How High Should I Set My Table Saw Blade? 🧐

Happy Friday! After watching our recent YT Short about Table Saw Safety Tips, we've had a few people say we were wrong in our explanation of how high you're supposed to set your blade above the piece you're cutting. I've definitely been wrong before and I try to admit when I am wrong but I wanted to explain in a little more detail what we showed in our video. I also added a picture with additional notes.

One person said you shouldn't put your blade as high as we were showing as it should only be tall enough to just barely clear the thickness of your piece. Personally, I think that makes for a very difficult time using your table saw because:

It's hard to always keep your piece absolutely flat on the saw. If your blade is just barely taller than your material, sometimes you may not cut all the way through if your piece moves a little while cutting or if your piece has any sort of bow or warp to it.
If you didn't cut all the way through and then you have to raise your blade a little bit more to clear the bowed surface, you're just asking for trouble trying to recut your piece on the same line (I'm thinking of big or long pieces of plywood).

I think there is an allowable Range for the height of your saw blade anywhere from "just enough to clear the top of the wood" to "having your cutters just barely above the wood." Any higher and your cutters start to "slam" into the wood instead of cutting it which causes a rougher cut and tear out. I have been wrong before though but this is what I've always learned.

What do you think?

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