What in the world is a riving knife? Just the one thing that might save you from a very bad day in the shop. But if your table saw doesn’t come with one, fret not — with a little wherewithal you can add a riving knife to almost any table saw.

For those who have never experienced kickback on a table saw, we can assure you that at a minimum it will set your heart pounding. At the worst, it will suck your hand into the spinning blade and send your fingers flying, or perhaps embed a piece of wood in your chest or forehead. Riving knives mitigate such catastrophes by preventing the stock from touching the blade as it rotates up out of the table. Contractor table saws like [Craft Andu]’s little Makita are often stripped of such niceties, so he set about adding one. The essential features of a proper riving knife are being the same width as the blade, wrapping closely around it, raising and lowering with the blade, and not extending past the top of the blade. [Craft Andu] hit all those points with his DIY knife, and the result is extra safety with no inconvenience.

It only takes a few milliseconds to suffer a life-altering injury, so be safe out there. Even if you’re building your own table saw, you owe it to yourself.

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