such an upgrade wasn't in their future, after considering the pain, cost and sometimes limits on their finger manipulation
...


good luck

michael

[Daniel Hillmer]

OK - in regard to the above problems, what do you think about this splitter:

http://www.leestyron.com/sharkgriz.php

The maker of them provides three separate splitters of different widths...

[Howard Acheson]

To get a UL label, all new model saws produced after 2010 (I believe) will be required to have a riving knife. New production of old model saws will be required to have riving knives after 2013 (I believe).

I'm not sure of the dates but riving knives will be required shortly.

[Nissim Avrahami]

The Euro riving knife can be remover/installed and adjusted to any direction.

The Safety regulation states that "Riving Knife and Blade Guard MUST be installed for ANY operation on the table saw (or, as the British call it - "Saw Bench").

As the Reg's are saying; If you have to remove the Riving Knife or the Blade Guard for any operation, it means that you are "not using the correct machine for the correct job" (as you know, Dado blades are prohibited in EU).

The riving knife has a slot so we can adjust it up/down but it's an "open slot".

Not long ago, they made a new regulation that this slot must be closed and it's unsafe to operate a TS with an "open slot" riving knife (probably, there was a case that the retaining nut/bolt opened during operation and the riving knife together with the blade guard flown toward the operator).

A few months ago, I welded a piece of iron to close the "open slot"...just to be on the safe side...

The riving knife should sit 3~8mm (1/8"~5/16") behind the blade and should be around 3mm (1/8") below the blade.

Regards
niki
Riving knife.jpg

[Jim Becker]

To get a UL label, all new model saws produced after 2010 (I believe) will be required to have a riving knife. New production of old model saws will be required to have riving knives after 2013 (I believe).

I'm not sure of the dates but riving knives will be required shortly.

New models January 2008
All production 2014.