Description
Sooner or later, most woodworkers need to cut thin strips. But cutting really thin strips on a table saw can get sketchy fast.
Normally, we’d set the fence to the thickness we want and make the cut. But look at what we’re left trying to control: this tiny strip right beside the blade.
And I know, I know. Why am I basically remaking the fence?“...i just dont see its purpose ( why re make a fence ) ???”
And yes, you can make thin strips using just the fence.“making thin cuts can be easily done using the saw fence”
But if you’re slicing straight through the stock, one of the most, if not the most dangerous areas on a table saw is between the fence and the blade. Once the blade cuts completely through the stock, you need to continue controlling that piece until the cut is complete. And as that space gets slimmer, safely controlling it becomes more difficult.
So instead of trying to control the thin piece between the blade and fence, I’m going to keep the workpiece much larger. I’ll start with a piece of wood that’s large enough to safely hold. I’ll use the knob on the jig to lock the distance gauge down at 1/8th inch. My stock goes against the distance gauge, and then I slide the fence against the stock. I make a cut, and I’ve got my first thin strip. I can keep repeating this process until I’ve made all the thin strips I need.
But let’s say you’re working with something that’s not very thick, like this 1/2” piece of oak. You need a spline and don’t want to break down a larger board.
In this situation, we’ll expand our reach by hot gluing it to a piece of plywood, or what I call a guide board. When we’re done, we slice the hot glue off and save it for later.
But we can take this even farther. We can make thin strips that are also really narrow by working off of a thicker piece of stock. We run it through the table saw first to develop the thickness and then, once again, use the thin strip jig to cut it free.
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