• Use for precision cuts at 90-degrees and reduces kerf clearance to thickness of blade

• Supports the work-piece closer to blade for less chip-out and splintering

• Reduces kerf clearance to the thickness of your blade

• Keeps blade clean by stopping sawdust from falling into the throat

I came across the only other review for this item when I just came back to order three more! For [price], it really does the trick & I plan to make more for my other special application blades. The zero clearance insert is a big improvement towards cleaner, safer cuts.

Four stars from me, five stars if the plate were about 5 mils thicker.

24 of 25 found the following review helpful:


Not perfect, but works OK for cutting small pieces  Sep 07, 2005 By Henry Perkins
There are two reasons to use a zero-clearance plate around your table saw blade:
- to support the workpiece more completely, for less chip-out and splintering; and
- to cut small pieces that would fall through the larger hole in the standard insert.

This insert requires finicky adjustment for the first point, but serves quite well for the second. In the tradeoff between lower cost and higher performance, this is the lower cost option.

The plate is made of molded plastic with a rectangular grid of supporting ridges on the underside. (It's very similar in construction to the standard insert plate, but made of plastic instead of metal.) Because the plate is soft enough for the saw blade to cut through easily, it isn't impressively stiff. And it's not just a drop-in replacement as the metal plates are; you must fasten it down with four phillips screws. And you can't just tighten these down all the way, either. The plate would normally sit below the level of the saw table. These fastening screws are just outside the height adjustment screws (which use slotted screws, so you'll need two different screwdrivers) and the plate is flexible enough that the combination of screws forms a spline curve rather than a fixed plane as you attempt to adjust both the height screws and the fastening screws.

At first thought you're probably appalled by this idea, but in practice you can make it work acceptably for 90 degree cuts. What I ended up doing was to make a curve that's uniform left to right, and dead even with the tabletop as it crests at the axis of the blade. A wide workpiece will be supported by the table proper, and it doesn't really matter if a narrower workpiece slides up and down a smooth curve as long as it's at exactly the right height as it crosses the blade.

The downside here is that if you're expecting to work with your miter gauge set to anything other than 90 degrees, you're limited to work that's wider than the insert because the plate won't be both flat and at table height. Alternatively you could build up the bottom of the plate with washers under the fastening screws, and something (Bondo?) at the long ends. Or you could just buy a more expensive replacement that's easier to make both flat and level.

Personally, I got this mostly to cut small trim pieces without having to go fish them out of the built-in bucket that collects sawdust under the blade. This insert was cheap and does an OK job for what I need.

37 of 42 found the following review helpful:


One accessory you can do without  Jan 08, 2002
This zero clearance insert is made entirely of cheap thin plastic. It's nowhere near flat and flexes with the slightest pressure. When you talk about a zero clearance insert, you expect something that's flat and rigid. It is impossible to level the insert with the table because it is so flimsy and not flat to begin with. I don't know what they were thinking when they designed it...Or if they were thinking at all.
Anyways, pass this one up. I'm very dissatisfied with it. It' s just plain useless. Don't get me wrong. I love my other Bosch tools. They're great but someone seriously dropped the ball on this one. I just hope that Bosch (or someone else) corrects the problem and makes a zero clearance insert that's worthy of their name.

14 of 15 found the following review helpful:


NO longer available??  Jan 30, 2003 By Craig R. Scheir "cscheir"
I had been meaning to purchase this item for some time. This would be a useful add on to the saw and I think the saw is great, but now the insert is not available. When I started searching for other makes of inserts that may fit the Bosch 4000 saw, I found out that others are making their own out of 1/4" or 1/2" hardwood or plastic. Tracing the exisiting insert - or better yet taping the insert to a piece of hardwood and cutting it with a router (in a routing table) using a "flush trim bit". To install the new insert, use carpet (thin double sided) tape to keep it in place. I hope this helps others. I am planning on making my own shortly.

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:


Shame on Bosch  Sep 11, 2006 By Rob Curtis
This thing is a toy. It has no place on a saw as well designed as the TS 4000.

Pros- It is red.
Cons-
It is about as rigid as a blade of grass.
It is molded from material that is about as thin as a blade of grass.
It is impossible to make it level with your table because it flexes every time a board touches it.
Every time my saw starts, it catches a tiny sliver of the insert edge.

Bottom line- The best use for this thing might be as a template to make your own out of ply. Love my 4000. But, this insert is a waste.

See all 35 customer reviews on Amazon.com