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Thread: Ripping on Table Saw

  1. #1

    Ripping on Table Saw

    I am having trouble ripping boards on my hybrid table saw. It is apparent that as I rip my boards they are compressing onto my riving knife preventing safe progression of the cut through the blade. First this happened with reclaimed lumber (pine?) and I was not surprised, so I quit doing that. Now it has happened with my first hardwood (called blood something or other) as well. Grain on hardwood looked straight to me. First two cuts went fine, third cut could not be completed. The bend in the board causing the pinch is noticeable after the cut. How can I prevent this from happening?

    Note: I have basically zero experience and have learned all I know on the internet and YouTube. Nobody mentions this problem that I’ve found. Fence looks quite square to the blade. I use a featherboard pushing workpiece gently against the fence just before the blade. The force that would be required to push the piece through the cut is scary and likely very dangerous.


    Table Saw: Grizzly G0833P
    Blade: Relatively new 24T Diablo (I will be investing in a good blade when I can).

    Thanks for reading long post.

  2. #2
    Are you using a thin kerf blade?

  3. #3
    No it is a regular 1/8” kerf

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Lafayette, CA
    Posts
    832
    It sounds like the face (or edge) of the board you are running against the table saw fence is not flat. Boards must be flat and square on at least two sides for safe ripping: the fence side and the side down on the saw table. This is where most folks use a jointer, but many also use a long hand plane to achieve flat and square.

    If the fence face is not square, the board can move side-to-side during the rip cut, causing binding or worse (kickback).

    By the way, it is also helpful to make the third side (a face) parallel to the other face before running through the table saw. For this you use either a planer (thicknesser) or a hand plane –– which requires a careful set of steps with a marking gauge and the plane.
    Last edited by Bob Jones 5443; 10-10-2020 at 5:43 PM.

  5. #5
    Sounds like tension in the wood, pretty common if thats the case you can talk a wedge in the kerf to open up but being new you probably wouldn’t feel safe doing that. Maybe your riving knife is too thick. No real way to prevent it and sometimes a completely clean looking board will do it. Is your fence toed out 1-2 thou, that can help
    Last edited by Mark e Kessler; 10-10-2020 at 5:52 PM.

  6. #6
    Board is flat and square near as I can tell. Don’t construction workers rip out-of-square boards all the time on cheap table saws? I’m sure it is usually pine but I am very surprised how much trouble I am having. Perhaps no trouble if they’re not using a riving knife. I can test the fence for square to the table this evening, I checked this when I set the fence up. I have a small Porter Cable jointer I need to use for the first time, so I will try that too. Of course on YouTube they never have problems.

  7. #7
    I tried to toe the fence out a 1/64th but I’m not positive how good of a job I did. I need a machinist dial indicator. I considered the wedge option on the long reclaimed lumber but thought better of it for safety. My hardwood is for a cutting board and the piece does not make it through the riving knife for wedge to be an option.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Lancaster, Ohio
    Posts
    1,346
    "Don’t construction workers rip out-of-square boards all the time on cheap table saws"
    This gets done by marking a straight line on the boar and free han feeding the board, not the safest way to work and nee lots of
    practice.
    Take a string from one corner to the other of the board, is it exactly on the edge or hanging over or showing a gap?
    Another way is to stand the board on edge on your workbench (shop floor if nothing else) and see if it rocks or shows light under the middle of the board.
    Good luck
    Ron

  9. #9
    Planer same as jointer, I have one and need to use it for the first time as well. It’s the dewalt that ‘everyone’ has.

  10. #10
    I have the same saw as you do and have not experienced this even with the stock riving knife. As others have said make sure the board has one edge trued and one face flat. I always start on the jointer truing up one edge and one face the to the planer to finish the other face. After this I go to the TS and rip the board(s) to width. I also have the Shark Guard riving knife and blade guard for it and it works well. You can also move the toe of the fence out around 1/64" to prevent pinching if it continues to be an issue. Another thing I did was to remove the stock fence face and install the Uni-T Fence you can get at Peachtree. https://www.ptreeusa.com/tablesaw_unifence.html It made a world of a difference for me.

  11. #11
    You may need to tune your fence. It may be slightly pigeon-toed toward the back of the blade. That's the easiest solution. If the fence is square to the blade (or slightly toed out like Mark mentioned) you can easily adjust the position of your riving knife. There are four adjustment screws, two to set the left/right orientation, and two that adjust the plumb. It might be the plumb adjustment screws, so the riving knife looks fine where you take your measurements, but it's out above or below that.

    My guess is the fence or the fence rail is out. A square fence at one distance from the blade won't be square from another distance if the rail isn't straight. These are the kind of things you deal with when you get a Grizzly. (Speaking from experience, not being preachy).

  12. #12
    I did not know about the riving knife adjustments. I will need to look into that. It is clear I need a dial indicator for sure.

  13. #13
    I will square my lumber from now on, I can’t take many risks being so ‘green ’. Thanks for the link, I have considered upgrading the fence. Would the blade quality make much difference?

  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Smyrna Mills, Maine
    Posts
    95
    If your ripping hardwood and its pinching the riving knife it is most likely not dried properly, case hardened. Sometimes it may be possible to get 1 or 2 rips off a board before it becomes a problem.

  15. #15
    I had that same problem ripping 2" thick myrtle wood, I solved it by cutting it in 2 passes, flipping it for the second pass.
    Assumption is the mother of all screw ups
    Anonyms

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