Cutting a Whole Bunch of Thin Strips

[Tipton Lum]

I needed a whole bunch strips of Mahogany for some solid edging. That's a lot of tedious ripping.
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Cutting thin strips between the blade and fence can lead to binding, burning and chatter. Basically, inconsistent results. Ever notice how you can get perfect ribbons of wood off the waste side of the blade? The issue with cutting finish sizes off the waste side is that it usually involves a lot of subtracting fractions, or counting little lines. This is how I do it without the math and and line counting.

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What you need:
Clear packing tape
Fine point Sharpie
Feather board

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First I cover the scale indicator with the clear packing tape. This allows me to mark on the fence indicator with the Sharpie and then peel it off when I'm done.

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For this example I want a final 3/16". I just trued up a piece of stock to 5" so that is where the cursor was set. Now comes the only brain work involved. I take my finish size, 3/16", add an 1/8" for the width of the saw kerf, plus a fat 1/16" for clean up with the thickness planer. I marked that total, a fat 3/8", on the indicator to the left of the cursor.... 4-5/8" minus.

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Although not really necessary, I find that a small amount of pressure just in front of the blade from a feather board helps.

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To make the first rip, I move the fence cursor to my Sharpie mark and make the cut.

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For each subsequent rip, just move the cursor to the position of the Sharpie mark. No brain work.

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I find that by fixing my eye on the scale where the mark is, then loosen and move the fence, I can lock it down right on the money.

Now I need to figure out how to eliminate saw kerf waste.

[Ed Aumiller]

Good method... will try it...

[Matt Day]

Instead of measuring each time and placing the cursor mark, you could also place something attached to the table top (magnet, or something in the miter slot) as a stop that keeps the offcuts the same width. Rockler and places like that usually sell something for this as well.

[john bateman]

If you use something like this jig as a repetitive stop and a glue line rip blade you can skip the cleanup on the planer and get pretty exact thicknesses too.

[johnny means]

A UniFence or Euro style fence eliminates the need to readjust the fence after every rip. Simply pull the fence so that the rear end of the fence is in line with the front of the blade. Rip as usual. The keeper side will fall away from the blade after the cut.

[mark kosse]

I have to go with a thin rip jig too. It makes thin pieces easy if it locks down well. I built mine and had to make some adjustments to get it locking well. Now it rips thin strips nice. Use a thin 7.25" blade to save wood. I don't remember the model but it's a Freud 40 tooth and it cuts nice. I glue up off the saw.

[Mike Heidrick]

Id probably try my bandsaw/feeder. My table saw does not like small blades without being creative. The resaw king blade is pretty thin. Feeder on a router table or shaper for cleanup if needed but id strive to just make the bandsaw cut perfect. Mechanical feeding is very beneficial in surface quality and is a lot safer for these narrow pieces. Be careful on that jointer.

[Bill Huber]

I have a Freud thin kerf glue line rip blade and the Rockler jig which works very well together.

I cut 25, 1/8" x 1/2" strips that were 22" long and didn't have to clean them up and they were all the correct size.

So I really like the Rockler jig, does a really good job.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Have you tried a Grripper? It's made for holding those small/thin rips. It can rip as thin as 1/8" against the fence. The Grripper holds the wood and there's no chatter/binding against the fence. You do need 2 of them.

The Rockler stops should work well also. That is cool. Another tool to buy.......

[Jeff Duncan]

First off, if something works for you and your comfortable with it then by all means keep using it. Having said that that's a LOT of extra effort for a pretty simple task. Set your fence for the thickness you need and run your stock through. If your getting burning or chatter or any other problems address them. Sharpen the blade, improve your hold downs etc., etc.. Since your running them through the planer after anyways it shouldn't matter even if there is a little bit of burning.

good luck,
JeffD

[Dick Mahany]

Glad your method works well for you. Agree that ripping thin strips between the fence and blade is not a good program. Here's another simple home built jig. The tape reads fro right to left and allows direct thickness setting.

[Jim Rimmer]

I have a Freud thin kerf glue line rip blade and the Rockler jig which works very well together.

I cut 25, 1/8" x 1/2" strips that were 22" long and didn't have to clean them up and they were all the correct size.

So I really like the Rockler jig, does a really good job.

+1 on Bill's comment. And the Rockler jig is too cheap to try to make one.

[Rick Moyer]

I believe you could also just turn around backwards one of those orange Benchdog featherboards. Use it just like Bill shows with the Rockler jig.

[Bill Huber]

I believe you could also just turn around backwards one of those orange Benchdog featherboards. Use it just like Bill shows with the Rockler jig.

The problem with using a feather board of any type, is that they flex, that is what you want in a feather board but not in a stop for cutting strips.

[Rick Moyer]

The problem with using a feather board of any type, is that they flex, that is what you want in a feather board but not in a stop for cutting strips.

No I didn't mean use it like a feather board. I meant, turn it backwards, so the feathers point left. The small solid part is used similar to your Rockler jig.