Riving knife alignment question

[Anna]

Well, after cooling off for a little bit (literally and figuratively), I went back in the shed, removed the riving knife AGAIN, and used everything I had available (pipe wrench, 4x4, my knee, my foot...) and tried to really straighten it out this time. Adjusted the shims (again), and it actually looked good. I finished ripping the remaining pieces of plywood for the table saw mobile base I'm building. It went without a hitch, except for the *#$&^ pawls.

I put some electrical tape on each tooth on the pawl on the left side, just to see how that works. I think it works better. I was only getting resistance and binding on the right pawl now. So I'll probably tape that up, too.

The plywood that binded (bound?) in my previous post is oak veneer. After I "fixed" the riving knife, it went through just fine. Good thing, too, because I'm no longer allowed to buy any more new tools (e.g. Shark Guard) until I get all the ones I already own properly assembled and installed in my shed (and hence the rush to finish up on the mobile bases and bench). Do you guys also end up hiding illicit tool purchases in the unlikeliest places (like the laundry room or under the bed)?

Anyway, thanks so much for all the help and encouragement. I don't think I would have made through this day without this forum. I know it's a little problem in the grand scheme of things, but it was really frustrating nonetheless.

Thanks again,
Anna

[cbrown]

On my recent (Jan 2006) BT3100, I was only barely able to align the original riving knife with the blade--I had to put the knife directly against the frame, with all the shims on the left, in order to keep the knife behind the blade (it still wasn't all the way to the right of the teeth, but at least not protruding on the left, and some pulling and bending resulted in a satisfactory alignment. With a Shark Guard, the thicker riving knife protruded on the left of the blade, actually pulling the right side of the workpiece over toward the back teeth of the blade! The solution was putting shims on the arbor to move the blade just slightly left. Lee sells (clearly marked!) brass shims that can be ordered along with the SG. These fixed the alignment problem and things have been working fine since.

--------
Christopher

[Bruce Cohen]

Riving Knife Solution

Anna,

As you have by now realized, the stock 3100 guard, knife and pawl system sucks.

Lee (Skytooner) might just send me something really nasty in the mail for bringing this up, but he's been known to (only if you bribe, threaten or sweet talk him) to sell one of his guards (Gods) at a reduced cost when he screws the pooch and messes up one (cosmetics only).

Try PMing him Skytooner or check out his wonderous web site http://www.leestyron.com/sharkguard.php

It's not really worth all the time and angst messing with the only poorly designed part of the 3100.

I got bitten by the Shark at the same time I got my saw and fortunately never had to screw with the stock piece of garbage.

Bruce

[vaking]

Anna,
Buying Shark guard for me was a 2-step process.
After getting fed-up with the stock guard/pawls I ordered the shark splitter. The splitter is a component of a guard and you can have it from Lee for around $20 delivered. That allowed me to use the saw without a guard but with splitter in place. I used it that way for awhile until I spotted somebody here at the forum selling a guard without a splitter. I guess that somebody decided (correctly) that splitter was the best part of the guard and decided to keep just that. I jumped on the sale and since then I am a happy user of a full shark system. I guess what I am saying - if you are note ready for a shark guard please consider shark splitter. 20% of the cost, 80% of the benefit. The full shark guard is still a very good purchase, however.