Riving knife

Hi All

I have an old Durden combinatin machine and was contemplating a few minor home upgrades. One question is how thick should the riving knife be - should it match the blade thickness or be thinner?

Thanks
Matt
Eaton, WA


Give me a shed full of tools and I will make less than someone with talent and a pocketknife.

on my taiwanese table saw its slightly thinner than the blade? is this right? cheers bob

Hi Matt

The riving knife should be wider than the blade body and narrower than the kerf.

If it's wider than the kerf, the stock will clearly jam on the knife.

If it's thinner than the blade body, it defeats the purpose of the knife. The stock can still bind on the blade and give you a kiss.

Hope that helps.

Ravi

Thanks Ravi, exactly the type of info I needed. Worked out that wider than the kerf would be bad :oo: but wasn't suer whether it needed to be balde kerf or body thickness.

Matt

Hi Matt

Exactly what Ravi said but in an official drawing of HSE...

Regards
niki

Attachment 112343Attachment 112344

2.5 mm for a blade with 3mm carbides would be reasonable and from convienient stock.....unless the blade had a heavy body plate.
Thats about what is on may machine.

cheers

Agree with the above.

Trying to be on the lookout for a potential problem, the only thing to be aware of is if you have the standard 3mm kerf blade some of these newer thin kerf blades could be a problem - I have not had any experience of them only seen them in the magazines but I believe that they are becoming more popular.

Regards,
Bob

According to all the books I have, the riving knife/splitter is supposed to be halfway between the body thickness of the blade and the thickness measured at the teeth, i.e. the average of the two measurements.

I make my own splitters to go with my replacement zero clearance inserts, and have two standard thicknesses of splitter to suit my Infinity combo blade and a thin kerf Freud. Getting the splitter aligned spot on is just as important as getting the thickness correct !