Narrowest ripping size on a table saw

As I write this I’m rubbing a pin sized gouge that I received in my thumb through gloves from not following my own safety rules about kickback but the best rule of thumb is wide enough that you can keep all your safety features on (riving and pawls, featherboard(s)) and use a push stick.

It’s always safer to cut a narrow piece off a wider stock placing most of the board between the blade and the fence.

The tapering you are experiencing is probably due to either a fence alignment issue or technique or a combination of the two. When ripping narrow stock I use a thin ripping jig. This is just a push block that straddles the fence and the face of it consists of a piece of 1/4” plywood with a 1/4” notch cut in the bottom. This push stick allows me to rip 1/4” off of a piece of lumber safely.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Hi Scott,
Would you be able to share a pic or diagram of the jig? Would greatly appreciate it.

The parallelism between then fence and the blade (and the riving knife) is not more than 0.005”. I have the blade guard on, which makes ripping narrow stock harder, but I still prefer to keep it on.

also if you are ripping if from a wider board the board can warp and move away from the fence causing that tapering

sh2005 I will post a thin strip ripping jig with in the next hr… easy to make and very reliable…Blkcherry

Nathan, I wouldn’t recommend wearing gloves in most woodworking (Cutting) operations. They can be caught up in blades and actually pull your fingers in worse. I know some do this all the time, but it scares me, especially with small pieces. Many warning labels on equipment says this.

Now, for the question. Probably look at blackcherry’s jig. Definitely some sort of jig should help. Search “jigs” under “Projects” for other ideas. Good luck

-- Kent Shepherd * The goal is-----More Tools!

Generally, I agree with NathanAllen… it should be wide enough to have your safety features installed and still be able to get a push stick on it. I will sometimes go even narrower for small parts, but only if I can control the piece with my GRR-Ripper. A thin rip jig is always a safe way to go.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I agree with Charlie. I bought a pair of GRR-Ripper blocks and they are really nice when it comes to keeping fingers away from troublesome blades. They allow you to keep pressure (both vertical and lateral) during the cut at all times. You can also “hand-over-hand” for longer cuts. I have a really cruddy Craftsman contractor table saw with a fence that takes multiple measurements to get even close to ballpark. These blocks have saved me lots of frustration.

-- Measure, cut, curse, repeat.

SH2005, here is a picture of the jig for ripping thin pieces of stock:

It consists of a face of thin material. In this case I use some 3/16” scrap with a 1/4” notch cut in the bottom and attached to a 3/4” piece of birch plywood that is the same width as my rip fence. On the back I put a tall piece of 3/4” plywood in case I ever needed to raise a panel on the table saw.

Here is the jig straddling the fence:

And here is the jig with a panel in it for demonstration purposes showing a 3/8” cut off the edge of the panel:

The jig could be improved by adding a dowel to the plywood that straddles the fence as a handle. I would recommend using the jig to rip thin pieces of stock between the blade and the fence but if you want to rip thin pieces of stock for inlays or banding then the jig that Charlie posted is the way to go.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

When I was trying to make miter slot rails for my crosscut jig, I ran into the same problem.

If you Google “thin strip ripping jig” you can find LOTS of different concepts, too.

[EDIT: Here ’s one.]

-- -- Neil

I use the Grripper for rips down to ~1/4”. There’s an optional side leg you can get that is 1/8”, but I don’t have it.

Smaller than 1/4”, I just use a sacrificial push block that runs up against the fence. Just a piece of 2×4 with a piece of hardboard glued on the end to act as a hook. It’s actually not much different than the Grripper; just sacrificial. You can even stick some sandpaper on it for extra gripping. And really, it’s something you can reuse, if you want to keep it around.

Make sure you have a proper splitter or (better) riving knife to keep the cut side from wandering. It’s an essential safety feature when using these techniques. You have to guard against a random twitch getting you into a kickback situation. If you’re using a splitter and a sacrificial push block, make sure you have the blade high enough to clear the splitter. Not an issue if you’re using a riving knife, which is why they are better.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.

I think the main issue is to correct the fence if it is not parallel to the blade then use a gripper or push stick or ? can be used to feed the stock.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Thanks for all the responses. I am back working with my table saw now, was away for work for the last few days. I have seen the thin strip jig before and I am planning to make one soon.
Charlie, I like your design, it’s simple to make.
Scott, eventually I would like to make a jig like yours.
In the mean time, I am going to practice to see if I can pin point where the problem was coming from.

Actually, you can make the Strips sled from just a board with “Pusher” screwed behind….

I made one for long (67”) strips to cut 1/4” thick strips…and another, shorter one…

For very thin strips – 2mm (3/64”), I use the “Vacuum strips sled”

Regards
niki

I personally like Niki’s method best… It keeps your appendages as far from the blade as possible without sacrificing control.

-- Chris

sweeeeeeeeeeet nice ripper sled never seen one of those before would love to make one, sorry thats to niki.

-- Ike, Big Daddies Woodshop,www.icombadaniels@yahoo.com

I’ve accurately ripped as narrow as 1/4” x 1/4” simply by using a sacrificial push block (jointer style), zero clearance insert, and the blade a few thou. above the stock. I’ve found the Rockler Narrow Strip Rip Jig to work as well or better.

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

The “warping” you are talking about can happen even with a perfectly aligned blade and fence due to “case hardening” or your wood. It should actually be less of a problem as you take less and less off the board and the shorter the board you are ripping.

-- Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!!

I use the Incra TSLS 32 and Rip off the outside of the blade and keep the stock wide against the fence… if need be I will glue extra to the stock to make it wider…works for me. FWIW I can rip down to 1/32” strips.

-- Drink once, cut twice. New website up.... lazylarrywoodworks.com.au

Niki,
That is a great jig you have built. One question I had was: do you find it difficult to keep the jig and the stock straight when getting near the end of the cut? The wheel (caster) close to the blade will push the stock and the jig against the fence, which would help keeping everything aligned to the fence.

In my original post, I had mentioned that the stock tends to drift towards the blade near the end of the cut if I don’t have much distance between the blade and the fence (around 3” or so). I figured I can improve my technique, so I made a better push stick, which helped. But the drifting was still happening. I finally noticed that the anti kickback pawl could be the culprit. It seems like when the stock is that narrow between the blade and the fence, the pawl tends to pull the wood towards the splitter/blade. It also seems to leave a scribe mark on soft pine. It could that tbe pawl maybe a little out of alignment which can cause it pull the stock. The spring exerts quite a bit of force on the pawl, so I have devised a little contraption that will lift the pawls up. I may have some time today to work on it.

Hi sh2005

To visualize my technique, lower the blade below the table, take a 5” wide board (or any other width), put it attached to the fence, take a push stick and push the board at the 2” point from the fence….what you will notice is that the board is turning to the left into the blade….and that’s not good – the back teeth might catch the board and Kickback (especially if you don’t use spitter)...

Conclusion – you have to push the board pass the center toward the blade…to emphasize, push the board at a point near the blade…in the above example – 3” from the fence – so the board will be pushed always toward the fence…

When cutting thin strips, it’s difficult to push the board “past the center” and that’s the reason that I use a “thin strips jig” – even if the board is 3” or 4”... The “Pusher” at the back is pushing all the back part of the workpiece and because of its width, gives you a “past the center” for the push stick.

As you can see, I don’t have Anti kickback pawl (not mandatory in Europe), that will interfere with very narrow strips.

I hope that the modified picture will help you to understand my bad English…

niki

Hi Niki,
I think you have pointed out the key point: the position of the force from the push stick, relative to the center line. Thank you for the detailed explanation you provided. And your english is perfectly fine :)