Saw Stop Riving Knife Handle

…was removed for some reason and set aside where it wasn’t immediately obvious where it was. This made either removing difficult, and locking riving knife back in place essentially impossible. As using the saw without riving knife in place is a table saw no-no, this essentially made the tool unusable.

No note was left on tool, no post here, no problem ticket opened (that I could find). I am struggling to understand what could possibly have led to handle becoming unattached, and why once it was it was essentially just left where it fell and that nothing was done to let wood shop community know the tool was essentially out of commission and start the fix process. If anyone has some insight, including approximate date and time this happened, please share…

Woodshop chairperson (@Azalaket) has been made aware of the issue. My understanding from talking with @MikeD is that a set screw and/or spring is (may be) needed to fix. I’ve updated the tool status board indicating that Saw Stop is inoperable, as it should not be used until this required safety feature is securely back in place (hopefully/maybe by now it has been).

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I was there two nights ago and the riving knife and handle were off the saw and under the table on the bin. Another gentleman reinstalled the knife, took a while for him to get it tight. I don’t think he realized the handle was supposed to stay attached. He thought he corrected the problem and I was not familiar enough with it to tell him differently.

@mblatz Mike showed me the knife last night and what we need is a set screw and a spring. We opened the saw cabinet and tried searching for them but were unsuccessful… I tried contacting sawstop yesterday, but it was too late. I will reach out again today and try to get the parts required ASAP. Thanks for putting a note on the tool and bringing this to our attention, I’m sorry we didn’t do it last night.

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Curious/suggestion did you try fishing around for the spring and set screw with magnet … great for finding small metal thingys in saw dust.

@Photomancer we did not use a magnet, but that does sound like a great idea while rumiging through saw dust… Real life needle in a haystack situation!

@mblatz and I spoke yesterday and a new assembly is on its way. Also, Powermatic is sending us a new starter capacitor for the jointer. It should be in by tomorrow or Saturday. Thanks @MikeD and @mblatz for your help on those tools!

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Rip cuts are inherently dangerous without a splitter or riving knife in place. I’ll suggest that no one use the Saw Stop for ripping until riving knife is securely back in place. Dado cuts and cross cuts with sled are fine, IMO. I redirected a couple of folks to the Delta yesterday…if anyone is seen ripping on the S/S, they should be redirected as well.