Tool review: The MJ splitter

If you’re still operating a tablesaw without some form of stock splitter, stop everything. You may have already experienced that scary phenomenon known as “kickback.” Now all you need is $25 and about a half-hour to install an MJ Splitter to give you new-found cutting confidence and truly enhanced safety.

The MJ Splitter is a 7/8″-high semicircle of tough, high-density plastic that you install in a zero-clearance table insert that you supply yourself. If you don’t already have one, simply adding a zero-clearance insert will automatically render better cuts in all types of material. This also means, however, that the insert-splitter combination can only be used for 90° cuts, but that satisfies most cutting needs anyway.

You get two splitters in the package, which have side surfaces slightly offset to the base mounting pins, giving you a choice of four tension settings to trap the stock being cut to the rip fence. This provides a mini-featherboard effect and also allows for tension adjustments when a blade of a different kerf width is installed. You can also install both splitters in your insert to apply tension to both sides of the kerf.

The splitter is easily mounted in line with the blade with the aid of the included goof-proof guide and a drill bit. It would impede some cuts (e.g., a 1/4″-deep kerf cut), but it takes just a second to remove and a second to pop it back in place. There’s a green splitter available for 1/8″-thick kerf blades and a yellow one for use with thin-kerf blades.

This was no gimmick. Simply put, the splitter performed as expected and it’s bound to give you better and, more important, safer cuts.

For more information, go to www.microjig.com or call Micro Jig at 407-696-6695.