MICROJIG MJ Splitter Steel Pro Review
A steel pin epoxied into your own zero-clearance insert. It is a riving knife for saws that never had one, and it costs less than a blade.
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Kickback has a mechanical cause. As a board passes the blade, internal stress in the timber closes the kerf behind the cut. The closing kerf pinches the rising teeth at the back of the blade, and the blade throws the board. A riving knife sits in that kerf and keeps it open. Every modern table saw has one because they work.
Saws built before that became standard either have nothing, or have an old-style splitter bolted to the guard assembly — the kind that has to come off for any non-through cut, and therefore lives in a drawer.
The MJ Splitter is the retrofit. A hardened steel pin sits in a hole you drill in a zero-clearance insert, positioned directly behind the blade. Because it is shorter than the blade height, it never interferes with a groove, a dado or a rabbet, so it stays in place rather than being removed and forgotten.
The part the box does not include
A zero-clearance insert for your saw. MICROJIG supplies the splitter and the drilling template; the blank insert is yours to buy or make, and the accuracy of the hole determines whether the splitter lines up with the kerf. Off by a fraction and the work rubs; badly off and it binds.
Making inserts is a straightforward afternoon job in MDF or phenolic, and most owners end up with several anyway. If that is not a project you want, this is not your product.
Get the kerf right
The Steel Pro comes in full kerf (1/8 in) and thin kerf versions. Match it to the blade you actually run. A thin kerf splitter behind a full kerf blade leaves the kerf unsupported and does nothing useful; a full kerf splitter behind a thin kerf blade binds every cut.
Because the splitter lives in the insert, a change of blade kerf means a change of insert. In practice that means one insert per regular blade, which is how most people who use these end up working anyway.
What works
- It keeps the kerf open behind the blade, which is the single mechanical cause of most kickback, on saws too old to have a riving knife
- Unlike a factory splitter it sits below the top of the blade, so it does not stop you cutting non-through grooves and dados
- Fitted into your own zero-clearance insert, you get splitter protection and zero-clearance support in the same part
What doesn't
- You have to make the zero-clearance insert and drill it accurately — the splitter is the easy half of the job
- Full kerf and thin kerf are different products, and fitting the wrong one either binds the work or leaves the kerf unsupported
- One insert equals one blade setup: a dado stack or a different kerf blade needs its own insert with its own splitter
Worth comparing against
- Check price
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