The throat plate that comes with most tablesaws is fine for many operations, but for certain tastes, the opening for the blade is too wide and provides little support when ripping narrow stock. Plus, with no support for the wood fibers around the cut, the wood is more likely to splinter.

To solve the problem, many woodworkers replace the original throat plate with a zero-clearance insert. Indeed, it’s not uncommon to have several, each with a different opening to accept, say, a thin-kerf blade, a dado blade, or a molding-head cutter. With a zero-clearance insert, the space between the blade or cutter and the insert is as close to zero as you can get.

That’s why I was intrigued by a new product called Tru-Cut, a unusual replacement tablesaw throat plate. The Tru-Cut has two parts: an outside frame machined from aluminum and a smaller, rectangular-shaped insert made from phenolic plastic that fits into a recess in the frame.

The aluminum frame is rigid and should remain flat, something that plastic and plywood are less likely to do over time. And because it accepts the smaller plastic inserts, you don’t need to keep an assortment of full-size inserts. The smaller inserts cost less than full-size commercial inserts.

Using setscrews, both the frame and the insert can be adjusted level to the saw table. Once level the plastic insert secures to the frame with six screws. Each insert includes a slight cutout on the bottom to provide clearance for the sawblade, a useful feature when making the initial kerf cut through the insert. To hold the frame firmly in place, there are two spring-loaded ball detents recessed into the right side that bear against the throat-plate opening.

In operation, the Tru-Cut worked well. Like all plastic throat plates on the market, it’s a bit noisy at first, but after a bit of use, any slight runout in your sawblade will enlarge the kerf and eliminate the noise. It takes less than two minutes to add a new insert. The Tru-Cut is available in several sizes to fit most tablesaws.