I haven't used the guard or splitter for my Jet Contractor saw since I bought it. I didn't think it was needed because I primarily cut plywood and smaller pieces and rarely needed to rip any lumber. Last week I needed to rip some 8' 2x4s so I thought it would be a good idea to install the safety device. Worked fine and probably saved me from injury since the 2x4s twisted and bowed like crazy as they were ripped.
After that I went out and bought a decent blade (Freud finishing blade) because I was installing a new kitchen and had to cut finished materials - fillers, toe kicks, etc. This is when I noticed a problem, even though the splitter was lined up with the blade, the wood would bind between the splitter and the fence. The finishing blade is the same width as the splitter.
I want to keep the splitter and guard so what do I do? A few thoughts I have are:
Sand the splitter to make it thinner Add an auxiliary fence that stops short of the splitter Aftermarket splitter and guard Zero-clearance insert with 'splitter' Adjust the splitter further away from the fence side of the blade
I like to hear any thoughts on these or any other ideas. I want to keep the safety of the splitter and guard.