Thread: Table saw riving knife slightly out of adjustment

Just bend it !

You need to define what you mean by “out of alignment”. If the knife is proud of the blade on either side AT ALL then you have a problem but if you just mean it’s a smidge narrower than the blade then that’s correct.

In use, as the blade produces the cut the edges of the kerf should pass by the riving knife; ideally not touching it at all. If the internal stresses in the wood try to make the kerf close up then the edges will grip onto the riving knife; if no knife is fitted the danger is that the gap will close up on the rear of the blade which is moving upwards and towards you. If that happens the wood can be violently thrown up at you. Too narrow a knife is almost as dangerous as not having one in the first place; the wood must not be able to close up on the blade before touching the knife. You say the knife is non-adjustable but there are always ways to move either it or the blade. Thin shims made from aluminium drinks cans can be used to move one or the other.

Bending the knife is only a solution if the knife isn’t coplaner with the blade and needs to be bent into alignment.

If the knife is sticking out one side of the blade then as soon as the timber touches the knife it then tries to move the timber laterally and you end up with either a curved cut moving away from the fence, or the wood jams between the knife and the fence. This either makes it bloody difficult to continue feeding in the wood or the fence just deflects away from the blade and you end up with a curved cut in the other direction.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum

Thanks Chief Tiff greatly appreciated. So I put a straight edge up against the blade and riving knife on the fence side (not touching the teeth) and, their is a small gap (.6mm) between the straight edge and the rear of the blade. The thickness of the blade is slightly larger than the thickness of the knife as per factory (its virtualy new) it seems kinda hard to feed the wood through , having said that I have been ripping pine and hardwood down at near full capacity which is about 78 mm (I think) and the whole saw is kinda flexing on its legs as I push the wood through.
Try shim it out you reckon?
Cheers
John012.jpg

Hey there John,

I wouldn't recommend shimming your saw blade if that's what you're thinking? That'll throw out a bunch of other things.

I had the exact same issue with my Bosch jobsite style saw, where the riving knife wasn't parallel with the blade. The riving knife on mine has a few different ways of adjusting and after some adjustments I was able to get it right. What kind of adjustment options is offered on the Hikoki?

Is this the newly released Hikoki table saw? How would you rate the saw so far? I've been interested in the Hikoki due to it's massive rip capacity but not sure if it would be much of an upgrade from my Bosch which IMO is a pretty average bit of gear (various things I can complain about with it).

Cheers,
David

Measure at the top of the blade too; you need to establish if the knife is parallel with the blade vertically as well. If it’s out you’ll need to bend it until it is. But you should be measuring at the teeth; it’s them that are are cutting the kerf. If the teeth are sticking out further than the knife then it is functional; just not as good as we would like it to be.

Assuming then that knife is parallel in both planes but is still sticking out too far then I would now look very hard at how the knife is attached, and to what exactly. Flip the unit upside down and have a real good look; you may be able to see a way of moving the knife; moving the knife holder or possibly moving the saw shaft on its trunnions. Perhaps it could require the GENTLE enlarging of bolt holes with a rat-tailed file; but if you can’t see any way to move it without surgery then consider returning it; essentially it doesn’t meet the “fit for purpose” criteria.