Use Your Guard

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:36 pm

Are there any riving knife retrofits for the 500/Original Mark 5 table?

I have the newish saw guards and it has a splitter but it's positioned at the rear of the table and can only be used with the guard.

Is 510 upgrade my only option?

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:10 pm

terrydowning wrote:Are there any riving knife retrofits for the 500/Original Mark 5 table?

I have the newish saw guards and it has a splitter but it's positioned at the rear of the table and can only be used with the guard.

Is 510 upgrade my only option?

Is there any reason why you could make make one?

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:12 pm

dusty wrote:Is there any reason why you could make make one?

Never thought of it and have no Idea what is involved...
I have no comparison to work with.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:16 pm

terrydowning wrote:Never thought of it and have no Idea what is involved...
I have no comparison to work with.

How does the saw guard attach. Set up a lawn chair and take a cup of hot coffee out to the shop and just sit and think about it.

You can do this! Just let me warn you, once you start and succeed there is no going back. I spend a lot of time sitting there with coffee.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:37 pm

The MJ Splitter would be an easy fit on a zero clearance insert (ZCI) -- http://microjig.com/products/mj-splitter/

Or, you could lengthen the slot in a ZCI and glue in a strip of wood with the exposed part a bit thinner than the blade.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:51 pm

pennview wrote:The MJ Splitter would be an easy fit on a zero clearance insert (ZCI) -- http://microjig.com/products/mj-splitter/

Or, you could lengthen the slot in a ZCI and glue in a strip of wood with the exposed part a bit thinner than the blade.

Smooth out the edges of a poker chip or a piece from the tiddy winks and glue it into a saw kerf. I originally thought a quarter but discarded that idea because it is metal. The tiddy wink, if it was thrown by the blade, would hurt less when it hit you.

algale · Post by **algale** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:47 pm

pennview wrote:The MJ Splitter would be an easy fit on a zero clearance insert (ZCI) -- http://microjig.com/products/mj-splitter/

Or, you could lengthen the slot in a ZCI and glue in a strip of wood with the exposed part a bit thinner than the blade.

This approach is fine for cuts where the tale isn't tilted. When the table tilts, however, you cannot use an MJ Splitter since it will tilt with the insert while the blade remains stationary.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:23 pm

algale wrote:This approach is fine for cuts where the tale isn't tilted. When the table tilts, however, you cannot use an MJ Splitter since it will tilt with the insert while the blade remains stationary.

Same problem with a tilt arbor! Can't blame this one on Hans!:D

algale · Post by **algale** » Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:12 pm

JPG40504 wrote:Same problem with a tilt arbor! Can't blame this one on Hans!:D

True! My point, however, wasn't to blame Shopsmith but to point out that the Shopsmith splitter in the upper saw guard or the new riving knife are preferable solutions since they work regardless of the angle of the table.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:31 am

The MJ Splitter folks are quite clear about their splitter only working with the blade 90 degrees to the table. Nevertheless, if you don't have an original blade guard or riving knife, it's a useful option for the vast majority of cuts made on the Shopsmith. Personally, I'm not inclined to tilt the table for sawing on the shopsmith, so the fact that the MJ Splitter doesn't work on a tilted table means little to me.