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Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
By:Mike Savage
Date: 6/30/2012, 3:11 pm
In Response To: Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review (ancient kayaker)

: Interesting, amd sensible too. Presumably the riving knife travels
: up and down with the cut depth setting.

: The riving blade would be better than the usual spring-driven blade
: covers on my saws. Those are useless as they are disabled when
: used with a zero-clearance baseplate - necessary for a clean
: cut. I plan to add an adjustable stand on the edge of the
: baseplate so the blade doesn't damage whatever I put it down on;
: but it isn't much of a problem for me since my cutting table is
: finished with insulating foam so no harm is done. That gets to
: be more of a potential problem when working on ply, but I use a
: miniature circular saw for that these days; it has a neat
: one-piece baseplate and blade cover design that allows use of a
: zero-clearance plate. Unfortunately that design is no longer
: sold.

: Problem with most of the Festools I've seen is the price, though.

Hi, ancient one,
There isn't much problem with a zero tolerance baseplate and a riving knife. Set the blade to its deepest cut and measure to the back edge of the r-knife and make that the z-t slot length. That's the longest slot length needed. The blade and knife lift and drop at the same time. At shllower cutting depth there's a bit of open slog behind the knife but it's only as wide as the blade so naught much will jam there.

If I'm putting down the saw, I always wait til the blade is dead stopped*, then put the saw down, motor side up. That way, the blade faces away from me. I'm right handed, lefties may chose the other way.
*Modicum of paranoia, etc.

Mike Savage
South West Cork

Messages In This Thread

Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 6/27/2012, 10:15 am
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Jeff Horton -- 6/27/2012, 8:44 pm
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Mike Savage -- 6/28/2012, 6:24 am
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Jeff Horton -- 6/28/2012, 7:43 am
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Mike Savage -- 6/30/2012, 2:48 pm
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
ancient kayaker -- 6/28/2012, 6:37 pm
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Brian Nystrom -- 6/29/2012, 6:13 am
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
ancient kayaker -- 6/29/2012, 8:58 pm
Re: Tools: Home made Riving Knife review
Mike Savage -- 6/30/2012, 3:11 pm