That’s the word I couldn’t remember…
I find them really useful when working with raw lumber. Long pieces of harder wood tends to squeeze the backside of the blade when ripping them down. Ideally I’d use the bandsaw for that, but it’s in a bad spot for ripping 8’+ boards.
I should see if I can find one on ebay. Or at least a picture of what it should look like. Could probably make my own.
MakerJim, reporting for duty, SIR!
We like you, JJ. Use a riving knife. 
Microjig makes a riving knife for older saws. I have been meaning to buy one. But I haven’t.
My table saw didn’t come with a riving knife.
I picked up this honeycomb. It came in today and I carried it out to the shop. I’ll test it out later.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions young man.
I’ve been meaning to print a couple of “remixes” of the Microjig one, but I still haven’t got one of those “round tuits”.
I am doing a lot of shit in the workshop that’s definitely not on the list of what I’ve been doing, you should have a riving knife. Kickback is going to hurt like hell. I launched a 1x2cm piece at myself two weeks ago and it hurt a lot. Just watch this video:
Really do! His hand nearly gets drawn into the blade without him even noticing!!
There are a lot of regulations that don’t always make sense, for instance dado blades are not allowed for commercial use in Germany, as is taking off the blade guard. In your home shop you can do whatever, but all of those regulations are written in blood. 
A quick saw safety reminder - (for the benefit of those who may read this in the future as clearly none of us need it) 
You are correct, however flippant I may have been above, and as they say “there but for the grace of God go I”, I have not mentioned that I also NEVER use the saw in a situation where a riving knife would be useful without using a pair of Gripppers, properly set up.
They absolutely changed my approach to the table saw.
From time to time you see a casual mention or notice them lying in the background of a youtube video, but in this day and age where sponsorship is all they won’t get a mention.
The only serious fright I’ve had was when I relaxed and accidentally dropped the tip of a conventional push stick into the back of the spinning blade after a cut - I will never know how it didn’t impale my arm on it’s way to lodging in the ceiling, but it hurt as though it had.
A friend who is the most adept woodworker I know, after 40 years of professional use, experienced his first kickback on a commercial job where his wife just happened to be working and passing by at the time, 10 metres or so away - The depressed fracture of her cheekbone was the most sobering injury I’ve witnessed.
But it’s not just kickback - I know at least five people who have bits of fingers missing using this tool, mostly with no guard brushing or carelessly touching a spinning blade after the saw has been turned off - a guard would have saved every one of them.
I use a full face mask and leather apron and just aquired a plate carrier and ridged air soft plates. I got hit by a cabinet piece i was datoing a while back 20 years and it realy whaloped me in the kidney at 100 mph about killed me then just a year or 2 ago my wife walked into the workshop and I looked up and bam the blade grabed my pushstick swatted the table with and it rebounded up and hit me in the facegusrd and cracked it.
Then i also had my cnc launch the clip end of my corner probe somewhere into the basement. I have my BIL do all my mains electrical so im safe there
I’ve had one kick back in 20 years and I knew what I was trying was stupid when I started the cut. I always use push blocks and recently added fingers to help reduce chances of kickback. I keep wedges on the table of the saw that I use when I start to notice the blade is being squeezed.
The good thing for me is that I only have a contractor saw. If the blade gets pinched too bad, it can actually stall the motor.
I’ve also turned the saw off midcut many times when things were acting weird.
It helps to keep a healthy respect for the saw.
I only had the one also and now wear a balistic vest when cutting anyway also wear it when i have to go to chicago
That is a great video. People tend to dismiss you when remind them to be safe. You video clearly shows; things happen. I will be showing some young friends, and a couple of old ones too.
Did we ever decide if this is a viable way to mark steel ?
Peter derailed the thread!! 
It wasn’t me this time. 
This one got into the realllllllly talllll weeeeds:heart_eyes:
He started it but I surely finished it 
This is the video that I saw where the risks finally “clicked”. I never put my hand behind the blade. I have seen advice about not standing in front between the miter slots. But IMHO, that is a distraction. The bruise from a kickback can be rough. But this is the real danger.
Still, I stand to the side. I use the proper jigs (not mixing miter with the fence, for example) and I never put my fingers where they can touch the blade in the event of a kickback.
It is a great video and it should come with every table saw.
I have posted this before, but I am going to do it again: https://www.bghm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Seminare/Holzbranche/TSM-Web_BG_96.18.pdf
From p. 11 on you have an explanation of what to do how with a table saw. It’s in German, but the pictures are a help as well. German laws are pretty strict, so if you do it like that your fingers are definitely going to live. There are always descriptions of actual things that happened to people and how they could have avoided it. Really good.
What a great post. Thank you.
I only know a minimum of German words, but I swear I can just about sound the word out and figure out what it means. Wonderfully literal language. Though I often times get a good chuckle…
Random example: Spaltkeil
( and then comes the chuckle: Spaltkeildicke. - my inner 15 year old loves it. )
It is chlorine gas actually and that is very dangerous and also destroys electronics as well. Vinyl and PVC should never be cut or engraved with a laser.
PVC = poly vinyl chloride
