# Kickback



## crzy4wood (Nov 15, 2013)

Anyone owns a Ridgid R4510 table saw? If you do I need your help/advice. I experienced kickback with this TS 3 times already and to be honest that is more dangerous than I thought. I have a nasty bruise on my upper leg now. Anyways, the reason this happened I believe is that somehow either the fence or the blade are not perfectly squared to each other (sounds like common sense, right, duh!. However, I keep measuring the fence to the blade and miter slots and all seemed correct both front and back. Very strange! Even the riving knife seems to be straight and also when I place it on a flat surface. 
I used a zero clearance insert to make the cuts so I had to remove the ZCI; everything was ok with the starting cuts except when passing the wood through the back when I felt it binding to the fence and blade. The blade is at 90 degrees (at least the digital gauge reads 89.9 degrees at times), but the boards bind to the back making it hard to push through so I have to shut off the saw so I can remove the board. Otherwise the cuts are not square because the back of the blade cuts 1/16" or maybe less to the board. 
So, if you have the same problem, what adjustments you made to the fence to rectify this problem?


----------



## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

Are you making a cross cut? if so, you should not use the fence.


----------



## jdh122 (Sep 8, 2010)

Any chance you have a thin-kerf blade and a regular-kerf riving knife? Doesn't sound like it in your description (it wouldn't bind on the blade but rather on the rk if this was the case)...


----------



## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

To add to Mr. Jinx's comment… you can use a crosscut sled to crosscut large boards and planks.
The Ridgid TS has a riving knife?
Is the edge against the fence straight and true? If not, joint it flat before ripping to width. If you don't have a jointer, you can use a taper / ripping jig on the TS. 
And what do you mean you had to remove the ZCI? Why? Sorry, I just didn't understand that part of your post.


----------



## dbray45 (Oct 19, 2010)

if you are ripping along the fence, have the fence go slightly away from the blade in the back. if you are cross cutting without a sled (using a miter fence, the only way to do this safely is to put a 1" spacer clamped to the rip fence and should only be long enough to set the space.

When the piece that you are cutting touches the blade, you should have 1" of free space between the work and the rip fence. At this point, you can push the piece through the blade using the miter fence. The best thing to do is make a simple sled - keeps your fingers away from the blade.

If you are ripping long irregular wood, put a straight piece that is longer than the piece you are cutting against the fence, this will allow you to use the entire edge of the piece you are ripping along this extended fence.

If it starts to bind, STOP and hold where you are and shut off the saw - wait for it to stop before you remove the wood from the blade. Trying to remove the wood will bind it and kick it - you know this already!


----------



## crzy4wood (Nov 15, 2013)

All the cuts I made were rip cuts. The kerf of the blade is regular kerf and the table saw has a riving knife. 
pintodeluxe, what I meant to say was that because of the kickback I had to remove the zero clearance insert and put in the stock throat plate with the riving knife so I could rip cut safely.


----------



## dbray45 (Oct 19, 2010)

Your rip fence is not adjusted correctly, your blade is not true (could be bent), or you could have dirt against the blade in the spindle - remove it and clean the spindle and blade, you may have some debris in there.

If you kicked a large enough piece of wood, you could have bent something.


----------



## crzy4wood (Nov 15, 2013)

Thanks dbray45, that is exactly what I had to do, shut off the saw before removing the board. I just learned that I can make adjustments to the fence by loosening or tightening the attachment pins that run along the rail of the saw.


----------



## crzy4wood (Nov 15, 2013)

That could be true. I have to check all these things you guys suggested. It could be most likely that the blade bent as dbray45 says. I hope is just that and nothing major in the saw itself.


----------



## jmartel (Jul 6, 2012)

Cut your zero clearance insert to accommodate the riving knife. I wouldn't ever take the riving knife off. Also your fence may need adjustment.


----------



## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

You may check to be sure your wood isn't bending after you push it through the first half of the blade. If there's tension in the wood that is released during the cut the wood could be bending and pressing against the blade.


----------



## Mahdeew (Jul 24, 2013)

It would be great if you could video of what is happening as you make your cut.


----------



## WOODIE1 (Feb 28, 2012)

Spend an hour or so setting the saw up and making sure all is square. The obvious is to set the fence an inch or so from the blade and measure from the rear of the blade to fence and then front of blade to fence. Most likely the rear is closer. If you have a splitter of some sort use a straight edge on both side of the blade to see if it hits the splitter.

Anything that causes a bind or push on the wood can close up your cut creating kick back. Be careful and do some measuring.


----------

