ripping with grrriper and when not to

[Lynn Kasdorf]

I bought 2 grrippers in the recent Sawmill Creek sale and generally like them.

Howwever, I'd like opinions on the following operation and whether the grripper makes sense.

Very often I find myself wanting to cut an accurate section from an old piece of stock, say an old 1x8. First I set the fence so that I cut off about 1/4" from one edge. Then flip the board so the fresh edge rides the fence, and I adjust for my desired width.

The stock is too wide for the grrripper to straddle the blade, unless a custom fence is attached to the grripper. The whole point of the grrripper seems to be that it grabs both the good piece and the cutoff piece through the cut.

My question is, would you remove the stabilizer foot from the gripper(s) and just use them as simple push blocks in this case? They do work pretty well in this way, and I am able to keep the work up against the fence nicely. However, I don;t know if this is any better/safer than my old way using two sticks- one to hold the work down and toward the fence and another to push it through. I also have a Vega fece which has a pusher gizmo that lets you feed the work safely. I generally combine this with a magnetic featherboard.

When the stock is narrow enough that you can use the stabilizer foot, the grippers are wonderful, but I'd like opinions on their use when ripping wider stock, without the stabilizer.

[Stan Smith]

Morning, Lynn:
I'm sure Chris is going to jump in here and answer your que.. MY impression is that the main goal is to keep the gripper over the cut so that a gripper pad is in contact with both the keeper and scrap piece. If the board is wide, I think that they attach an extension using the gr-200 black plastic piece so that it is in contact with the fence. If I'm unsure about getting 1 true edge, I run the edge through the jointer and then rip off a piece on the ts. Does that help?

Stan

[Lynn Kasdorf]

Morning, Lynn:
I'm sure Chris is going to jump in here and answer your que.. MY impression is that the main goal is to keep the gripper over the cut so that a gripper pad is in contact with both the keeper and scrap piece.

Right- that seems to be the main point of the device.



If the board is wide, I think that they attach an extension using the gr-200 black plastic piece so that it is in contact with the fence.

I saw that in the vid, but this seems really impractical. In pre-grripper days I could clean up a board very quickly. Am I really going to custom make a grripper extension for every board I need to rip, and take the time to attach the extensions and adjust two grippers, just to make a single cut? I don't think so. Sure, if it is a tricky cut, or some particularly exotic wood that you want no chance of screwing up, I can see this. But for my normal work patterns, no.




If I'm unsure about getting 1 true edge, I run the edge through the jointer and then rip off a piece on the ts. Does that help?

Stan

Sure, you can do that. However, I find that I can generally get a straighter, squarer (is that a word?) edge on the TS. Of course, I don't have my 8" powermatic jointer online yet, so maybe I'll end up using it more in this way. I may find that it does such a great job, that I'll use it more. But my experience with my 6" rockwell jointer tells me that I'm more likely to get a perfect, straight edge on the TS, and it is less "technique intensive". That is, there seems to be a lot of technique involved in getting a perfect, straight edge with a jointer. Like I say, the longer, 8" jointer will certainly do a better job in this regard.

Actually, a reason to do it on the TS is to preserve blade sharpness on the jointer for when you really need the jointer. I frequently clean up things like old oak fence boards, or pallet wood, dirty 2x4's, etc. The carbide TS blade handles the grunge on this dirty wood with ease, but I think it would dull the HS jointer knives. I have a TS blade that I use when I know the wood is dirty or abrasive, and save my good Freud blade for fine work.

[Ed Falis]

I don't know whether it's the recommended way, but I've certainly used the GRR-Ripper centered over the blade and not against the fence - it doesn't slip easily. But this is the kind of cut (sufficiently wide) that I would generally use the Brett-Guard and skip the GRR-Ripper.

- Ed

[Stan Smith]

I'm really quite pleased with the Grrripper, but as noted above it is not a panacea for everything. Yesterday, I had to put a rabbet on a 6.25" board using the router. I didn't take the time to make a special jig to hold the piece against the router fence, but the Grripper held the piece there quite well. That being said, I am going to make a little "snugger jig" today to add to the grrripper since extra parts were provided in the kit.

As to the jointer, different strokes for different folks. When I started into wwing, I didn't know what to get first, jointer or planer. Actually, I hadn't used my 6" Reliant jointer very much over the years, either, because I pretty much bought finished lumber. I have learned now, though, that even the finished lumber needs edge truing. I am getting a wider jointer because I want to do some face truing for resawing veneer on the bandsaw--going to an 8" Bridgewood. I think that I am more inclined to get the true edge on the jointer than ts even with long boards, well 8' or less. As to the jointer knives getting dull from use--hey that's what it's for. Kudos for scrounging pallets, etc..Wood is very expensive.

Stan

[Chris DeHut]

I bought 2 grrippers in the recent Sawmill Creek sale and generally like them.

Howwever, I'd like opinions on the following operation and whether the grripper makes sense.

Very often I find myself wanting to cut an accurate section from an old piece of stock, say an old 1x8. First I set the fence so that I cut off about 1/4" from one edge. Then flip the board so the fresh edge rides the fence, and I adjust for my desired width.

The stock is too wide for the grrripper to straddle the blade, unless a custom fence is attached to the grripper. The whole point of the grrripper seems to be that it grabs both the good piece and the cutoff piece through the cut.

My question is, would you remove the stabilizer foot from the gripper(s) and just use them as simple push blocks in this case? They do work pretty well in this way, and I am able to keep the work up against the fence nicely. However, I don;t know if this is any better/safer than my old way using two sticks- one to hold the work down and toward the fence and another to push it through. I also have a Vega fece which has a pusher gizmo that lets you feed the work safely. I generally combine this with a magnetic featherboard.

When the stock is narrow enough that you can use the stabilizer foot, the grippers are wonderful, but I'd like opinions on their use when ripping wider stock, without the stabilizer.


Hi Lynn,

Sorry it took so long to reply - we were at a trade show for the last several days.

I used to hand feed all ripping operations that were wider than about 3 or 4". Since working with the GRR-Rippers over the last year, I find myself using the GRR-Rippers for feeding just about anything. Ideally, it is suited best for small material wherein the blade would pass through the tunnel. However, with so much control at hand (when using the GRR-Rippers) I use them to feed just about everything on the table saw, band saw, Jointer, and router table.

The only concern I have with your description is that during the first cut to clean up the one face, that the edge riding against the fence is straight and true. You don't want an un-even edge riding against the fence when ripping.

Chris