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 Monday, August 06, 2007
Why I Waste Wood
In the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania several years ago (hence the short hair and shave).
Editor's Note: The following excerpt is from Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine, our sister publication to Popular Woodworking. The latest issue of this advertising-free magazine is now available. You can buy a printed copy or download a digital version directly from us. If you like Popular Woodworking, I think you'll also enjoy Woodworking Magazine, which takes conventional woodworking wisdom to task. You can learn more about how this magazine is different on its web site.
No one told my elder daughter that it would be difficult to make clothing by hand and by eye – without a pattern, a machine or even a lesson.
And perhaps because no one told Maddy that it would be hard, it wasn’t. During the last three years she has made more than a hundred garments for her stuffed animals, from jogging suits to sequined disco pants to chain mail. She works entirely by instinct. Never measuring. Just cutting, stitching and improving.
Now, every parent will tell you that their child is remarkable, but I don’t think that’s the case here. I don’t think Maddy is a stitching savant. I think that she simply is acting on an impulse and without fear of failure.
It would be easy (read: lazy) for me to now end this column with that same advice about woodworking: Don’t be afraid; just get to it. But I know that the fear of failure can be crippling. For example, last week I taught Maddy how to pump gasoline. Learning that common task was so stressful that by the end of the lesson, her hands were trembling a bit as she yanked the receipt from the pump. At first I was bemused by her trepidation. But then I realized the difference between pumping gas and pushing a sewing needle. It was the raw material.
Maddy has a lifetime supply of cloth in our basement, thanks to the women in my life who buy it for her. And when she needs more sequined fabric to make a disco jacket and floppy hat to match the pants, it will cost her a dollar or two for a supply that will last many years.
Now consider gasoline: It’s precious, poisonous and explosive. So here’s my real point: I think that wood is a lot more like cloth than it is like gasoline.
This statement might be hard for some of us to swallow at first. It was for me. I’m a conservationist at heart, and saving the trees always seemed like a good idea when I was growing up.
But home woodworkers aren’t really the source of the problem when you talk about deforestation, which I know is a critical problem in some places on the globe. Several years ago I toured the hardwood forests of Pennsylvania with a group of journalists and watched loggers cut down enough cherry trees in an hour to last me more than 100 lifetimes of building furniture.
It was that trip that changed my view of the raw material we work with. Before that moment, I would squeeze every single part of a project out of the fewest number of rough boards, even if that meant compromising the design or aesthetics. I would allow myself to use a board with a less-than-ideal grain pattern in a face frame or door stile or stretcher. This, I argued to myself, was being a good steward of the forest.
Now I see things differently. I get only one chance to make each project. And the fate of that project – kicked to the curb or cherished by my grandchildren – depends on the choices I make today with regard to its design, grain, joints and finish.
I don’t throw away tons of wood, but I’m not afraid to plow through lots of it to find the right board. I’m not afraid to make a lot of test cuts to get a tight joint. And I’m not afraid to make a lot of sample boards to get the right finish. My leftover pieces end up as interior parts for a future project, as kindling or as compost at the dump. So here’s my confession: I now throw away more wood than I ever did before.
But here’s how I rationalize that choice: The more wood I go through, the better my end result is. And wood is a renewable resource. We can get it almost anywhere, even rescuing it from the city dump if we so desire. Furthermore, wood is inexpensive when compared to the hours of labor invested in any piece of fine workmanship.
All this makes me bristle when I see companies hawking virgin plastic products under the guise of “saving a tree.” Where do they think plastic comes from? It comes from petroleum. So consider this: We can (and should) always plant more trees (or make more sequined cloth). Compressing dinosaur poop for a million years, however, is another matter.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Monday, August 06, 2007 8:37:02 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Saturday, August 04, 2007
Politics and Woodworking
When I took this job in 1996, I remember calling my dad to give him the news. His reaction confused me at the time: “That’s great son,” he said. “Woodworkers and carpenters are good people. You’ll be happy.”
It turned out to be a prescient comment. One of the things that has kept me in this job for so long (journalism is an itinerant profession) has been the readers who call to comment, complain or commend. There is something about people who work wood with their hands that sets them apart from the general population.
I know this because as a newspaper reporter, I got to sample a wide variety of the general population. And as someone who co-founded his own political newspaper (that failed), I also got to rub elbows with the elite and the powerful.
As I left the newspaper world behind in 1996, I wondered what sort of people woodworkers were, especially after my father’s comments. I knew only a handful from my classes at the University of Kentucky. There were no woodworking Internet forums that I knew of. I was unaware of my local club in central Kentucky.
And coming from a political publication, I wondered what sort of politics were associated with woodworking. I mean, you can see it both ways. There is the self-reliance and discipline in the craft that you find in many Republicans. And there also is a nature-oriented sensitivity that is common among many Democrats. There is a spiritualism in the wood you would expect from evangelicals. There is a deep river of science and chemistry you’d find in the atheists.
For years, I just assumed I’d never know the answer to this question. Then one day Publisher Steve Shanesy received a survey of woodworkers that had been commissioned by Woodcraft. The catalog and retail company was trying to assess the craft so they could see what should be done to ensure its future health.
The survey was interesting, but what was even more interesting to me was that the survey company Woodcraft hired was typically involved in political research. As I dug into the raw data, I saw that they had actually asked all these woodworkers their party affiliation and if they considered themselves liberal, moderate or conservative. And the survey company also compared this data to the population at large.
At long last, I was going to have my answer.
As it turns out, woodworker’s political persuasion matches exactly that of the population at large. The craft is filled with people from all political persuasions, from Yellow Dog Democrats to Rock Ribbed Republicans. (And don’t forget the Libertarians.) So when it comes to what happens in the voting booth, we’re all over the map.
But there’s still something different about woodworkers. A couple weeks ago a reader wrote me about a sander I was selling (see my column from the August 2007 issue for more on this). So without a single qualm I boxed it up and sent it to him. I told him to send me a check if he liked it. Never once did it cross my mind that I’d be stiffed.
Yesterday the check showed up, right on time. I wasn’t the least bit surprised. Woodworkers are, like my dad said, just good people.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Saturday, August 04, 2007 3:13:23 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, August 02, 2007
Bosch Riving Knife — No More Excuses for Woodworkers
This year at the AWFS show we saw several new table saws with new guard systems that include riving knives. I wrote about it here on the blog and the other day one of these saws, the Bosch 4100 jobsite saw, arrived on our loading dock. I unpacked the saw this morning, and we'll have a full review in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking. For now, here's a close look at this innovative guard system.  The guard consists of three components – the riving knife/splitter, the anti-kickback pawls and the blade cover. The best thing about this guard is the engineering that makes it the most user-friendly system I have seen. The reasons many woodworkers don't regularly use guards are 1) it takes too long to remove, replace and realign the guard, and 2) it gets in the way when you're setting up for a cut, or when the fence is close to the blade. The two plastic side shields on this guard lift up and out of the way and there is a catch to hold the guard up until you want to lower it.  The blade cover attaches to the riving knife/splitter by clamping into place. The lever in my hand releases the guard and it then is easily removed from the saw. Elapsed time for this operation is about five seconds.  The anti-kickback pawls release in a similar fashion. Squeezing a button disengages a pin and the pawls lift out of the way. This also only takes a few seconds, and you can leave the blade cover in place and remove the pawls independently.  After removing the table insert, another lever releases the riving knife/splitter. This doesn't come out of the machine, but it slides in an arced slot and locks in one of three positions. The lever clamps the splitter against a flat piece that is part of the arbor assembly, so it is always in line with the blade. In the top position, it comes up above the top of the blade to allow the blade cover and pawls to attach.  The middle position brings the top of the knife just below the top of the saw blade. If you're making a non-through cut (like a rabbet or a groove) the knife is still acting as a splitter by keeping material against the fence, and by keeping it from binding on the blade. The lowest position drops the knife completely below the blade, out of the way for changing blades.  The riving knife stays in this position when you raise, lower, or tilt the blade. It shields the teeth at the back of the blade to prevent the piece you're cutting from coming in contact with the saw blade. If you look at the picture, you can see that these teeth are the ones most likely to grab something and throw it up and back. Hats off to Bosch for putting this in place; I'm hoping this is a sign of things to come for all table saws. — Robert W. Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang | Read other Tool Tests
Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:33:49 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Happy Woodworking As We Age
I’ve been woodworking or around woodworking for nearly 35 years. Over many of those years I had the pleasure of working with my father. I think it’s what has kept both of us younger than our driver’s licenses indicate. That’s because the space between our ages remains constant. It’s both a boon and a burden.
It’s a boon just due to the fact that I can say I’ve spent many days, weeks and years working beside my Dad, soaking up his knowledge and growing to understand how he sees things in life. If you have that opportunity, or can allow your children to have that chance, by all means take advantage.
The burden part comes because I don’t really feel the age I am – and that tends to be a problem. If you don’t feel your age, you have a propensity to jump from a workbench to the floor after adjusting clamps on a large case piece, instead of climbing down slowly. A recent jump sent a hotwire to my brain telling me my knees aren’t what the used to be.
Another negative about working with someone over an extended number of years is that we get to watch them age, as they get to watch us. My Dad is getting older and he’ll be the first to admit it. In doing so, I have seen him struggle with a few items in woodworking – mainly because he has lost his hand strength.
Being in the later stages of life, he’s seen many things come and go; he stays with what he knows (that whole new trick/old dog thing). With the ages of baby boomers getting up there as well, I think this is a common problem in which many woodworkers will have an interest.
Dad learned to woodwork using handscrews, so he plans to continue that same path. But, as his hand strength diminishes, he’s come to realize he cannot tighten the clamps the way he did before. He can't get a grip on the handles in order to turn them fully. In order to compensate, we renovated the handles of the old handscrews.
Quite simply, we drilled a 23/64" hole through the handle and drove a 3/8" wooden dowel into the hole. The smaller hole keeps the dowel from sliding out and him from spending time looking for the runaway dowels. The extra piece supplied the torque he needed to make the clamps work.
Either the manufacturers are seeing this too or Bessey just happened to stumble onto a clamp that takes this same problem into account. They have the Kliklamp on the market. This clamp has been out for a while but Bessey has not spent the advertising budget to let us know.
The Kliklamp looks like an F-style clamp with another arm attached. To operate the clamp, open the arm fully by moving it away from the clamp’s main bar, slip the jaws onto the material, then pull the arm back in the opposite direction. You’ll hear a clicking noise as the clamp ratchets tight. Dad likes the way this clamp works (as will other woodworking old-timers). It doesn’t take hand strength to make it happen.
I know I’ve demonstrated only two solutions to what I anticipate as a growing problem. I’m betting you have a few ideas of your own. If you have another solution – or even a different problem associated with woodworking while getting older – let me know. Click the comment box and add your example or solution. And as we compile a list please pass these along to those who might benefit. Everyone wants to continue woodworking for as long as they can. And I'll makes sure Dad sees them!
– Glen D. Huey
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 3:23:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, July 28, 2007
New Lie-Nielsen Progressive-pitch Dovetail Saw
In all hand aspects of hand-tool woodworking, how you begin an operation with a hammer, plane or saw greatly influences your chance of success. Maintaining a proper strike, stroke or slice is far easier than trying to recover from a botched one.
So it makes sense that a tool should be designed to be easy to begin an operation. That’s why some hammers have cross-piens, some joinery planes have long fences and some saws have specially shaped teeth.
With saws, the simplest way to make them easier to start is to put some fine teeth at the toe of the tool and coarse teeth at the heel. You begin the cut with short strokes using the fine teeth and then lengthen your strokes to unlock the speed of the coarse teeth. And that’s exactly what Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has done with a customized version of its dovetail saw that is now available for a $10 upcharge.
This special saw with its progressive pitch begins with 16 teeth per inch at the toe and ends with 9 tpi at the heel. Otherwise, the saw is the same as the stock Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw – the teeth are filed rip and the brass back and handle are unchanged.
Thomas Lie-Nielsen loaned me a prototype of one of these saws about 18 months ago to test, and to be honest I didn’t take a liking to it at first. I’ve never had difficulty starting a dovetail saw (everyone learns this with practice) and for some reason found the progressive-pitch saw a bit harder to control than the stock Lie-Nielsen I’ve been using for years.
The fine teeth at the toe of the progressive-pitch dovetail saw.
But I kept using the progressive-pitch model, part out of stubbornness and part out of the knowledge that all freshly sharpened rip saws are a bit grabby and jerky in the cut. After a few months of use, the saw began to break in and I began to – grudgingly – see its merits.
The coarse teeth at the heel of the saw. (This photo was taken at the same magnification as the one above.)
Now it’s my favorite dovetail saw. Not because it starts easy (it does) but because it will fly through a cut thanks to the ravenous coarse teeth at the heel. Now that the saw and I understand each another, each cut goes something like this: Two short strokes at the toe to begin the kerf, followed by three long strokes along the entire toothline, followed by a short stroke or so to just touch the baseline of my joint.
These last little strokes to hit my baseline can be made anywhere on the toothline of the tool – so if I’m really close to my baseline I’ll use the fine teeth at the toe. If I have a little ways to go I’ll use the faster teeth in the middle. I started doing this out of instinct (not cleverness) and didn’t realize I was doing it at first.
This week, Thomas sent me an e-mail saying that his company is ready to start making the progressive-pitch saw for customers. The price is $135. The saw isn’t yet on the company’s web site, but if you call and ask, they will be happy to take your order.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Saturday, July 28, 2007 4:16:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Belt Sander – Is It a Lost Tool?
At the AWFS show in Las Vegas (I’m sure you’ve seen the blog entries and the special AWFS page at our web site), one of the highlights was a trip to the Hard Rock Café to witness my first Delta/Porter Cable press event. What a great evening.
At the event, Delta/Porter Cable unveiled a new look and some new tools to the attendees. Some of these tools were going to be immediately available, some will be brought out during the coming year and a few were prototypes that may change drastically prior to anyone seeing the end result.
As I surveyed the tools displayed behind velvet ropes – the “look but don’t touch” directive gave the impression of a Hollywood movie-star filled event – I noticed a large number of belt sanders. The belt sander was once my most useful sanding tool, but I cannot remember that last time I used it in the shop.
As I began woodworking I would assemble my panels and when they came out of the clamps, the belt sander was the next tool used. I would flatten the panels, working at a slight angle to the grain and glue line, starting with #120-grit sandpaper then progressing through #150. Once the panel was flat and smooth, I would make a couple passes over the board using #150 and #180 grit in a random orbit sander (ROS).
That entire process got easier with the addition of a drum sander. I used #120 grit in the drum sander, but because a drum sander leaves straight-line scratches, my belt sander was still my tool of choice for the next step in preparing the panels. I used it with #150 grit to clean up those scratches before the ROS took over.
Bringing the wide-belt sander into the shop was the "kiss of death" for my once-beloved belt sander. Now I had a machine that not only sanded flat and smooth, but because the pivoting head allowed the sanding belt to oscillate back and forth, there were no more straight-line scratches. From the wide-belt sander I moved directly to the ROS to finish the sanding process.
This walk down memory lane leads me to wonder about the belt sander’s role in woodworking today. I know hand-tool folks don’t use this tool, except for possible rough grinding of nasty chisels or blades. But what about power tool woodworkers? Do you still have the belt sander in your arsenal of power tools? As new sanders are released should Popular Woodworking bring them in for review? Would those reviews be helpful? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment.
– Glen D. Huey
Read other entries by Glen D. Huey
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 11:17:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 23, 2007
Available Now: All the Issues from 2000 on CD
The year 2000 was a turning point for Popular Woodworking magazine. In 1999 the new owners of our magazine gave us a green light to redesign the entire publication and start down the path we are on today.
That was when we started adding a significant number of stories about hand tools into our pages, blending them carefully with our power-tool coverage. We started adding top-shelf contributing writers, such as Nick Engler, Roy Underhill and Scott Phillips. And we brought on staff a new photographer and art director.
So if you like Popular Woodworking now but you didn't subscribe in 2000, we think you'll like this new CD. On it, we've put all eight issues we published in 2000 (that was when we published an annual Tool Buying Guide) in pdf format. All of the advertisements have been removed. It's just 425 pages of pure woodworking content – and completely text-searchable – for $19.96.
As a bonus, we've included on the CD a complete index of all the stories in both a spreadsheet and word processing format. Plus, we've included a bonus issue on this CD, the September 1999 issue of Popular Woodworking – that's the first issue that features our new design (and 66 more pages of content).
The 2000 issues feature a lot of great stories, here are just a few we think you'll be interested in. Or you can download a complete list of stories here: 2000IndexbyCategory.doc (234 KB)
Restoring a Handplane
Flea markets are infested with dirt-cheap old handplanes. Rick Peters shows you how to
transform a $5 piece of junk into a workhorse for your woodshop.
Borrowing a Design
If you’ve ever sat at your kitchen table with a blank sheet of paper and an equally blank
mind, let Roger Holmes show you how some pros design original pieces of furniture.
Pennsylvania Stepback
This Colonial cupboard has it all: traditional joinery, proportions and the techniques to put your woodworking skills to the test.
By Glen Huey
Should You Buy Professional Tools?
What’s the difference between $50 router and a $150 router? We take you inside to show how the things you can’t see sometimes affect the price.
By Randy Caillier
Handmade Hardware
Step inside a darkened blacksmith’s shop, where custom cabinet hardware is made almost exactly as it was 200 years ago.
Traditional Secretary
Troy Sexton’s gorgeous dropfront secretary is the culmination of a lifetime of professional woodworking experience and a brief stroke of luck at an auction.
What You Must Know About Shelving
Building great bookcases requires more planning than real skill. Learn the essential rules to constructing shelving that is stout, attractive and adaptable.
The Way Wood Works
To properly design and build a project, you need to know wood’s strengths, weaknesses and how much it’s going to move. Nick Engler shows you how to avert disaster by following three simple rules.
Shop of the Crafters Morris Chair
Without a doubt the oversized seat, reclining back and wide arms will make this chair the
most comfortable place to relax in your home.
Compound Miters for Dummies
Cutting accurate miters and compound miters is one of the most vexing problems woodworkers face. Learn to set up your table saw to cut virtually any slope.
By Nick Engler
Lathe From a Loft
The always-inventive Roy Underhill stumbled onto some discarded timbers and got the bright idea to turn them into a foot-powered lathe and scrollsaw. You can, too.
By Roy Underhill
The CD is in stock now and ready for immediate shipping. The CD works with both PCs and Macintosh computers running Adobe Reader 6.0 or later (Reader is a free program). The price is $19.96 with free shipping in the United States. Order the Popular Woodworking 2000 CD from our store now.
— Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Monday, July 23, 2007 2:30:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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New Issue of Woodworking Magazine in Stock and Available
![[description]](http://net.fwpublications.com/newsletters/Images//Newsletters/Woodworking-Magazine_5_7_16_2007/covere.jpg) Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine (our sister publication) is now available in both digital
and printed
formats directly from us. We've shipped out the issues to our newsstand
distributors (see below to download a list of dealers that will sell
it).
The staff is particularly proud of this issue. It's our biggest issue ever and we
think it breaks some new ground on some important topics: workbench
design, constructing tool racks and choosing a flush-cutting saw. You have several choices as
to how you can purchase this issue. It’s not complicated,
but it is new, and so here is a complete explanation.
1. Buy the printed edition: You can order a printed copy
of Issue 8 directly from us through our Internet store for $8 or by calling toll-free 800-258-0929 (ask for item #PW0907). You also will
be able to purchase the issue from a select number of specialty stores,
including all of the Lee Valley retail stores in Canada and woodworking
stores in the United States. You can download a complete list of stores arranged by state to find a location near you. The issue should be available on newsstands in early August.
Download a list of Dealers:
WM_Dealers.doc (83.5 KB)
2. Buy a digital download edition: You can download
Issue 8 from our Internet
store right now for $6. The digital
edition
is a pdf file that has been enhanced with additional links and
resources. We’ve added buttons in the issue that will call up
additional related stories, video and slideshows on our web site. The
pdf can be read by any computer with the free Acrobat Reader program
from Adobe (most computers come loaded with this program already).
Here’s how the digital download works. It’s quite easy. After you pay
for the issue you will be sent an e-mail. Inside that e-mail is a link
that you’ll click that will allow you to log in to our web site with a
username and password. When you log in, you’ll be taken to a page that
will let you download the file. It’s a large file (about 8mb), but if
you have trouble downloading it, you can come back to that page as many
times as you like if you encounter some sort of problem. Our connection
is fast and stable, and we haven’t had anyone encounter any serious difficulty
yet.
3. Buy both digital and printed editions: You can order both
the digital and printed
editions
of Issue 8 from our Internet store for $10. If you choose this option,
you will be able to download the digital issue immediately, as
described above. Plus you will be shipped the printed copy of the
magazine from our warehouse in Wisconsin. —
Christopher Schwarz
Read other entries by Christopher Schwarz
Monday, July 23, 2007 12:04:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, July 20, 2007
Exclusive Interviews with Norm Abram and Scott Phillips
Now Live. Click on either name to see our videos.What tools would Norm Abram and Scott Phillips grab on the way out the door if their shops caught fire? Find out next week when Popular Woodworking presents exclusive video interviews with Norm Abram and Scott Phillips. On Friday morning at the AWFS show in Las Vegas, Publisher Steve Shanesy sat down with these two woodworking icons for a round of questions no one else has ever asked and answers that might surprise you. Senior Editor Glen Huey was on the scene with our video camera and he’ll be editing the footage on the airplane ride home. By Monday or Tuesday, these will be available here on our web site. We visited Norm’s New Yankee Workshop two summers ago, and Shanesy spent three days with Norm building Adirondack chairs, while former Managing Editor Kara Gebhart-Uhl peeked around in the corners and found out the real story about how Norm works to create the projects featured on his show. Scott is an old friend and neighbor and host of “The American Woodshop” which will start its 13th season on Aug. 11. Both Norm and Scott were at the Delta/Porter Cable booth at the show, and graciously agreed to spend some time with us. Check back and find out what tools Norm and Scott would get first if they had to start over. Norm has influenced thousands of woodworkers, who does he look up to? What did Scott do before woodworking, and what was the most impressive thing he saw at the show? Read more exclusive coverage and see more video coverage of the show. — Robert W. Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Friday, July 20, 2007 2:29:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Riving Knives-Report from AWFS 2007
Bosch's new riving knife system on its 4100 series of table saws.
Riving Knives – Not Just for
The Europeans Anymore
Of
all the new things appearing at this year’s AWSF show, the most
exciting is the sudden appearance of true riving knives and sensible
guard systems on a number of new table saws. The rules are changing,
both literally and figuratively. Kelley Mehler, who wrote an article on
European-style table saws for our August 2007 issue, lobbied and worked
with Underwriter’s Laboratories in the development of new rules for
table saw guards manufactured and sold in the United States. These
regulations will require that guards on table saws be easily removable
and replaceable, and most importantly to us, that saws be equipped with
riving knives.
When we reviewed the SawStop cabinet saw in 2005,
we noted that in our opinion, the riving knife was a more important
safety feature than the braking system. When we took our first look at
the Powermatic 2000, we were happy to see a riving knife included. This
year, several more manufacturers are getting on board, in advance of
the new UL regulations.
The SawStop, like airbags in your car,
will provide some protection after an accident has happened. And, like
airbags, braking systems that stop the saw on contact with the blade
add significantly to the cost. What if there were a simple device that
could be easily attached to your car that would prevent most accidents
from happening in the first place? Would you want one? That doesn’t
exist yet for your car, but there is a simple device that attaches to a
table saw that will prevent many accidents.
About Riving Knives
So
just what is a riving knife, and what does it do? There are two ways to
cut yourself on a table saw. The first is to not pay attention to where
your hands are and stick them into the spinning blade. The second is
when part of the board comes in contact with the back part of the blade
– the part that is spinning up from the saw’s table, after the cut is
made. This causes the board to rise and kick back toward the operator.
If your hand is on the board at that point, it can be thrown into
contact with the blade before you know it. A careful worker can avoid
both these situations, but it takes more skill, experience and
diligence to avoid the second one.
A proper riving knife travels
with the blade as it is raised, lowered of tilted, covering the area
behind the back of the blade. It is close to the same thickness as the
blade, so that a piece of wood can’t move into the rising saw teeth,
and your hand can’t come in contact with this part of the blade. It
keeps the wood tight against the fence for a few inches after the cut
has been made. This is an inexpensive, effective and proactive approach
to preventing accidents before they happen. Bosch, Delta, DeWalt, Grizzly,
General, Jet, Powermatic, Shop Fox and Steel City are all displaying saws at AWFS
equipped with riving knives that will are either now available, or will
be available in the next few months.
An inside look at Jet's riving knife system.
In
addition to requiring riving knives the new regulations also will
require that guards can be removed and replaced in less than 20
seconds, without the use of tools. This eliminates the excuse that many
of us use, that it is too much trouble to remove and replace the guard.
The tool companies are taking some different approaches to this. The
Powermatic and Steel City Saws have a lever that releases the guard and
pawl assembly. When that is removed, the riving knife snaps in where
the guard was. Grizzly’s approach is similar but instead of a lever, a nut is turned.
By far, the best systems we saw were on the Jet
Exacta saw, and on inexpensive job-site saws from Bosch and DeWalt. With these
systems, each part of the assembly is a separate component, held in
place with a spring-loaded pin or a lever. If you want to use the guard
and splitter, but remove the pawls, you can do so in just a few seconds.
I
liked the Bosch and DeWalt systems the best, because of the over-blade guard, which
has a clear plastic cover for each side of the blade. When lifted up,
there is a detent at the top that holds the guard above the blade. If
you want to make a measurement from fence to blade, or rip a narrow
piece, you can do so without fighting the guard.
Here is a rundown of what we saw:
Bosch’s riving knife is available on the 4100 series of job-site saw.
Grizzly
introduced its system on a 12” saw last year at the IWF show in
Atlanta. This year it has put the same system on a new 10” cabinet saw
(the G0651 and G0652). In addition, Grizzly has a nice 10”
European-style saw (the G0623X) with riving knife and European guard
with dust collection, a sliding table and a scoring blade for a bit
less than a SawStop 10” cabinet saw.
Jet has a riving knife and
easily removable guard on its 10” Xacta saw. Jet’s hybrid and
contractor saws have an easily removable guard, but riving knives won’t
be available for these in the near future.
Powermatic includes the riving knife on its PM2000 model, which has been available in this configuration since early 2006.
Steel
City will introduce its riving knife and guard system on its hybrid
saws, beginning around the first of 2008. This is the same saw that
surprised the show with a granite top Wednesday morning. This saw will
be available with either a cast iron or granite top. The company’s
larger cabinet saws will incorporate these features next spring.
We
are looking forward to taking all of these saws for a test-drive in our
shop this fall and winter, and we salute these forward-thinking
manufacturers for going ahead and including these features ahead of
schedule.
— Robert W. Lang read more reports from the 2007 AWFS show
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Friday, July 20, 2007 9:57:53 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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