# strips too small to safely rip?



## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

I have a lot of Honduran Rosewood scraps that are too small to safely rip on the table saw. I discovered that hot glue, from Harbor Freight, will very securely hold them to a longer scrap which I can run against the fence to safely cut off thin strips:


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*above post continued*

The Rockler thin rip jig was used to determine a constant thickness strip:


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

Thanks for sharing your very wise move and clever idea! Be safe.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Hot glue, is there anything it isn't handy for?


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

woodchux said:


> Thanks for sharing your very wise move and clever idea! Be safe.


Totally agree. Thanks.

George


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

That's one way to do it. Good idea.
I prefer to set the fence to desired thickness and use my pusher, with a thin push foot on it.
When doing it, I hold a piece of wood lightly against the side of the wood (before the blade) being cut to keep it against the fence.
The t track isn't used with the pusher, and the big knob, is just for pushing.


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

Pirate said:


> That's one way to do it. Good idea.
> I prefer to set the fence to desired thickness and use my pusher, with a thin push foot on it.
> When doing it, I hold a piece of wood lightly against the side of the wood (before the blade) being cut to keep it against the fence.
> The t track isn't used with the pusher, and the big knob, is just for pushing.


 
I do very similar to that but when they get SUPER small like in your picture - I will use another push stick with the left hand to keep the small piece tight up against the fence as the push stick from behind sends it through. 

Awesome picture. :yes:


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*the off fall on the left of the blade*

By using a rip jig or a bump stop clamped to the table on the left of the blade the small pieces just fall safely to the left of the blade and are not trapped between the blade and the fence and don't require any special push shoe or jig to move them along.

It will take a few minutes to hot glue them to a good parallel edged scrap, but as complicated as it gets. The hot glue sticks so well I have to chisel them off or rip down the glue joint. I couldn't believe it myself.


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## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

I have an 18" Delta scroll saw, not fancy. I clamp a fence to the plate and rip both mahogany and rosewood strips as I please. Much of it has gone into handles for wood carving tools.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

woodnthings said:


> By using a rip jig or a bump stop clamped to the table on the left of the blade the small pieces just fall safely to the left of the blade and are not trapped between the blade and the fence and don't require any special push shoe or jig to move them along.
> 
> It will take a few minutes to hot glue them to a good parallel edged scrap, but as complicated as it gets. The hot glue sticks so well I have to chisel them off or rip down the glue joint. I couldn't believe it myself.


By far the safer way to cut thin strips, a narrow shoe will work if you know what you are doing, but I would advise anyone that is not that familiar with using a table saw to use a rip jig and have the chips fall where they may.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*just to be clear ....*



FrankC said:


> *By far the safer *way to cut thin strips, ........is ????
> 
> 
> a narrow shoe will work if you know what you are doing,
> ...


Does that make more sense?

That is a pretty sophisticated thin push shoe (Pirate's) in my book. Probably worth making one if you do a lot of thin strips ...I donno?


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

Here is another pic showing how I use a scrap of wood to hold the work against the fence. The scrap and hand holding it, don't move during the cut.
It works great, and allows cutting a 1/8" strip from a 3/16 wide piece.
The pusher holds the work down as well as pushes. 
This picture shows a different foot, that is reversible, with a wider foot on the other edge. 
I never had a problem with it, and can't see how a kick back could happen, with the strip being cut, constantly being pushed, until clear of the blade.
The white foot in the other picture was HTPE and warped. The one shown in this picture is about 3/16" thick, wood, and gets thinner as I cut thinner strips. 
I never liked having to move the fence for each strip cut.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

woodnthings said:


> Does that make more sense?
> 
> That is a pretty sophisticated thin push shoe (Pirate's) in my book. Probably worth making one if you do a lot of thin strips ...I donno?


Bill, I was not arguing with your method I like it, most will agree it is the safer way to cut thin strips.

Guys like Pirate that know what they are doing will get along just fine with the push shoe, a rookie maybe not.


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

Pirate said:


> Here is another pic showing how I use a scrap of wood to hold the work against the fence. The scrap and hand holding it, don't move during the cut.
> It works great, and allows cutting a 1/8" strip from a 3/16 wide piece.
> The pusher holds the work down as well as pushes.
> This picture shows a different foot, that is reversible, with a wider foot on the other edge.
> ...


I have a similiar set up when I cut thin strips. I am just curious about one thing. It looks like you are useing a blade (80T?) instead of a ripping blade. Is there a reason why or do you just like to use one blade for everything?


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

Pirate said:


> SNIP...
> 
> I never liked having to move the fence for each strip cut.


 
Same here. As long as my fence stays in the same spot - I KNOW all my pieces will be the same size. Not to mention things get done faster as well... :yes:


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*let's see your setup*



OnealWoodworking said:


> Same here. As long as my fence stays in the same spot - I KNOW all my pieces will be the same size.* Not to mention things get* *done faster as well..*. :yes:


You gotta a slick setup for riopping thin strips? Post it up here.
Maybe we can all learn somethin' .....:blink:


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## Pirate (Jul 23, 2009)

mengtian said:


> I have a similiar set up when I cut thin strips. I am just curious about one thing. It looks like you are useing a blade (80T?) instead of a ripping blade. Is there a reason why or do you just like to use one blade for everything?


It's actually a 90 tooth Ridgid blade, which I really like. If I'm ripping, not real hard wood, 3/4 or less, and want a real nice cut I use it. Thicker or harder I use a rip blade.


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

Pirate said:


> It's actually a 90 tooth Ridgid blade, which I really like. If I'm ripping, not real hard wood, 3/4 or less, and want a real nice cut I use it. Thicker or harder I use a rip blade.


:thumbsup: I am the opposite. I keep a gluline rip blade in my saw most of the time unless I am cross cutting a lot or something thicker than 4/4.


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## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

Last time I needed strips that thin I used my bandsaw then ran them through my drum sander. This method would be way faster.


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## John10ey (Oct 16, 2015)

I want to rip 1/8 x 1/8 strips for inlays. I can rip the 3/4 or larger strips to 1/8" just fine, but looking for ideas how to then rip that thin strip to 1/8". I saw a home done system that looked good but now can't find it. Any ideas?
John


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*make your thin strips first*

Using a "thin rip" jig on the tablesaw, make your thin strips about 1" wide by 1/8" thick. If you c an make them wider all the better. Then use a cutting jig, not the table saw to slice them into 1/8" wide pieces. Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1ZR9g9W2M


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## Belg (Oct 2, 2011)

Guys, forgive my ignorance but what do you use such small thin pieces for??


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

Belg said:


> Guys, forgive my ignorance but what do you use such small thin pieces for??


I do it for lots of things. One use is for inlays or doing stuff like this for a cutting board:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f13/nothing-fancy-simple-cutting-board-91081/


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## John10ey (Oct 16, 2015)

The thin strip jig doesn't work for what I'm doing. I'm cutting Brazilian Cherry which is twice as hard as oak. The jig barely scratches it. I do saw the 1" board into 1/8" strips first, but looking for a jig for the next step. I don't mind the saw kerf loss of wood as I have plenty.

I need something to hold down the 1" (and less as strips are cut off) and the resulting 1/8x1/8 as I push thru the saw. I have both table saw and bandsaw.

Thinking of a hold-down clamped to the fence that the 1"x1/8" goes under to be cut. A push stick that's a 1" strip glued to a handle block? What would hold the strip tight against the fence?


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## John10ey (Oct 16, 2015)

Sorry, I wasn't reading the thread right/carefully enough. The push saddle will do what I need nicely. I'm cutting Brazilian Cherry which is twice as hard as oak.

I might also try the fence clamped on my Delta scroll saw. The hardness of the wood is a problem for the scroll saw but for 1/8" it might work fine.

Thanks all for the ideas.


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## Belg (Oct 2, 2011)

mengtian said:


> I do it for lots of things. One use is for inlays or doing stuff like this for a cutting board:


I have seen this type of work before but the really small pieces shown in the beginning I would guess will be used for inlay work. Would really like to see some examples/how tos using this technique, any you could recommend?


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*The original post was about ....*

When you have shorter lengths of specialty wood and you don't want to scrap them, the suggestion was to hot glue them to a longer length to safely rip them. The current discussion about making inlays is a different topic still worthy of discussion, but the hot glue concept does not apply since the material is essentially a thin a veneer to start with ... it's completely different. :yes:


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