Thin strip jig plan wanted`

[Will]

Do any of you have a site for downloading such a plan? I would like to use these for edge banding instead of the iron on stuff. If there are any voids in the edge of plywood they would not be noticeable with thin wood strips. My WWII blade does a fine job of cutting thin pieces. Thanks for your help.

[SonomaProducts.com]

There is a method for cutting repeatable thin strips on a table saw. I'll try to explain.

1. Rip a piece of stock just enought to clean up the edge.

1. Set the stock asside.

2. Now move the fence to the left by the width of the balde + the thickness of the strip you want.

1. Place the stock back against the fence in front of the blade in the same orientation it was ripped.

2. Make a stop on the table top so you can repeate this placement. I typically just use an adjustable square and place the edge in the left side t-track and adjust the ruler out until it touches the stock, then lock it. In this manner, you can put the square in the slot each time you move the fence over (with the stock in place) until the stock hits the end of the ruler. Then set the square aside and rip with no binding.

1. Rinse and repeat as many times as you need to slice thin pieces off the outside of the blade.

BW

[Pat Barber]

[Dick Snyder]

I made the jig referenced in this tip to do a lot of edging. It worked great.

[Swingman]

I've used all sorts of devices/jigs down through the years.

My "go to" for thin strips on the table saw is now a "Grr-ripper" for anything 1/4" and up in thickness. It is just too fast and easy to mess with anything else, IMO.

I just did another 20' of 3/8" x 3/4" strips for loose tenons day before yesterday quickly and easily ... no setup whatsoever.

...

[Jim Pierce]

American Woodworker magazine #126, December 2006/January 2007, page 70 has a jig you can make. It looks pretty easy. I'm in the process, but got sidetracked building a TV stand and file cabinets.

[HappyGilmore]

Yep the Grr-Ripper is the bees-knees for safe cutting of small strips on the tablesaw. It's an essential table saw accessory in my book! here's a review >

[CW]

Set he fence. Rip. What more do you need?

[CW]

The gripper works great. For anything thinner, a wooden version of it works well. No jig needed for thin strips.

[Mike Dembroge]

I've seen the jigs described here by others, but I offer different method. Instead of a jig, I made up several zero-clearance throat plates (good use for scrap wood) that have short, stubby splitters just behind the blade. I make the splitters out of wood too and they're usually very short so they don't protrude above whatever I'm cutting.

Then, I set the blade height to be just high enough to clear the stock. Lastly, I have a push-block that is no more than a piece of 2x4 turned on edge with a block of wood glued across the heel of the 2x4 to give it some bite as it's being use to push pieces through.

Next, set your fence to whatever thickness you need (I've done down to about

1/16, but that's as close as I like to let my fence get). I use the 2x4 push-block because the table saw blade will cut into the block, but that's okay. It's just a 2x4.

This procedure works very well and seems pretty safe. The key is to have a stubby splitter in the throat plate and use a sacrificial push block to push the pieces through.

The advantage, IMO, is that you don't have to keep resetting your fence as you cut. Once you're setup, you can just keep cutting.

I have a gripper too and if I'm doing something wider than 1/4", I use it. I agree with others here that they work very well.

Mike

[Bruce Barnett]

The Tolpin tablesaw book has an interesting jig that uses a vacuum to hold the strip against the fence.

[Jim Weisgram]

My variation on that jig is to use a 10-32 brass screw with a brass knurled knob braized in at the head; I have it threaded into a tapped hole in the wood piece. I can make micro adjustments by turning the knob by hand; 1 turn = 1/32", 1/4 turn is 1/128", etc.