I am a new member and thoroughly enjoy looking/reading on this forum.
I would like to make a small submission of my of my own, so here goes..
I am a retired shop teacher and worked most of my summer "vacations" as a carpenter. I still work at occasional carpentry jobs, so I'm comfortable around table saws.
This is not meant to be a tutorial on the use of full-size or otherwise table saws, just a "how I do it".
I offer my technique here, for milling small strip wood on a full-size (12" diameter in my case) table saw, to those who are comfortable with table saws.
I saw the basics for this jig on a wood working website I would like to credit and acknowledge, but I cannot recall. I made some adjustments of my own.
I hope my description and photos give enough information to understand how I made and use it.
For reference, the pencil lead is .7mm
I put what is called a "finishing" blade in my saw for this, as it has a very narrow kerf and a large tooth count.
I also use a push stick.
I started with an old shelf that had a smooth laminate on it. Then I glued a wood spline to the bottom. A 1/2" by ¾" spline fits the miter slots in my saw's top, fairly common, but your mileage may differ.
After the glue dried, I fed the shelf carefully into the blade, stopped the cut half-way through, and carefully shut the saw off. This made what's called a zero-clearance auxiliary table,
It is held in place laterally by the spline, and longitudinally by a clamp (not seen) at the off-board end.
Along the right edge of the shelf, I attached a fixed fence with glue and screws from the bottom, being careful to keep it parallel to the spline. To this fixed fence, I then attached a movable fence, which is adjusted by 2 pairs of carriage bolts. One pair is shown below.
Note that the movable fence ends just before the blade. This is to mitigate the binding and subsequent kick-back that can occur when ripping next to a table saw fence conventionally.
Not seen is the long, thin wood splitter that I insert into the kerf of the auxiliary table top to the left of the blade.
The upper carriage bolt is threaded into the fixed part of the fence, but not threaded into the movable, left fence. It serves to move the movable fence predictably 1/16" per turn, as it's a 16 TPI thread.
The wing nutted bolt is fixed into the left fence piece, and has a clearance hole in the right, fixed piece.
After I adjust the movable fence, I fix the it in position with the wingnuts.
I typically start with ¾" thick or less stock. If larger than that, I will rip it down conventionally w/o the auxiliary fence.
As always, I stand to the side of the blade trajectory, as I do occasionally get small pieces kicking back. Since the pieces are small and not in a tight blade bind situation, they are far less exciting.
This process yields more sawdust than scale lumber, so I mill found free material. My 1:1 work brings me into contact with plenty of spare lumber.
Here's some 1/4" by 1/4" for a trestle I milled from a very old redwood fence. I have ripped other pieces of this tight-grain redwood down to 1/8" by 1/16". I have also milled poplar, tight grained cedar, and clear pine.
Hope this helps someone who is comfortable and safe around table saws. If you aren't and wish to learn, I suggest you learn live from someone who is. Someone who can watch you and then suggest corrections. I see some sketchy wood-working techniques on amateur videos.
I would like to make a small submission of my of my own, so here goes..
I am a retired shop teacher and worked most of my summer "vacations" as a carpenter. I still work at occasional carpentry jobs, so I'm comfortable around table saws.
This is not meant to be a tutorial on the use of full-size or otherwise table saws, just a "how I do it".
I offer my technique here, for milling small strip wood on a full-size (12" diameter in my case) table saw, to those who are comfortable with table saws.
I saw the basics for this jig on a wood working website I would like to credit and acknowledge, but I cannot recall. I made some adjustments of my own.
I hope my description and photos give enough information to understand how I made and use it.
For reference, the pencil lead is .7mm
I put what is called a "finishing" blade in my saw for this, as it has a very narrow kerf and a large tooth count.
I also use a push stick.
I started with an old shelf that had a smooth laminate on it. Then I glued a wood spline to the bottom. A 1/2" by ¾" spline fits the miter slots in my saw's top, fairly common, but your mileage may differ.
After the glue dried, I fed the shelf carefully into the blade, stopped the cut half-way through, and carefully shut the saw off. This made what's called a zero-clearance auxiliary table,
It is held in place laterally by the spline, and longitudinally by a clamp (not seen) at the off-board end.
Along the right edge of the shelf, I attached a fixed fence with glue and screws from the bottom, being careful to keep it parallel to the spline. To this fixed fence, I then attached a movable fence, which is adjusted by 2 pairs of carriage bolts. One pair is shown below.
Note that the movable fence ends just before the blade. This is to mitigate the binding and subsequent kick-back that can occur when ripping next to a table saw fence conventionally.
Not seen is the long, thin wood splitter that I insert into the kerf of the auxiliary table top to the left of the blade.
The upper carriage bolt is threaded into the fixed part of the fence, but not threaded into the movable, left fence. It serves to move the movable fence predictably 1/16" per turn, as it's a 16 TPI thread.
The wing nutted bolt is fixed into the left fence piece, and has a clearance hole in the right, fixed piece.
After I adjust the movable fence, I fix the it in position with the wingnuts.
I typically start with ¾" thick or less stock. If larger than that, I will rip it down conventionally w/o the auxiliary fence.
As always, I stand to the side of the blade trajectory, as I do occasionally get small pieces kicking back. Since the pieces are small and not in a tight blade bind situation, they are far less exciting.
This process yields more sawdust than scale lumber, so I mill found free material. My 1:1 work brings me into contact with plenty of spare lumber.
Here's some 1/4" by 1/4" for a trestle I milled from a very old redwood fence. I have ripped other pieces of this tight-grain redwood down to 1/8" by 1/16". I have also milled poplar, tight grained cedar, and clear pine.
Hope this helps someone who is comfortable and safe around table saws. If you aren't and wish to learn, I suggest you learn live from someone who is. Someone who can watch you and then suggest corrections. I see some sketchy wood-working techniques on amateur videos.