# Knee Switch for PowerMatic Cabinet Saw



## charles66 (Oct 21, 2012)

Most switches on cabinet saws are difficult to reach in an emergency and depending on where you are standing and the switch location can cause you to reach across the dangerous kick-back zone. I found a simple solution sent out by Popular Woodworking in December as one of a series of "Santa's Tips". I haven't been able to access it since so I will post some pictures of my knee bar switch that I built for my Powermatic cabinet saw. This can be easily modified for many different cabinet saws.

You can use either 1/2" or 3/4" pvc pipe-I used 3/4" for the frame construction. I did not glue any of the joints as they are very tight fitting and if need be it can be taken apart. The pipe and fittings are available at any home center. With just a touch of my knee anywhere I am standing I can shut the saw down.










(For some reason the right hand side of this photo may not be visible. Right click and click on view image to see full image)



















The pvc frame is suspended from an electrical metal conduit pipe sized to fit inside the pvc pipe. You will need two pvc sleeves that fit over the ends of conduit as shown in the picture below.










The assembled unit is then bolted to the bottom of fence rail using u-brackets as shown above. Make sure you place them close enough to the ends so that you can reach inside the rail to attach and hold the nuts/lock washers while you tighten the bolts from below. Notice that I had to shim between the bracket and the pvc sleeves to that they would hold the tightly. Mine works like a charm and not only is it safe it is much easier then bending down to switch the saw off.


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## benchbuilder (Sep 10, 2011)

Cool, differemt


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