Shopsmith Forums

I have been using my Power Pro as a shaper for the past few days and needed to saw something, so I set it back up as the table saw.

I started my cut, but the wood hit the riving knife, and stopped.

Turns our the riving knife was on the left side of the blade and prevents wood from passing.

Further investigations shows that when I tighten the riving knife holder, it seems to twist to that side. See attached picture.

Did I bend it or am I doing something wrong. I don't recall this issue before and the upper guard has just been sitting on my workbench for about 2 weeks.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

It could be bent; that has happened to mine.

Also, there is an adjustment screw on the lower saw guard that can be used to align the riving knife. You need to remove the lower guard and look below the ring that the quill fits through. Adjusts with the 5/32 Allen wrench.

Not shown in the pix is the surface of the lower guard that fits against the quill stop ring. That is where the adjustment screw is on the guard.

If it has never been adjusted with the 'current' headstock, good alignment would be coincidental.

There have been several threads on this subject. I found this one that discusses the issue and has several images that help clarify (I think).

What seems apparent is that the lower saw guard is often used without aligning/checking the riving knife's position with respect to the blade. Not a good idea.

Misalignment can easily occur whenever the blade and/or lower saw guard are changed. Remember that the riving knife is mounted to the lower saw guard.

Sorry! missed this post yesterday. Hope you have now fixed your problem.

Your photo looks like the lower saw guard is not fully seated on the spindle's mounting collar. Try loosening the guard and rotating it back and forth, fully seat it, by pushing toward the headstock. To make this easier, wax the collar and the inside of the saw guard's seat.

dusty wrote:There have been several threads on this subject. I found this one that discusses the issue and has several images that help clarify (I think).

What seems apparent is that the lower saw guard is often used without aligning/checking the riving knife's position with respect to the blade. Not a good idea.

Misalignment can easily occur whenever the blade and/or lower saw guard are changed. Remember that the riving knife is mounted to the lower saw guard.

I guess I always assumed that the alignment was automatic, because it has been so far.

The adjustment suggested in the post you linked to helped me solve the issue in 10 seconds. Thanks so much!

teamtj wrote:I guess I always assumed that the alignment was automatic, because it has been so far.

The adjustment suggested in the post you linked to helped me solve the issue in 10 seconds. Thanks so much!

Glad to be of some assistance. That is what we are here for.