Thread: Making accurate Zero Clearance Insert

Put some oil, wax or similar on the tablesaw top, then put some paper on top, it should give you a perfect outline of the opening.

Failing that use the factory supplied insert as a template but make it a little bigger overall. Then cut it to the (measured) actual width of the opening, then sand the round ends on a disk or belt sander till you have a perfect fit.

Last but not least, put some thin mdf on top of the (empty opening, spray with some WD40 or Inox from the inside of the cabinet, it should give you a perfect pattern to cut out and use as a template.

Some further ideas here

https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...highlight=dado

Never tried to do that for a saw, but made many gaskets for oil seals etc. The way I would do that is first remove the blade or wind it out the way then get your piece of card over the hole and tape it in place. Now with an ordinary hammer tap all the way round. Remove the tape, turn the card over and there should be a nice shape to cut out. Once you have that and made your piece of wood, fit it in the saw and drop the table with the saw running to cut your 0 kerf clearance. This wont stop all the chipout by the way, more teeth on the blade and slower cutting will help but on melamine etc you need a scriber blade. My solution is cut and leave a bit and plane off.

I had a similar problems so I still used the original insert as a template on some 4.5 mm ally plate but cut the plate about 1 mm oversize on each side. Once I had cut out the blank I then used a linisher to gradually sand the edge of the plate to creep up onto the correct size. Once it fit snugly I fixed it in place and added further downward pressure on one side of the insert using the fence. I then very slowly wound up the blade and, whalla perfect fit zero insert.

Glue some thin material, ( thick paper or thin cardboard ) around the edge of your original insert until you have a snug fit, then use it as a template to cut a new one.

Mike

Jill, I make my inserts out of scrap 10mm plastic from a local fabricator, it works better than MDF and will take grub screws very well.

Originally Posted by Stubchain

Jill, I make my inserts out of scrap 10mm plastic from a local fabricator, it works better than MDF and will take grub screws very well.

I had a similar experience 3 years ago, I got some plastic which had an aliminium ply sandwiched in the middle.

I WAS WARNED OFF THIS PRODUCT BECAUSE THE PLASTIC CAN SHATTER.

Please excuse capitals.

I wouldn't want to use plexiglass for this application, but polycarbonate would be perfectly OK.

Plexiglass would definitely be prone to shattering though.