Kickback when ripping at 45 Degrees on table saw.

[Simon MacGowen]

The pawl is 3/4" from the riving knife of the guard on the PCS. If the waste side (off-cut) is an inch wide or more, the pawl should function as designed. Did you get a chance look into the leveling factor of the saw? My tablesaw tilts slightly on the left (2 to 3 degrees or so due to the floor). I measured the last few bevel off-cuts left in the shop and they are about 1/4" to 1/2" wide by 14 to 16" long.

Release of tension shouldn't be a factor in your case as they were off-cuts on the left side of the blade.

Simon

[Jacob Reverb]

The Sawstop PCS is a left tilt saw, not really an issue with this design, that would be a problem on a right tilt saw, or if I moved the fence to the right side.

On my left-tilt saw, if I was going to rip something on a 45, I think I would put the fence on the right of the blade with the workpiece between fence and blade, with offcut "free."

It sounds like you're putting the fence on the left of the blade and ripping that way? Seems like that would make the blade want to pull the workpiece away from the fence, and allow the offcut to fall (due to gravity) against the spinning blade once it was detached from the workpiece. Could that be why the offcut wants to kick back?

I don't think I've ever used the fence on the left side of the blade on my left-tilt saw. Not that I consciously thought about it, but it never occurred to me why I might want to do that, I guess.

[Bill Dindner]

Check that your sawtable is not tilted to the right on an uneven floor. Vibration will cause the small off-cuts to "inch" towards the blade/fence if the sawtable is lower on the right hand side.

Use the blade guard with the anti-kickback pawl (which may catch the off-cuts)...not just the riving knife, whenever possible.

Simon

ill check, however the kickback generally occurs right after I complete the cut, but I’ll check later.

[Simon MacGowen]

Did he actually mean the fence was on the right side of the blade as it is a left-tilt saw when he cut the bevel (so he cut-off was on the left side of the blade)?. It is not a safe practice to cut a stock pinched between a blade angled towards the fence.

Simon

[Charles Lent]

Can you post a picture showing the position of your fence, the piece about to be cut, and if you are using the miter gauge, please show it in it's position and setting? Sometimes it's easier to see the problem in a picture than to try to describe it.

Charley

[Nick Shattuck]

How long are the boards? Does the kickback correlate with the length of the cut?

[Bill Dindner]

Can you post a picture showing the position of your fence, the piece about to be cut, and if you are using the miter gauge, please show it in it's position and setting? Sometimes it's easier to see the problem in a picture than to try to describe it.

Charley

I'll try and take a pic tomorrow

How long are the boards? Does the kickback correlate with the length of the cut?

Happens more often on shorter cuts, something less than 3ft

ill check, however the kickback generally occurs right after I complete the cut, but I’ll check later.

The table bed does lean a hair to the right, perhaps that the issue, may try a shim

[Jim Morgan]

A table saw that is perfectly aligned when the blade is square to the table can nevertheless be misaligned when the blade is tilted 45°. As a thought experiment, imagine tilting the blade a full 90°. If the blade is not parallel to the table - in particular if the table is higher in the back - as you pass your board through the cut it will bind at the back of the blade and kick back. When the blade is square to the table, any front-to-back tilt is irrelevant (and left-right tilt within reason is easily compensated for by setting the 90° and 45° stops). As soon as you begin to tilt the blade, the front-to-back table tilt comes into play, increasingly so as the blade tilt is increased. To cure your problem, shim the front of the table up a bit.

[Bill Dufour]

Gravity. depending on blade tilt will either cause the offcut to fall into the blade or to fall away. A 90 degree piece will fall straight down since the cut line is not sloped. Took me years to figure this out. Depending on the friction of the wood surfaces the scrap may stick well enough to not fall into the blade
Bill D.

[Bill Dindner]

A table saw that is perfectly aligned when the blade is square to the table can nevertheless be misaligned when the blade is tilted 45°. As a thought experiment, imagine tilting the blade a full 90°. If the blade is not parallel to the table - in particular if the table is higher in the back - as you pass your board through the cut it will bind at the back of the blade and kick back. When the blade is square to the table, any front-to-back tilt is irrelevant (and left-right tilt within reason is easily compensated for by setting the 90° and 45° stops). As soon as you begin to tilt the blade, the front-to-back table tilt comes into play, increasingly so as the blade tilt is increased. To cure your problem, shim the front of the table up a bit.

That’s not something I had considered, and it makes allot of sense. I’ll try and see if I can shim the table

Gravity. depending on blade tilt will either cause the offcut to fall into the blade or to fall away. A 90 degree piece will fall straight down since the cut line is not sloped. Took me years to figure this out. Depending on the friction of the wood surfaces the scrap may stick well enough to not fall into the blade
Bill D.

Interesting, makes sense, although here it’s not so much falling as sucked back right away and shot back.

[William Hodge]

To prevent beveled edge rippings from shooting, I bevel edges with a dado blade. The waste ends up as chips in the dust collector, not a Flying Missile of Future Impalement. If I'm feeling lazy, and in a hurry for just one piece (normally a prelude to a story of Gore) I set the cut wide,and bevel 3/16" at a time, making a few cuts. There is no stick to fly, just feathers.

[glenn bradley]

Here's my guess . . . Assuming good blade alignment at 45 degrees (mine was great right out of the box and I'm a picky so-and-so) I wonder if the stock is being fully supported after the cut. If you are ripping something, say 30" or so, there is plenty of the cutoff to hang off the end of the saw thereby tilting the part still on the saw table up and into the blade. If the keeper and the spoil fully supported by an outfeed table or other method to keep it on the same plane as the table?

[Bill Dufour]

Don't forget the blade is moving about 60MPH so it has a fan action which can suck or blow wood around until it touches the blade and then gets flung.
Bill

[Peter Christensen]

Can always mount a vacuum cleaner hose a few inches from the side and it will suck the off cut away from the blade.

[Joe Kaufman]

The 45 deg alignment on my PCS was off as received. The rear of the blade was cutting on the upward rotation. I attempted to align the blade to the tilt axis per the procedure in the manual, pg67-69. I made the condition worse so tried to reverse the adjustments. I would be interested if anyone has successfully completed that procedure.