Save Money on Blades & Keep The Riving Knife

#woodworking #powertools #tablesaw
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In this week’s video, I swap out my 8-1/4 inch factory blade in my compact table saw for a 7-1/4 inch blade. This is a test to see if the smaller blade will work with my table saw’s riving knife. If it does, that means I will be able to use the most common sized blades in my table saw (7-1/4”) and save money going forward.
NOTE: This video is not sponsored. It is an independent review. All tools and blades were purchased at retail value.
DISCLAIMER: My videos are for entertainment purposes only. Do not attempt to do anything that is shown in my videos. Woodworking and Metal Working are very dangerous activities and should only be performed by trained professionals.
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[@HowIDoThingsDIY]

Well that's a great money saving tip!!

[@paultay23]

Nice one and well explained. I did the same with my DW745 saw... I fitted a thin kerf 8" blade to replace the 10" blade and the kerf was 1.8mm. I created a new riving knife and had to fit 0.4mm shims on the arbor to compensate for the kerf reduction.

[@MintStiles]

This was the video that I was looking for!!! Another good long lasting blade is the Makita (slightly thicker) that is not as sharp but longer lasting.

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting, Eric! Great work! 😃 About the high and distance of the riving knife you could even make a new one from an old blade if you wanted to. So... Not a big issue there. 😊 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@EricSorensenCanada]

Making a new riving knife might help with the height issue (which is negligible) but it won't fix the gap issue. The mount for the riving knife is what determines the gap between the blade and the RK. My solution will be to keep the 8-1/4" blade aside for when it needs to match, and for all other work, I can step down to the 7-1/4". Cheers🙂

[@GF-ph1jp]

You could purchase a replacement riving knife and cut it down so that it is no higher than the 7 1/4” blade. That way you would not have to worry about adjusting any jigs to clear it when using the 7 1/4” blade.

[@EricSorensenCanada]

That is a good solution to solve the height issue, if you can get a replacement. I'll see first how much trouble this will cause with some of the existing jigs.

[@BillHartCooks.]

@@EricSorensenCanada That would be good for cutting non- through cut things like tenon shoulders. I was just thinking about this while watching this video. I too have had one of these 8.25 blade saws for about a year. Overall for what I do it is great.

[@jeeprider9975]

That's excellent !! next , a video on how you make a zero clearance plate for it☺️☺️☺️

[@BlairAshworth]

Hi Eric - thank you for your videos. I really appreciate them and I learn a lot. I am interested in using a 7 1/4 blade as well. In your video about riving knives about a year ago you measured the blade thickness for the Diablo 7 1/4 at 1.37mm and in this video you measured 1.7mm. Was it a different type Diablo blade or some other difference? The reason I ask is that I can't find a splitter thin enough to work with my table saw using the 7 1/4 inch Diablo blade. I've looked at the MicroJig thin kerf splitter but their specs say the minimum kerf should be .09 inches or 2.29 mm which would still be too thick for the 7 1/4 inch blade. Thanks!

[@EricSorensenCanada]

Thanks Blair! You probably won't find much out there at that size. This is why I bought the Dewalt 8-1/4" Compact Table saw. You can see what I did on a recent video where I got the 7-1/4" blade working with my new riving knife: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d2iwo6qVdtWMqrs

[@BlairAshworth]

@@EricSorensenCanada Thank you. Yeah I guess if using the 7 1/4 blade I'll just have to live without the splitter or come up with my own home-made splitter. Too bad because using the 7 1/4 inch blade looks to have so many nice advantages.

[@JamesWilliams-en3os]

I have the same saw, and I’m having trouble finding a flat grind tooth blade for cutting flat bottom grooves for splines. Do you have a recommendation?

[@Pottsy8888]

I am also having the same problem. The 30mm bore an issue.

[@MintStiles]

This is not a high powered saw meant for fine woodworking. Everyone does make it work, but this is not a saw designed to hog out materials. Use a regular blade and make a few passes with either a should plane or router plane, you get a better result anyhow.

[@glennriefenstahl3761]

Do you ever have your blades sharpened rather than buying more to just replace them?

[@EricSorensenCanada]

I don't. The blades I buy are between $7 - $10 a piece. At that price, it's not worth the gas to drive to a place that would sharpen them for me. I do keep the old blades however, because I am a pack rat and I will use them for small metal working projects.

[@jodyfrasnelli8928]

I have a homemade tablesaw made from a circ saw I'm going to make a riving knife from an old saw blade how close for it need to be

[@EricSorensenCanada]

With the factory blade in, mine is a 1/8" gap between the riving knife and the blade. I think my other table saw is 1/4" gap.

[@UpcycleElectronics]

So it looks like your TS has a totally different adjustment mechanism than a typical contractor's TS. It must have some kind of linear-guide type of slide mechanism to set the blade height, instead of the hinge pivot type of system used in a contractors TS. That's interesting. I imagine the potential blade thickness tolerance of the cheapest low quality blades is what was used when the text on that riving knife was chosen. They probably also accounted for potential tooth wear. The best advice is probably just manually check that every blade is wider than the knife and ignore advertised specs. If the measurements are super close, maybe it would be better to make a cut in some scrap and manually check that it has some play so it will not bind. -Jake

[@EricSorensenCanada]

It's designed to match the 8-1/4" Dewalt brand blades. The main thing for me is that the thickness difference isn't an issue. On my old 10" table saw, it was a big issue.