martlewis
Established Member
Hi, i'm almost set on my new saw but wondered what is the difference between the riving knife and the splitter? Sorry for my ignorance lol.
What's the difference between a splitter and a riving knife?
- Thread starter martlewis
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I may be wrong but a splitter is whats found on a lot of Americam tablesaws and is mounted on the back of the table and a riving knife fits to the blade assembly and moves up & down/tilts with the blade. The splitter cant tilt.
Jason
Jason
A riving knife is mounted onto the trunion of a table saw (the bit which provides the blade tilt) and rises, falls and tilts with the saw blade. Saws with trunion-mounted riving knives almostr all rise and fall vertically and because of this the distance between the blade and the riving knife is constant, as is the height of the riving knife above/below the top of the saw blade.
A splitter may or may not need to be adjusted separately from the blade (as Jason says, some designs can't tilt at all) when tilting and are generally mounted from the rear of the machine. This makes for a large and heavy arrangement which in some designs tends to flop over to one side when the blade is tilted - this means that operators are tempted to remove them from the saw as they are know in some designs to block exit of work pieces from the saw due to misalignment. Splitters also tend to have to ride further back from the blade because the blade rise and fall is not always in the vertical plane.
One other advantage of the riving knife over the splitter can be seen in saws which allow an independent overhead crown guard, such as a SUVA guard (e.g. some Scheppachs, Felders, etc and very common on industrial kit such as the Altendorf, Martin, etc) - in this case the riving knife rides just below the top of the blade allowing square rebates to be worked in fairly square pieces by passing the material across the saw twice, although this can still be a jam- and kickback-prone process with reaction timber.
Scrit
A splitter may or may not need to be adjusted separately from the blade (as Jason says, some designs can't tilt at all) when tilting and are generally mounted from the rear of the machine. This makes for a large and heavy arrangement which in some designs tends to flop over to one side when the blade is tilted - this means that operators are tempted to remove them from the saw as they are know in some designs to block exit of work pieces from the saw due to misalignment. Splitters also tend to have to ride further back from the blade because the blade rise and fall is not always in the vertical plane.
One other advantage of the riving knife over the splitter can be seen in saws which allow an independent overhead crown guard, such as a SUVA guard (e.g. some Scheppachs, Felders, etc and very common on industrial kit such as the Altendorf, Martin, etc) - in this case the riving knife rides just below the top of the blade allowing square rebates to be worked in fairly square pieces by passing the material across the saw twice, although this can still be a jam- and kickback-prone process with reaction timber.
Scrit
Roger
Established Member
Scrit's spot on with the Splitter / Riving Knife. I brought a great Cast Iron TS from North America and as many before had done, I'd dispensed with the Splitter. It doesn't happen too often, but a good kickback with a lump of wood whistling past your ear sure wakes you up in a hurry - as well as putting a nice dent in whatever's sitting behind you!
A Riving Knife is a must ........
A Riving Knife is a must ........
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