Riving knife adjustment (Axminster TS-200)

[badatwoodworking]

Hi everyone,

Finally registered after a long time lurking.

Today I received an Axminster TS-200, which is my first table saw. I've spent the last few hours getting frustrated trying to get the riving knife to sit in line with the blade. The mechanism of adjustment is a bunch of tin shims that you have to wedge in place. Not only is this ridiculously imprecise, the shims constantly fall into the guts of the machine and have to be fished out with a magnet.

Having never owned another table saw, is this a typical method of adjusting the riving knife? I own various other pieces of machinery and I've never come across such a poorly engineered design that's made its way onto a several hundred pound tool... very disappointed with Axminster right now.

Cheers

 

[pulleyt]

Hi and welcome from another relative newcomer.

I don't have much experience of table saws but I do have the Axminster TS200 myself. The riving knife is a pain but in other respects I've been very happy with the saw. There is one other issue that I've had that is worth bearing in mind. The thread on the rise and fall spindle slowly stripped and the moral seems to be to keep it well greased.

But the real reason I keep going back to Axminster is because of their excellent after sales service. I phoned them about the stripped thread and they put replacement parts in the post directly without quibbling.

Hop you manage to get it sorted.

Trevor

 

[badatwoodworking]

Thanks!

The problem I'm having with the riving knife is that the shim design seems to imply that the knife is at least parallel to the blade, just on a different plane. Mine's the wrong angle both vertically and horizontally, so trying to get shims into the right spots without them all falling into the dust hood is a nightmare!

The rest of the saw seemed pretty good, to be fair. Fence alignment was easy, and the blade came aligned to the mitre slots, which I was expecting to cause loads of hassle.

I'd heard about the thread stripping in quite a few different threads here. I thought it had happened to me already (which would be some kind of record?) but it was just a loose handle...

 

[RichardG]

The riving knife is only mild steel so bends easily. First check the thick shims are flat, mine had a slight lump when they’d been pressed out. Once they’re flat shim up so the bottom is aligned with the blade and then bend the top over to align with the blade. If you knock the crown guard it’s easy to bend the riving knife again so keep a check on it. In an ideal world it would be a higher carbon steel...these are based on my experience with a TS-250.

 

[pulleyt]

The riving knife is only mild steel so bends easily.

It was a while ago that I set it up but I do recall using a bit of gentle persuasion to get the knife vertical - not sure exactly how or why but it did get there. I think I resorted to something slightly sticky to keep the shims in place while I was getting the nuts tightened. I think a dab of grease or something similar was enough in place of a third hand

Trevor

 

[MikeJhn]

May be teaching you to suck eggs, but here goes, extend the blade fully and get the base of the riving knife in line with the base of the blade at the table top, if the rest of the knife is out of position with the blade then the riving knife is bent and you will need to persuade it into position. (A big wrench works)

Mike

 

[badatwoodworking]

Thanks for the suggestions and instructions everybody.

Axminster support asked me to take a photo of the mounting bracket and I've since learnt that mine was unusually out of parallel to the point shims aren't really going to do anything. The saw is going back.

 

[Eric The Viking]

It's why we buy from them. I've had nothing but excellent service over many years.

It's a handy saw. I hope it gets sorted quickly for you.