Cutting Thin Strips

[Art Davis]

I wonder how YOU cut thin strips the size of a blade kerf for doing ribbon inlays. I am using a WWII thin kerf blade. My digital caliper says that it is 7/64 inch thick. (I thought thin kerf blade were typically 3/16, while standard were 1/8?) So I tried using my Biesemeyer fence gauge to get the cutoff strip to be kerf width. Tended to produce oversize strips--9/64. So I used the caliper to measure the width of my workpiece, then used its extension rod to set the off-side of the blade to be 7/64 less than the work piece width away from the fence. Got undersized strips by about 1/32 inch. I have just aligned my fence and blade to be parallel to the miter slot to within about four thousandths.

So, I am at a loss. This technique suffers from not allowing you to tweak the fence for a given work piece because after you make a cut, you have changed your basic work piece width. So you can't just give the fence a tap to tweak it.

Am I missing something? What would YOU do to cut precise thickness strips? (I am not concerned here with repeatability, which I assume I can get by using a stop block on the cutoff side of the blade to register my workpiece before the cut.)

Thanks.

Art

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, when I do inlay work, I cut the strips to close to finished width using a marking gauge that has a knife blade in it, after sawing the piece off on the tablesaw. (Large piece against fence, set to produce a 3/32 thick offcut, which is my stringing).



I then "thickness plane" them with a block of wood that has a blade similar to a scraper in it. Pull the wood string through the block, the scraper peels off the excess material.

You now have a 1/8 or 3/64 string, whatever you set you "thickness planer" to.

Regards, Rod.

[Mike McCann]

Art

Rockler makes the attahced jig for cutting thin strips on the left side of the blade

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18056&filter=thin%20strips

[chris dub]

I also like the Rockler Jig idea. I made one that wasn't very difficult and I can get strips down to 1/64th pretty consistently.

[Bill Huber]

I use a Magswitch Magnetic Featherboards for a stop on the left side of the saw as a stop.

The one Rockler has looks like it would do the trick also.

[Thom Sturgill]

Am I missing something? What would YOU do to cut precise thickness strips? (I am not concerned here with repeatability, which I assume I can get by using a stop block on the cutoff side of the blade to register my workpiece before the cut.)
That is the point, repeatability after cutting a test piece on scrap and tweaking the stop block.

[Art Davis]

Thanks, Guys,


Good info. I am going to order the Rockler block. The problem I have been having is that clamping an "off-side" block doesn't allow for much tweaking.

Rod---any possibility of you posting a pic or description of your "Thicneess planer block"?

Thanks.

Art

[Bill Huber]

Thanks, Guys,


Good info. I am going to order the Rockler block. The problem I have been having is that clamping an "off-side" block doesn't allow for much tweaking.

Rod---any possibility of you posting a pic or description of your "Thicneess planer block"?

Thanks.

Art


Art, here is your thread asking about the same question.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=718828#post718828

I have a drawing in that thread that shows how I set up for one and then if I am going to do more I just put the magnetic feather board against the wood and lock it down, then I move the fence over and cut the next and so on.

[Art Davis]

Art, here is your thread asking about the same question.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=718828#post718828

I have a drawing in that thread that shows how I set up for one and then if I am going to do more I just put the magnetic feather board against the wood and lock it down, then I move the fence over and cut the next and so on.


Bill,

Thanks a lot for the link. Sorry, I did read your reply but didn't notice the link. I'll give it a try. Looks like it shour work fine.

Art

[Robert Mahon]

I made a sled/push block/jig to push the parent wood past the blade. Doing it this way requires that you set the fence to the proper dimension only once. The parent stock is to the left of the blade while the strip is between the blade and the jig, which is guided by the fence.

The attached drawing illustrates what was done.

[Prashun Patel]

I use the GRRRipper (Peachtree Woodworking had a sale recently on them. Might still be on).
It avoids having to shut the saw off and reset the fence for each cut.
By providing even vertical pressure on the thin stock, it prevents binding on the blade and kickback.

Caveat, you have to remove the blade guard to use it.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Art

Rockler makes the attahced jig for cutting thin strips on the left side of the blade

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18056&filter=thin%20strips

I think you can use a featherboard to do the same thing as this jig. Just attach one(like a BenchDog) to your miter slot and set the wood against it and the fence against the other side of the wood. Just like the picture in Rockler. I use my magnetic featherboard to do the same thing. I just substitute it for the Rocker jig and it works fine.

[Nissim Avrahami]

Hi Art

Please have a look on my post Cutting 2mm (5/64") strips (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=73856).

Regards
niki

[Eddie Darby]

Here is a ShopNotes issue that has an article on a build it yourself type jig for thin strips which can be adjusted to tune to the correct thickness.

http://www.shopnotes.com/issues/094/

"Mastering the Table Saw PAGE 10 / Easy & Accurate Thin-Strip Ripping

Looking for great results when ripping thin strips? These techniques show you how."



The Thin Kerf WoodWorker II is listed in the following article as being 0.100" and 7/64" is 0.109375".

First link is the page explaining why the test was done over, and the second link is a PDF file with the test results.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/1197909616100.xml

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/pdf/WOOD-Saw-Blades-II-The-Retest.pdf

[Todd Bin]

Why wouldn't you use a band saw to do this job? It is just like sawing off slices of veneer. Then run them through the thickness sander (which you would have to do with the table saw anyway).

[Art Davis]

Here is a ShopNotes issue that has an article on a build it yourself type jig for thin strips which can be adjusted to tune to the correct thickness.

http://www.shopnotes.com/issues/094/

"Mastering the Table Saw PAGE 10 / Easy & Accurate Thin-Strip Ripping

Looking for great results when ripping thin strips? These techniques show you how."



The Thin Kerf WoodWorker II is listed in the following article as being 0.100" and 7/64" is 0.109375".

First link is the page explaining why the test was done over, and the second link is a PDF file with the test results.

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jsp?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/1197909616100.xml

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/pdf/WOOD-Saw-Blades-II-The-Retest.pdf


Eddie,

Thanks for the links. Are you referring to the table saw book by Kelly Mehler? (There are a number of publications with "Mastering the Table Saw" as their title.)

Art

P.S. Nice tutorial, as usual, Niki! I suppose that the idea is that the vacuum means that you don't have to have a portion of your sled behind the thin cutoff strip to push it through. ---But I am wondering if the vacuum is powerful enough to prevent kickback??

Later addition: Eddie, after looking at the Shopnotes article, I see that was what you were referring to---not the Kelly Mehler book.

[Eddie Darby]

I like the fact that they ( ShopNotes ) incorporate a ball bearing into the design for less friction. The unit is of course placed so that it is before the blade, so that you don't get any pinching or binding with the blade.

If you have 'something' that is the exact thickness that you want to cut, then you can use that to set the thickness of cut, by placing it between your workpiece, and the bearing/jig surface to lock in the jig at the correct distance. One source that comes to mind is drill bits.

Band-sawing works, but if you use your table-saw with a Glue-Line quality cut, then you save yourself the hassle of sanding. There is always more than one way to do most jobs in woodworking.

[Tim Dorcas]

I just bought the Rockler Thin Rip Jig. It has quickly become one of my favorite jigs in the shop. Yes you could build one but for the convenience of $20 and the quality of the jig, they can have my money. Highly recommended.

[Jerry Jaksha]

I cut thin strips for the bent laminations I make. It was always a pain to try and move the fence for each cut, even with a starting block at the left side. When I started using the Grip-Tite feeder system it all became easy and fast.
*You need a zero clearance plate to make this work.

One Grip-Tite sticks to a steel fenceplate behind the blade and holds down
the thin strip (down to 1/16") . The other Grip-Tite holds the wood down and against the fence with the sandpaper roller.
You just push one board thru with the next. I can cut pieces that are 3/8" x 1" into two 1/8" strips easily.

When cutting thin strips for a lamination always mark a v on the pieces before the cut so you can put them back together the way they grew so the grains look good.
To clamp the strips together, try wrapping them up in stretch wrap, just like you would have done if inner tubes were still easy to get. If you do this, be sure to use urethane glue or epoxy, because yellow glue won,t set up in the baggie. The gorilla glue foam is held inside the baggie and sands off easily with a disk sander in a drill.

Jerry

[John Terefenko]

When I need to cut thin strips I use my home made thickness stop that lets me cut accurate repeatable slivers on my tablesaw.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/JTTHECLOCKMAN/IMGP0311.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/JTTHECLOCKMAN/IMGP0309.jpg

[David Keller NC]

Art - I make thin strips for inlay fairly regularly, but not on a table saw - it's the wrong tool for the job. Besides requiring the construction of a jig to repeatedly position the stock, it's extremely wasteful - a good 50% of the stock winds up as sawdust. That's no big deal if we're talking utility maple, but most inlay is of expensive and hard to get stock - satinwood, holly, rosewood, ebony, etc...

A bandsaw, in my opinion is a far better tool for this job. Given a low or zero set blade, less than 20% of the stock winds up as sawdust.

Once the strips have been cut, this is one place where the use of a handplane is superior to all others. Trying to run this stuff through a planer on a sled is asking for it - it's pretty easy for the planer to pull the strips off of the double-stick tape and such them into the planer head.

And sanding is a no-no as well - unless you're extraordinarily cautious, sanding tends to thin out the edges of the inlay strip, which is a real PITA when it comes time to inlet it into the substrate.

Generally, assuming that the bandsaw is set up correctly, 2 swipes with a #3 handplane is all it takes to wind up with a uniform, smooth inlay strip - with no dust and no danger.