Install Thin Kerf blade on SS 500

clementfeme · Post by **clementfeme** » Sat May 09, 2009 11:18 pm

I hane been reading about the advantages of switching out to a thin kerf blade. My question is, what do I do about a thin splitter. The standard splitter will surely grab and seize the board when ripping. Does any one have a fix for this problem, other than teling me to leave well enough alone.

Thanks for all your help.

Clement Femelat

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat May 09, 2009 11:47 pm

Hi,

I don't have a 500 splitter to check but I just slipped out and measured my 520 version. The thickness is about .072". I think you will be hard pressed to find thin kerf blade that thin. Without looking one up I seem to recall them being in the .090 ish range.

To be sure when ordering the blade check to see what the spec's are, and also check the 500 splitter but I think you will be fine.... you might have to check the alignment however.

Ed

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun May 10, 2009 6:33 am

clementfeme wrote:I hane been reading about the advantages of switching out to a thin kerf blade. My question is, what do I do about a thin splitter. The standard splitter will surely grab and seize the board when ripping. Does any one have a fix for this problem, other than teling me to leave well enough alone.

Thanks for all your help.

Clement Femelat

I use a thin kerf blade almost exclusively these days and I use the standard Shopsmith Upper Blade Guard with splitter. I do not experience any problems that could be attributed to the splitter being too thick.

How can this be? Well I think the answer has to be that in reality the splitter is really too thin for use with full kerf blade.

If measurements would help, I'd be glad to take them for you. Just holler.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun May 10, 2009 9:55 am

Clemente;

First let me qualify my comments. I have a Mark V 510 so my measurements are typical only of a 510. If you have a 500 splitter, yours may be different.

I happen to be making a supply of new ZCI so I had a couple of freshly cut kerf to measure. Generally speaking, my kerf are .1".

My riving knife measures .089"

I attempted to measure the kerf on the blade but don't feel that I got a real good reading because my caliper jaw is not long enough to span two or three adjacent teeth on the blade. However, I did take some measurements. I would say that the two blades that I just measured have a kerf of .092".

Now one of these blades was the one that I used to cut the kerf in a couple of the ZCI. The blade measures slightly less than the cut kerf. I believe that is the result of some runout on my headstock. The difference being .008"; if this is my runout, "this is good".

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:04 am

Just an after thought...that may not mean much but anyway.

The riving knife that I have came with my Mark V many years ago. The saw blades that I bought from Shopsmith at that time were not thin kerf. The actual kerf was significantly wider.

The implication being that the riving knife NEED NOT be as thick as the the kerf is wide.

Does this ring true with everyone? I made a riving knife to be used when I did not want the upper guard to be in place. It is thinner still and I was going to remake it from thicker stock. I may be rethinking that. Comments please. Should the riving knife be as thick as the kerf being cut?

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun May 10, 2009 1:16 pm

dusty wrote: Comments please. Should the riving knife be as thick as the kerf being cut?

I would think NOT, Dusty. If it is the same size, it MIGHT bind.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:37 pm

Gentlemen,

Are you measuring the kerf that the saw is cutting or the thickness of the blade? With the offsets in the teeth (or the width of the carbide teeth), the thickness of the blade is immaterial.

reible · Post by **reible** » Sun May 10, 2009 5:46 pm

a1gutterman wrote:Gentlemen,

Are you measuring the kerf that the saw is cutting or the thickness of the blade? With the offsets in the teeth (or the width of the carbide teeth), the thickness of the blade is immaterial.

Hi,

In my case I measured the splitter and was recalling the width of the kerf per the manufactures "kerf width" which will vary from manufacturer to manufacture. The catalog nearest to me has their thin keft blades listed as .097" for a sample size of one.

Ed

bobgroh · Post by **bobgroh** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:48 am

On the question of whether the splitter needs to be as thick as the blade, I believe the answer is 'No'. i think the splitter (and the feed pawls) have several purposes:
1. Prevent the wood from skewing and binding the blade
2. Prevent the cut from closing up and binding the blade
3. (via the feed pawls - hope I used the right word there) help prevent backwards movement of the wood (i.e. kickback)
4. If the board does 'rise up', help prevent the moving teeth of the blade from catching the board and flinging it back at you.

None of these require a 'tight' fit of the splitter to the blade size and in fact it would seem that the splitter should certainly be narrower than the saw kerf for sure.

So smaller for sure but not too much so.

Bob Groh, Blue Springs, MO.

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Mon May 11, 2009 11:18 am

Back in 1988 when I bought my 510 new it was the first saw I had used that I felt had a usable guard. Other than a couple of RAS's I felt that the blade guard was just a claim to cover the maker's butt and possibly the most dangerous part on the saw. Most of those old tin ones on stuff like Sears saws etc. were always flopping around and at times touching the blade. Can you call that safe? The 510 guard always stays where it belongs during a cut and I did use it some. Now I don't saw much on the SS's except for stuff like dado's and joint stuff where the guard has to be removed.
I originally learned woodworking on saws without guards back in the 1950's and 1960's. None of the high school table saws had guards and neither did the ones in the shop at BSU. Probably because most of the old ones were so crappy. I doubt that any of the old antiques from high school even came with one. Riving knife? What is that?

I didn't learn what one was until I was maybe 28 years old.
My Foley/Belsaw planer/molder/ripsaw has a nice clear guard on the ripsaw and while I NEVER reach into that part of the machine when it is running it does help a lot to keep it from throwing saw dust at you while it is cutting.
The guard on the Ridgid TS 3650 is pretty nice and is quick to mount / dismount and adjust. I have been looking at those little plastic riving knives that mount in the table insert but have never bought any yet.