Ever had tablesaw kickback with a riving knife installed?

[Peter Gregory]

I have had kickback on my American style saw, without a knife or splitter installed. I have never, ever, had the first hint of kickback with a knife or splitter in place.

My question to the crowd, have you ever had kickback with a riving knife or splitter installed?

Thanks.

[David DeCristoforo]

Here's an example. You are ripping a piece of material and as your cut progresses, the material begins to pinch the blade. The riving knife is there to resist the cut closing but between the knife and you there is still a spinning (and now starting to burn) saw blade. As the blade heats up, it begins to warp and the kerf now becomes wider than the thickness of the riving knife. The next thing that is going to happen is that the blade is going to try to pull the material off the table at the "back" of the blade and if it is able to get enough "lift", the piece can be thrown back at you or the back edge can head for your face. Of course, we would hope that you ware able to somehow hang on to this piece of twisting, smoking wood with one hand while you hit the off button with the other. Sounds like fun, no? The joys of woodworking!

FWIW, most American woodworkers have not had the experience of working on a machine equipped with a riving knife. Until very recently, these were not required on machines sold in this country.

[glenn bradley]

MJ Splitters I have one for each ZCI which corresponds to the blade that ZCI is for. Inexpensive but, you do have to pull them for non through cuts that are shallower then they are.

[Brent Smith]

Hmmmm....so far today I've read about 40 years of woodworking with never a knick, and now, never ever the first hint of kickback.......................I think , maybe, we should all take David's advice about the evil eye and never mind the chicken, but get a fattened calf or two to ward off the evil spirits and, the even more dangerous, Murphy and his law :).

[John Thompson]

I've had 5 twisting kick-backs over the years... two with a riving knife and three with a splitter. All were plywood. The first two.... a number of years ago.. I recieved gut shots and one fractured rib. After that I started using over-head stops on the fence.. a feather (I personally use spring-boards) left of blade.. crown guards mounted on riving knife or splitter so.. the last three did no physical damage as they were partially blocked by the devices I mentioned and simply missed.

Now... if you count launch straight off the saw back-wards in a direct line with the blade ( I refer to this as the Lane)... I could not count them over 38 years but have never been touched as I don't stand in nor cross the Lane while the blade is spinning.

So.. a few but I run a TS quite a number of hours a week and have been doing so for years. But.. it only takes one time even with extreme caustion to give a wake up call. With the exception of from 1972 until 1974 I have always used a splitter and my first riving knife around 1990 pr so.

Sarge..

[Tom Esh]

Never, but I also use the anti-kick prawls as much as possible. Like most I've had a few wiley pieces of stock start pinching into the blade, but if the RK is adjusted and sized correctly to the blade all that happens is it just becomes very hard to feed. At that point I shutdown and if I really want to salvage the stock finish the cut on the bandsaw rather than risk deflecting the RK so much as to defeat its purpose.

[Paul Ryan]

Knock on wood. I have never had a kick back or any physical accident in the shop, but I have not been woodworking as long as many of you either.

I am eating fried chicken tonight, and was planning on sacrificing it to my LAB to fend off the evil spirts conjoured up by my statement. However I was informed that a live chicken must be used to do the exorcising.

[Dan Lee]

How bout option for kickback with splitter not installed sitting on bench :(

[David DeCristoforo]

"How bout option for kickback with splitter not installed sitting on bench..."

While eating fried chicken?

[Leigh Betsch]

Yup. Went so fast I don't have clue what happened. Don't ever stand in the lane, even my dog moves out of the lane now.

[Ron Knapp]

I thought the riving knife was a relatively new idea until I ran across an large old Tannewitz table saw with a cast iron sliding table and a true riving knife.

[John Thompson]

"I thought the riving knife was a relatively new idea until I ran across an large old Tannewitz table saw with a cast iron sliding table and a true riving knife"... Ron

Actually the Euro's adapted the riving knife a while back and is required on all there saws and has been for awhile as I don't remember the exact dates but.... they got the idea from an American saw that had one as a few did until.. the Uni-saw went on the market in 1937 I believe. When that happened most American manufacturers cloned that saw as it was innovative if you exclude the type spliitter and guard Delta chose. But... as I stated... they cloned it and that included the standard type gaurd you see on all U.S. saw until recently.

Sarge..

[David DeCristoforo]

"Actually the Euro's adapted the riving knife a while back and is required on all there saws and has been for awhile..."

What's "funny" (that is, strange, odd,etc.) is that US made (or should I say "branded") saws sold in Europe have been required to have RKs. But those same saws sold in the US have not. Of course, now all new saws must have them. Another "funny" thing is how resistant manufacturers have been to incorporating RKs, claiming that the cost of their saws would have to skyrocket. But if you look at the Sears web site (just for an example) they have their "new" 10" table saw w/ RK for $249 and the "previous" 10" table saw (the pre RK version) listed for $229 (discounted to $149 on "closeout"). That is a higher price but not enough to be significant, especially since the "new" saw also includes the "blade guard-mounted Laser Trac system" and the revolutionary "Quick release base clamping system" (allows for quick separation of base for easy transportation) which must have added at least as much to the cost of the saw as the RK.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

That was prolly caused by letting the stock creep up on the blade lifting off the table. Then when the blade finally caught it it slammed it back hard.

That's one of the reasons lots of folks will have the blade a lot higher than the work. It's unlikely to happen in that configuration.

The worse time to have this sort o kick back occur is when you are feeding small slender pieces. They won't push your hand out of the way they will just penetrate your hand.