Cabinet Saw Type Suggestions Please?

[fyffe555]

My 15 year-old Powermatic 66 came with a riving knife and "anti-kickback" pawls", riding, and fixed to either side of the knife. Unfortunately, the saw blade throat plate always managed to catch the pawls and jam into them. The "anti-kickback " pawls thus guaranteed quite the opposite as the workpiece jammed. It was a spectacularly stupid piece of design.

For panel ripping, get hold of a couple of wheels that fix to your ripping fence and pull the piece against the fence. For ripping lumber, use a riving knife (splitter) and put the pawls in the trash bin before they injure you.

IMHO

Best Wishes

Martin

The PM66 has a splitter which I think is somewhat different to the UK spec tale saw Riving knife? Traditionally a riving knife is mounted to the arbor trunnion so that it goes up and down as well as tilting with the saw blade. As the knife is always behind and at the same height as the blade you can do partial through cuts without having to remove the knife. Wish my PM66 had a riving knife...

Totally agree on the pawls though. They and the 'guard' where more dangerous than the kickback.

The ripping suggestion is good too, I use temporary infeed and outfeed tables with fence wheels to rip 8x4 sheet stock. Works ok with a bit of care and enough space arouns the saw. Hardest bit is getting the whole sheet on the table.

[OCNC]

Hi,

I was going to buy the sawstop cabinet saw for $3500 but after lengthy emails they wont deliver to Ireland because they cant provide after sales support.....I didn't want after sales support... . Anyway, this leaves me back where I was originally thinking about the Jet 10" Cabinet Saw, which is 1/3 the price at €950.

Does anyone own, or has anyone used one of these. All reports and comments I've had so far seem to be positive so Im just wondering what your experience has been, either positive or negative. Thanks a million.

Also if you use a different make of cabinet saw and would like to specifically warn me away from it, that would be appreciated aswell.

http://www.southern-tool.com/store/1...ight_tilt.html

I bought a Chinese made contractors saw for $450 and threw away the motor and the fence. I then purchased a 2.5 hp Baldor motor for $225 and a Biesmeyer fence for $150. I use a variable pitch pulley on the motor (double matched vee-belts) and the blade speed has been adjusted up to the tension speed of the blades (about 5600rpm if I'm remembering it correctly). I have a 4'x10' runout table and have movable supports for infeed and side overhangs. The motor, the fence, blade speed and sharp high quality blades are the key elements. Most tables in any price range are flat and the arbors are true. The advantage of sliding tables comes to bear when you need to cut panels three sheets at a time to keep your production schedule. Other than that they're a slick luxury. If you're going to do a lot of ripping spend some money on a good power feed. It improves the cut enormously.

Chris

[diarmaid]

Im still here watching everthing thats being said, its all very useful and helping me know what to look out for. Please feel free to discuss anything cabinet saw related in this thread.
L8rs.

[martinw]

Wish my PM66 had a riving knife...

Dear fyffe555,

My mistake. I didn't realise that "splitter" and "riving knife" are not the same thing.

Best wishes

Martin

[fyffe555]

Dear fyffe555,

My mistake. I didn't realise that "splitter" and "riving knife" are not the same thing.

Best wishes

Martin

Martin, Nor did I till I moved from the UK to the US... miss the knife though, always having to take the splitter off and then you try and get by without stopping to put it back on again. Not the smartest thing to do.

Good thing about the US saws is that the arbor is long enough to mount a dado set. I understand new EU saws cannot mount a full dado set by law?

Andrew

[martinw]

I understand new EU saws cannot mount a full dado set by law?

Dear Andrew,

I don't know about the dado sets, but it wouldn't surprise me. The EU seems hell-bent on banning everything!

Best wishes

(Grumpy) Martin

[bigz1]

The Health & Safety exec still allows a 15.5mm dado knife to be attached to table saw along as the arbour is long enough. Unfortunately as already pointed out,no modern UK saw that I know of has an arbor long enough for a dado.

[martinw]

Wish my PM66 had a riving knife...


.

Dear Andrew,

I took a peek at the PM66 arbour after your post. There is a large amount of cast iron to fix into. I think it would be entirely possible to mount a riving knife to it. OK, it would have to crank to get it in line with the saw blade, and you might need to remove some of the original manufacturer's "splitter" mountings, but it could be done if the riving knife has substantial supports below the table. It really could.

You would, of course, attempt this at your own risk...(in other words, do not send the lawyers round).

My only reason for not doing this myself is that I mainly cut sheets, not lumber, and have no need for this modification

Anyway, that's my suggestion.

Best wishes,

Martin

[fyffe555]

Dear Andrew,

I took a peek at the PM66 arbour after your post. There is a large amount of cast iron to fix into. I think it would be entirely possible to mount a riving knife to it. OK, it would have to crank to get it in line with the saw blade, and you might need to remove some of the original manufacturer's "splitter" mountings, but it could be done if the riving knife has substantial supports below the table. It really could.

You would, of course, attempt this at your own risk...(in other words, do not send the lawyers round).

My only reason for not doing this myself is that I mainly cut sheets, not lumber, and have no need for this modification

Anyway, that's my suggestion.

Best wishes,

Martin

Thanks for the effort and idea. My '74 PM66 must have a different trunnion assembly to yours. The Splitter is mounted on the back of the lower trunnion which provides the Tilt, the Arbor is mounted on the upper height adjusting trunnion which is hinged at the front of the saw and ends at the arbor boss. Nothing beyond the arbor boss goes up and down so nothing to attach the knife to behind the blade.

Shame really - I had it all apart a few years ago putting in a new motor, arbor bearings and newer VX3 drive belt system and spent a while tring to figure out how to mount a riving knife. Short of major surgery, lots of fabrication and welding to the cast iron trunnion there wasn't a graceful way of doing it. Didn't want to risk distorting the bearing mounts and the kitchen needed finishing so it all went back to together. without any mods.

It's a nice saw to use, though that was after I replaced the old fence.

rgrds

Andrew

[diarmaid]

Ok, Im gonna try and get the Jet with a left tilting blade, bismeyer 52" fence, and built in router table with guide rail. Im not sure about motor flexibility, but I'll get the largest I can on 1 phase power. Wont be buying for a while so plenty of time for anyone to give more advice/comments. Thanks all.

[martinw]

Ok, Im gonna try and get the Jet with a left tilting blade, bismeyer 52" fence, and built in router table with guide rail.

Dear diarmaid,

Excellent choice. Left tilt blade and Bill B fantastic fence.

Make yourself a right hand saw extension table, and mount your under-table router in it. You can use the Bill B fence for this also.

Then get a couple of fence wheels to guide the stock past the router. These will have to rotate in the opposite direction from the wheels used for ripping stock on the saw.

The easiest way to use fence wheels is to put some kind of T-slot on top of the rip fence and some kind of sliding mounting on the bottom of the wheels that you want to use. After that, you can easily apply a force to the workpiece at exactly the point you may wish towards the fence. It is well worth taking the trouble to do this. Moveable fence wheels are well worth the trouble.

One more thing. If you have a table saw mounted router, it is really easy to hit the saw ON button rather than the router ON button. If you stack all kinds of junk on your saw table, this can lead to interesting results.

Hope this helps

IMHO

Best Wishes

Martin

[diarmaid]

Thanks martin, I'll keep all that in mind and see what I can do.

One more thing. If you have a table saw mounted router, it is really easy to hit the saw ON button rather than the router ON button. If you stack all kinds of junk on your saw table, this can lead to interesting results.

Thats very good advice, sounds like the results would be very interesting. Are your talking from personal experience?.....sounds less than pleasant!