Shopsmith Forums

A while back I ordered and received the riving knife for my ss (now equipped with the “Pro” headstock). I had it for a month or so and a couple of weeks ago decided to install the riving knife. No problem with that and everything seemed to work well. However, last week I went to install one of my 12” sanding disks and found that it almost impossible to raise the disk much more than about 3/4 inch above the table top. After looking at that very closely I found out that the mounting for the riving knife was hitting the back of sanding disk. I tried backing the sanding disk a little further and it just barely cleared the the riving knife.
Has anyone else noted this and is there something further that I can do to give a little more clearance from the mounting for the riving knife. It is not the knife itself which is interfering but the mounting piece.
I hope I have explained my situation clearly and have done everything properly. As it now stands, I can raise the sanding disk and there is about 1/16” clearance between the back of the sanding disk and the mount for the riving knife.
Looking for suggestions or further recommendations to resolve this minor problem.
Bob

Hi Bob-

Whenever I've used the disk sander, I've never used the riving knife, just the lower saw guard hooked up to the dust collector.

BPR

ryanbp01 wrote:Hi Bob-

Whenever I've used the disk sander, I've never used the riving knife, just the lower saw guard hooked up to the dust collector.

BPR

I don't think he's putting the riving knife on; if I understand him correctly, he says he's getting interference from the thing the riving knife mounts into. I don't have the riving knife. Doesn't it just mount into the same thing that the splitter/upper blade guard assembly, which is just part of the lower blade guard assembly? If that's the case, I'm not sure how it could be causing interference.

Wait a minute.... I think I've got it! His table is hitting the lower blade guard assembly. I have had interference when I've expanded the lower blade guard at or near its maximum width when using either the table saw blade or the sanding disc and then trying to lower the table. The main table's tie bar assembly tends to get hung up on the lower blade guard assembly in this situation.

The fix is to loosen the two knurled knobs on the lower blade guard assembly (one front and one back) and reduce the width of the the lower blade guard assembly until the table tie bar assembly clears it and the table can be lowered.

Al

Shopsmith sells a sanding disk dust collector that is basically the lower saw guard without the riving knife/splitter attachment stuff and without the spring loaded part. Since the blades are 10" but the sanding disk is 12" its no surprise that there is some interference

damagi wrote:Shopsmith sells a sanding disk dust collector that is basically the lower saw guard without the riving knife/splitter attachment stuff and without the spring loaded part. Since the blades are 10" but the sanding disk is 12" its no surprise that there is some interference

I think that is for the 500, the 505-PowerPro don't need it. I agree the issue is the two halfs of the blade guard are too far apart. I frequently run into this when I replace the blade and don't close the sides enough.