Blade Stabilizers...

[George Bokros]

Do you use blade stabilizers on your table saw?

[Cary Falk]

No, but I use a full kerf blade.

[scott spencer]

They shouldn't be necessary if you use good blades (even thin kerf), and if your arbor spins true. I've never noticed a difference with or without them if the two aforementioned criteria are met. Even if a need for them seems apparent, they're really more of a bandaid that would be masking another issue with the saw. Fix the issue, save the money you'd spend on stabilizers for other things.

[Jerry Thompson]

I uses to use one years ago before enlightenment.

[Jim Foster]

+1, took it off last year, no noticeable difference.

I uses to use one years ago before enlightenment.

[Mike Cutler]

I have one from Forrest, and I gave it a whirl a few times, but I don't see the benefit.
I might buy into some benefit if there was one on each side of the blade, the same diameter, but having a blade stabilizer larger in diameter than the arbor flange just didn't make sense to me. I also don't see any balancing features, ala a harmonic balance wheel.
If there isn't some type of cup to the stabilizer face, sort of like a loaded washer, It's a crap shoot that the arbor nut is really performing any type of uniform pressure application across the face.

[John TenEyck]

I use them on both my TS and on my RAS. Maybe I'm out in left field, but I think the cuts are better. The ones I use are on both sides of the blade. I have Sears ones on my TS, and big honking ones from Freud on my RAS. The Sears ones are machined in a dish shape and the Freud ones are machined with a flange at the outer rim where it contacts the blade, so both approaches put force at the perimeter.

John

[Jay Jeffery]

I just about bought one until I realized it wasn't compatible with my splitter/riving knife. That's kind of a deal breaker for me. In fact, the splitter saved me tonight from a kickback when the piece of wood pinched it during a rip cut. Ended up using a jigsaw.

[Phil Thien]

I use them on both my TS and on my RAS. Maybe I'm out in left field, but I think the cuts are better. The ones I use are on both sides of the blade. I have Sears ones on my TS, and big honking ones from Freud on my RAS. The Sears ones are machined in a dish shape and the Freud ones are machined with a flange at the outer rim where it contacts the blade, so both approaches put force at the perimeter.

John

I'm out there with you, John.

My BT3000 saw is finely tuned. I've measured total runout at the blade of about .001 to .003", depending on blade.

I did a little test where I cross-cut a piece of stock with my sled, and then ran it back and forth past the spinning blade.

I then repeated the test after adding a blade stabilizer to my saw.

The test performed with the blade stabilizer showed fewer swirl marks.

Without the stabilizer, my cuts were excellent.

With the stabilizer, my cuts are even better.

[Rick Potter]

I use them on my 12" DeWalt RAS, and it cuts great with a thin kerf blade.

I did have, however one big problem with them. A carpenter friend of mine was building me a pergola in front of the shop, and used my RAS to cut 4x6's. He didn't know it had the big stabilizer on it and I forgot. He couldn't understand why it kept getting hung up. The stabilizer wouldn't go throught the kerf the blade had started.

He muscled it part way through, and the saw bucked, trying to climb up, out of the cut. That gave him religion. I had never seen it do that before. Any way, it forced the table out of line with the blade, and I had to realign the saw for the first time in many years. Luckily, the table I made for it had a sacrificial blade insert in it, and I didn't have to replace the whole thing. The stabilizer was pretty burned too, really overheated it.

Rick Potter

[Mike Cutler]

I use them on both my TS and on my RAS. Maybe I'm out in left field, but I think the cuts are better. The ones I use are on both sides of the blade. I have Sears ones on my TS, and big honking ones from Freud on my RAS. The Sears ones are machined in a dish shape and the Freud ones are machined with a flange at the outer rim where it contacts the blade, so both approaches put force at the perimeter.

John

John
Now that design makes a little sense, having one on both sides that are "loaded". It would effectively reduce the ability of the blade to deflect and "potato chip". Much different approach than the Forrest type.

[John Lifer]

I think that I'd be keeping him out of my shop. Come on, was the stabilizer invisible? A wonder he didn't destroy your motor!

[George Bokros]

I am using them. The ones I have are from Craftsman and they go on both sides of the blade. Yes they do reduce the depth of cut because of the zero clearance insert on the table saw but I do not normally need to cut that deep anyway. If I did need to cut that deep I would remove them and use the factory throat plate since the blade would no longer line up with the opening in the zero clearance plate.

[ian maybury]

It's probably like many things in woodworking a case of 'it all depends', or 'try it and see'. Unlikely though that it'll be a one size fits all solution. There's potentially a lot of issues involved should problems arise that appear to be caused by blade movement - misalignment vs. the fence, poor user practices. release of stresses in the wood, skinny blade/poor tensioning, heating, resin build up, inaccurate tooth grinding, misalignment in the saw spindle, unfortunate coincidence of factors giving rise to harmonics and vibration etc. Who knows half the time what's going on with a saw?

It doesn't sound like a stabiliser should be relied upon to help in the case of a twisted blade or a misaligned arbour/spindle. Against that even a single sided one (while it shouldn't be necessary) could possibly help prevent vibration/flutter developing in a situation where it otherwise might be inclined to do so - by stopping the blade from deflecting in one direction and/or changing the stiffness of the assembly. It perhaps could have the opposite effect too (create a situation where there's a vibration inducing harmonic), although that sounds less likely...

ian

[glenn bradley]

I got better results on an older C-man contractor format saw with them. I do not use them on my cabinet-mounted trunnion saw with thick or thin kerf and get good results. Stabilizers are a solution for a few issues; I prefer to avoid the problems where possible. Some methods of use will subject a blade to an untrue feed path on a regular basis (certainly not in a home shop I hope) but, I don't do that to my saw. There are other reasons to employ them such as noise reduction but, stabilizers of that size greatly reduce your cutting depth; generally 5" diameter on a 10" blade for noise reduction. There is no right or wrong here. Try them; if you prefer them, use them.