Dennis Peacock
01-15-2004, 12:35 AM
Well....I got my GRR-Rippers in that I ordered via SMC yesterday and had a chance to watch the DVD, put them together and play with them on my TS, router table and jointer tonight. Here is my initial review:
They are well made and the flexability of the configuration of them are something. The assembly was easy and the pads on the botton of each leg REALLY hold the stock very well. The DVD is well worth the money as they go through how to assemble it, how to use it on the various tools and cover the safety aspects of the GRR-Ripper during use.
The first pic shows the GRR-Rippers after I had assembled them. I say "them" because I bought two of them.
The second pics shows me setup to use one of them on cutting some poplar that would normally be too short for me to feed through by hand. One thing to take note on using the GRR-Rippers.....Blade height is a serious consideration BEFORE you make a cut as well as the position of the gripping feet!!! DAMHIKT!!!!
The third pic shows the resulting cut on a standard Amana Rip blade. Before when feeding by hand, I would have noticable saw marks in the cut edge of the wood. You can see that the newly ripped edge of the board is smooth and free of saw marks. A nice improvement of cut quality for ripping such a short piece of wood. I also noticed that the safety factor on this type of cut is very much improved over hand feeding and carrying the off-cut piece through the entire cut process is great as well since I don't have to worry about the off-cut floating around the spinning saw blade.
The fourth pic shows the results of cutting a few pieces of 1/4" thick slices of the same poplar. Once again, the cuts are smooth and saw mark free.
The last pic shows a setup for using two of them for ripping a long piece of wood by using what they call the "leap frog" method. Moving one GRR-Ripper behind the other during the cut so you don't loose control of the wood throughout the entire cut. I examined the freshly sawn edges and the edges are still saw mark free.
On the router table they work equally well. The control of cut is very good and no snipe marks on the tail end of the boards. This alone made me happier.
On the jointer, I did notice that I had better control of the wood and my hands and fingers were noticably at a safer distance that previously feeding by hand. I also noticed that there was less vibration to my hands during the jointing process as the pads on the feet absorbed a good bit of the vibration while the wood was being jointed.
Overall, I would say that the GRR-Ripper is a very good purchase and by adding to the safety factor on each of the power tools I tested them on is enough to save me on possible future hospital bills......
Thanks Keith and SMC for a nice product, the discount and adding to the overall safety of using power tools in the shop!!!
They are well made and the flexability of the configuration of them are something. The assembly was easy and the pads on the botton of each leg REALLY hold the stock very well. The DVD is well worth the money as they go through how to assemble it, how to use it on the various tools and cover the safety aspects of the GRR-Ripper during use.
The first pic shows the GRR-Rippers after I had assembled them. I say "them" because I bought two of them.
The second pics shows me setup to use one of them on cutting some poplar that would normally be too short for me to feed through by hand. One thing to take note on using the GRR-Rippers.....Blade height is a serious consideration BEFORE you make a cut as well as the position of the gripping feet!!! DAMHIKT!!!!
The third pic shows the resulting cut on a standard Amana Rip blade. Before when feeding by hand, I would have noticable saw marks in the cut edge of the wood. You can see that the newly ripped edge of the board is smooth and free of saw marks. A nice improvement of cut quality for ripping such a short piece of wood. I also noticed that the safety factor on this type of cut is very much improved over hand feeding and carrying the off-cut piece through the entire cut process is great as well since I don't have to worry about the off-cut floating around the spinning saw blade.
The fourth pic shows the results of cutting a few pieces of 1/4" thick slices of the same poplar. Once again, the cuts are smooth and saw mark free.
The last pic shows a setup for using two of them for ripping a long piece of wood by using what they call the "leap frog" method. Moving one GRR-Ripper behind the other during the cut so you don't loose control of the wood throughout the entire cut. I examined the freshly sawn edges and the edges are still saw mark free.
On the router table they work equally well. The control of cut is very good and no snipe marks on the tail end of the boards. This alone made me happier.
On the jointer, I did notice that I had better control of the wood and my hands and fingers were noticably at a safer distance that previously feeding by hand. I also noticed that there was less vibration to my hands during the jointing process as the pads on the feet absorbed a good bit of the vibration while the wood was being jointed.
Overall, I would say that the GRR-Ripper is a very good purchase and by adding to the safety factor on each of the power tools I tested them on is enough to save me on possible future hospital bills......
Thanks Keith and SMC for a nice product, the discount and adding to the overall safety of using power tools in the shop!!!