Anti Kickback pawls, you use 'em?

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi, I was wondering if most people use the anti kickback pawls that came with your saw? I got tired of dealing with mine so I took them off. Everytime I tried to slide back a piece of wood toward me they would catch and stop the wood. Do you feel they add to kickback safety and do you have them on? Alan

[Michael Schwartz]

They do add some safty but only in the event an actual kickback occurs.

There is nothing more agravating than ripping a narrow peice and getting your push stick caught up on the paws with no way of safely backing it up or lifting it up to free it without turning off the saw before completing the cut

I never use them

I feel that a splitter or riving knife is a must 100% of the time. I will rip small peices I can easily controll without a splitter, but there are cuts I will refuse to make with out a splitter of some kind, as I have seen kicbacks that would have been prevented by the use of one.

[Dennis Peacock]

Well, let's just say that I have them, but never put them on the saw. :)

[Paul Douglass]

I have them on my new saw and I am trying to use them and the blade guard. I don't know how long it will last. They can be a pain.

[Don Bullock]

On my saw they are part of the blade guard. I haven't even thought of removing them.

[Ken Milhinch]

........Everytime I tried to slide back a piece of wood toward me they would catch and stop the wood....... Alan

That is precisely what they are designed to do - they don't actually prevent a kickback, but they prevent the wood from becoming a missile.
Having said that, I don't use mine.:o

[Brian Hale]

I put mine on the day i got my Bridgewood. Came off that afternoon and has been hanging on the wall ever since.

Brian :)

[Mike Cutler]

Nope. Don't use them. A splitter provides equal protection and actually works.
10 gauge stamped pawls on a light spring might be good for avoiding lawsuits, but don't really work well in field application.
My .02, fwiw.

[Allen Bookout]

I use a Delta removable splitter with anti kickback pawls and never noticed that they were in the way. I guess that I seldom rip wood narrow enought that they are a problem. I recently purchased the Grip-Rite system so I may revert to using the Grip-Rites with a short splitter for the most part. So far I really like this system. Easy to set up and appears to be really effective.

[Jim DeLaney]

I use the Biesemeyer splitter - with the pawls - and have never really had a problem. If I'm ripping veru soft woods - like cypress - I sometimes raise the pawls out of the way. With the Biese, it's easy. Just raise them up and put a short piece of 1/8" dowel across under them and through the hole that's already in the splitter.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Hi, I was wondering if most people use the anti kickback pawls that came with your saw? I got tired of dealing with mine so I took them off. Everytime I tried to slide back a piece of wood toward me they would catch and stop the wood. Do you feel they add to kickback safety and do you have them on? Alan
I removed the pawls and guard from my first TS over 30 years ago. I don't use a riving knife unless I think I'm going to need one. When I have a board that is closing up I merely jam a wood wedge in the kerf and keep cutting.
With a slider I find that I am almost never in the path of any potential kickback.

[Jim Becker]

On my previous saw, I had a Biesemeyer snap-in splitter. It came with the pawls but they came off real fast. I don't like them and don't feel they are necessary...it's the splitter that keeps you less likely to have a kickback. On my slider, there is no such thing as the pawls...and they would have been removed if there were some. ;)

[Jules Dominguez]

I added a Delta aftermarket splitter to my old Rockwell contractors saw about a year before I decided to get a Sawstop. The pawls were attached to the splitter, easy on and easy off. I used them.
My Sawstop has pawls built into the splitter/blade guard assembly, same deal, easy on and easy off. I use them.
It is an inconvenience to have the pawls catch the wood when you want to pull a board back, but you can lift both of them with one hand while pulling the board back with the other, so it's not a big deal to me. I believe that they would in fact prevent a kickback, and for my money the minor inconvenience of putting up with them is a cheap price to pay for the added safety.

[Don Bullock]

...My Sawstop has pawls built into the splitter/blade guard assembly, same deal, easy on and easy off. I use them.
It is an inconvenience to have the pawls catch the wood when you want to pull a board back, but you can lift both of them with one hand while pulling the board back with the other, so it's not a big deal to me. I believe that they would in fact prevent a kickback, and for my money the minor inconvenience of putting up with them is a cheap price to pay for the added safety.

Jules, I agree. I don't have any problems with them and they make the SawStop even safer when they are on the saw.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

This is very interesting. To clarify, I do always use my removable splitter and blade guard but I removed the paws when they began interfering with some operations. It looks like I'm with the majority.

[Mark Carlson]

I use a splitter and a guard. No prawls on my shark guard.

~mark

[Seumas McCombie]

Note: The commentary in post 18 and 19 by Seumas is from his own copyrighted material at his commercial web site (http://www.island.net/%7Emacduff2/). He thoughtfully removed any links that may have been construed as commercial per the TOS.

Jim
SMC Moderator
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Page 19 Woodworking tip of the month

How to handle sheet goods in the rip or crosscut mode on a table saw, first and foremost the blade has to be dead parallel to the fence, not toe-in or toe-out. Raise the blade as high that the operator feels comfortable with the higher blade, a high blade runs cooler, will keep the material in line with the fence better and with less teeth area in contact with the material, will be inclined to force the material against the table top and the gullets will clear themselves of sawdust much faster unlike a low set blade which is inclined to lift and raise the material clear of the table top resulting in binding and kick-back.
Not all teeth are cutting, that would depend if the feed rate was constant and precise, some teeth are only scraping the sides of the material, these teeth are the one’s that are follow the cutting teeth, a low set blade has more of the low arch cutting teeth have contact with the wood generating most of the heat, cooling can only take place when the blade is clear of the material. Always use a sharp clean blade, a dull blade is more susceptible to binding and the motor H. P. is also a factor.

What happens if there is binding, the upward lifting force generated is inclined to push the material out of the kerf, the material then leaves the side of the fence and tries to make a new kerf for it’s self, this in turn with the upward force against the anti-kick back pawls which at that split moment are unable to grab the material with the understanding that the spurs are not able to find new hold on the material being forced upward, with the pawls not grabbing the material it is now free to kick-back and fly out with such great force, sometimes disrupting the position of the guard which could also shatter, that is highly dangerous if you or other things are in its path.
Always use the guard, splitter and the pawls and finally be alert at all times because the table saw although it is the Worlds most popular woodworking machine it is potentially the most dangerous to operate, even by professionals.
(see the xxxxxxxxx anti-kick-back devices)

A blade that is not parallel to the fence has either the leading or trailing edge (front or back teeth) doing most of the work, if the leading edge is doing most of the work you will simply get a rough cut, on the other hand if the trailing edge is doing most of the work it is inclined to want to lift the material off the table top and will as an added nuisance simply throw sawdust in your face. A blade that is dead parallel will have arch marks centrally placed on the edge of the material being worked (like and arched cross) this is more apparent when using a 24 teeth rip saw blade. Most fences are set up for right handed operators but the xxxxxxxxxx has the ability for the stationary fence to be attached on the left side of the support platform.

[Seumas McCombie]

Note: The commentary in post 18 and 19 by Seumas is from his own copyrighted material at his commercial web site (http://www.island.net/%7Emacduff2/). He thoughtfully removed any links that may have been construed as commercial per the TOS.

Jim
SMC Moderator
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Page #20 Now for the operation

If at all possible have the longest edge against the fence. Start by pushing the sheet goods with both hands, applying downward, forward, sideways pressure towards the fence on the work piece with your right hand and only forward pressure with your left, making sure that the edge is always in close contact with the fence. As you near completion of the cut, say about 2ins. continue to push the work piece against the fence and past the blade with your right hand, but remove your left hand from the work piece. The left hand should not have contact with the waste material on the left at the completion of the cut, (what happens, the waste on the left will trail slightly with the friction of the material on the table top and the kerf cut will open slightly away from the blade, kick back is usually caused by binding or the waste material pinching the blade, this is more obvious when the material to the left of the blade is large) if this is so, the left hand when the cut is about just completed should use a slight twisting of the material away from the blade and splitter, making sure that the left hand is still in front of the blade, the left hand should never reach past the front of the blade.
Always crosscut from the longest side then rip to the required width and for material less that 12ins use the mitre gauge or a cross cut box or sliding sled (see the videos on xxxxxxxx search xxxxxxxxx. Or xxxxxxxxx)
Long material must be supported at the back of the saw also in the crosscut position (see the xxxxxxxxxx outrigger, which has but one line of friction along the top of the xxxxx, immaterial if it is not set at precisely right angles to the blade) never use out-feed rollers, only if they are set precisely at right angles to the blade, this is inherently dangerous as they are inclined to pull the material away from or to the fence resulting in binding, never use these rollers for cross support, the dangers will be magnified.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a Merlin removeable splitter with anti-kickback pawls on my General 650.

I use it for all ripping operations, and remove it for crosscutting or dado cuts. I stopped cutting rebates on the tablesaw when I purchased a shaper, it makes much nicer rebates.

regards, Rod

[Byron Trantham]

I use the Biesemeyer splitter - with the pawls - and have never really had a problem. If I'm ripping veru soft woods - like cypress - I sometimes raise the pawls out of the way. With the Biese, it's easy. Just raise them up and put a short piece of 1/8" dowel across under them and through the hole that's already in the splitter.

Jim, I use mine a lot also and never thought of the dowel solution. Great tip!;)

[Craig D Peltier]

I guess im one of the rare ones.I use the same guard an splitter and pawls that came with saw.I have made some adjustments for all of them to work correctly. I was making some miter gauge cuts yesterday of 1x10 oak an cutting off an inch.I was thinking about this post. The cutoffs would hold under the pawls, if no pawls maybe the force of vibration, air,bumping etc could get them to catch on blade.So I felt safer with them.
"Thats all I have to say about that" Forrest Gump

[Tyler Purcell]

I used the splitter than came with my saw for about 5 minutes before it came off, the thing is a total pain after a bit.

A question to Jim Becker: Just out of curiosity, where in Bucks County are you located? I'm in Doylestown.

[D-Alan Grogg]

Now that I have the new PM2000, I've been using them most of the time. At this point, I think I'd only have to take them off when ripping thin strips or using my CC sled.

[glenn bradley]

I have them but never put them on. Previous experience shows that 'for me' they do more harm than good. I do take other precautions to avoid kickback. I just found the pawls often scarred the material or caused me other difficulties.

Do use a splitter, do use featherboards, do use Grr-Rippers or Board Buddies or something. If the pawls are giving you fits, get rid of them BUT replace their function with other safety devices. My .02

[David Weaver]

No pawls for me, but featherboards (usually grip tites) and an MJ splitter. I got whacked right above the gones by a nasty kickback when i first started WW, so I believe in splitters.