Table saw throat plate insert

Old broken throat insert and new wooden insert

My table saw, when I bought it, came with an aluminium throat plate. This throat plate was not overly flat or rigid, and had a lot of clearance around the blade. But the saw being a relatively old 9" table saw, I didn't figure on being able to buy a replacement throat insert. When I let a friend use my table saw, she snagged the throat plate while moving the sliding table back, and it jumped out of its hole. As a result, the saw cut through the back of the throat plate, rendering it unusable.

Gluing new throat insert
To make a throat insert out of plywood would probably not be rigid enough, and to make one out of solid wood would not have worked either, because the saw blade would mostly cut it in half, and the remaining part would just split along the grain.

The solution was to make two cuts in the end of a piece of wood for the new throat plate, and glue strips of wood into it cross-grained. This way, I was able to make the throat plate out of hardwood, and get the extra strength at the ends to keep it from splitting where the blade goes.

Naturally, the throat insert I made was a zero clearance insert - its just a matter of running the saw wile raising the saw blade.

My first throat insert had a screw near the front, to prevent the possibility of the front lifting. I since then made one that incorporates two magnets to hold it down. I now use my original home made insert for angle cuts and dado cuts.

The above image shows the bottom view of my second throat insert. You can see the magnets press fit into holes top right and bottom left. Also note that some material was cut away to conform to the shape of the inside of the slot and leave room for the arbor. For rigidity, the throat plate is a few millimeters thicker than what the saw was originally designed for.

I have since written a more detailed article on making a table saw insert

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