Tip O' the day from the Village Idiot.

[Rick Potter]

I have a Beismeyer splitter on my Unisaw that is for 1/8" blades. I don't use thin kerf blades at all, and it has been on there for years. I put a new Frued rip blade on, which is supposed to have a 1/8" kerf, and all of a sudden I have to push hard to rip pieces. It is not too bad on 3/4 stock, but the thicker it is the more difficult it is to run through.

Now, the splitter is just slightly under 1/8" to allow some slack, but this one blade was apparantly just a bit undersized. It worked fine with all my others.

So.....I took the splitter apart, and very carefully ran it against my belt sander just taking off a little bit on each side. Again, being very careful to keep it flat against the belt. I then reassembled it, waxed it and now all is well in the village again.

Beware, it gets pretty hot, so take your time and set it in the saw table a couple minutes to cool. That mass of iron sucks the heat out pretty quick. If you try to hold it with vise grips you may get it too hot. Your hands will tell you when to stop.

Rick Potter

[Jim Becker]

Yea, some blades do vary in actual kerf width. Most have it listed if you manage to remember to look, but I know I've forgotten that one a few times, myself!

[Lee Schierer]

It could be that the blade disk was thinner which would effectively move the cut line to one side, making your splitter out of alignment only on one side.

[Shawn Walker]

I have a Beismeyer splitter on my Unisaw that is for 1/8" blades. I don't use thin kerf blades at all, and it has been on there for years. I put a new Frued rip blade on, which is supposed to have a 1/8" kerf, and all of a sudden I have to push hard to rip pieces. It is not too bad on 3/4 stock, but the thicker it is the more difficult it is to run through.

Now, the splitter is just slightly under 1/8" to allow some slack, but this one blade was apparantly just a bit undersized. It worked fine with all my others.

So.....I took the splitter apart, and very carefully ran it against my belt sander just taking off a little bit on each side. Again, being very careful to keep it flat against the belt. I then reassembled it, waxed it and now all is well in the village again.

Beware, it gets pretty hot, so take your time and set it in the saw table a couple minutes to cool. That mass of iron sucks the heat out pretty quick. If you try to hold it with vise grips you may get it too hot. Your hands will tell you when to stop.

Rick Potter

I think I would have just taken the blade back.