Hey Guys,
I have a question about ripping 1 inch off a 6 inch wide board. We will just say that the board is 3 feet long and 6 inches wide and it is a straight rip. Would you rip the inch off of the left side of the board; or would you rip the inch off of the right side of the board on the fence side? I have seen this done both ways in books and magazines and I just don’t understand why you would rip a small strip off the right side against the fence. I hope that I made my question clear!
Thanks
Replies
BigDonny - now that I think about it, I cut the one inch off on the left side of the blade, and I am not sure why I do it that way. Maybe because you described it as 1" inch off of a 6" inch board, thinking I need a 5" wide piece. Maybe if you said you wanted a 1" piece, then the 5" would have been to the left. Hope that's clear.
Rick
Donny
It's usually recommended to cut the small strip off so it falls away from the blade.
Mostly for safety as the strip won't be caught by the blade and turned into a small missile.
Much safer.
Doesn't mean you can't do it either way, just be careful.
Jeff
I wouldn't hesitate to cut the 1 inch piece off between the fence and the blade.
1. The safety issue is minimal with the board you describe, especially with a push stick.
2. If I want a piece that is exactly 1 inch wide, I can set up the fence 1 inch from the blade. The outboard way requires measuring the width of the board, subtracting the difference, and setting the blade with that measurement.
3. Cutting multiples, step 2 applies for every cut. I doubt that I would get exact duplicate cuts the outboard way.
4. If the piece was 7/8" or 1-3/8", I'd need to be careful not to mess up on the mental math.
Agreed. You also need to factor in the blade width if you want the piece on the left side of the blade to be the keeper. To make things a bit more interesting not all 1/8 kerf blades remove exactly 1/8" during the cut. Not impossible to do but I normally rip so that the material on the left side is the waste. The use of a spliter, push sticks, and feather boards can make just about any size rip reasonably safe. For the execeptions I use a different tool.
--Rob
Whenever you do a rip, presumably you are cutting one part of the board to a predetermined dimension -- and that part of the board whould be against the fence, be it 1/4", 3" or whatever.
Just always be sure to stand to one side of the board (so if it does kick back, it will not hit you in the gut), and use a push stick that is narrow enough to clear both the fence and the blade.
And then, if you are ripping narrow strips, keep your blade elevated just one tooth above the material. The quality of your cut may suffer slightly, but there is way less chance that your push stick will get tangled up with the blade.
As you've seen, people take both approaches. If I'm ripping just one board, I'll run it so that the smaller off-cut falls to the "off" side of the blade, not between the fence and the blade. This is the safest way to do it. You always want to do it that way if you're bevelling a board, IMO, where the pinch potential is high.
If I'm going to rip several pieces off of one board, though, I'll use the fence to establish the distance and have the off-cut between the blade and the fence. Using a push-stick and standing out of the flight-path of a potential missle are important safety measures, you can even make a push stick that straddles the blade. But for really narrow pieces, I prefer to use something like the magnetic Grip-Tite system with rollers to virtually eliminate the possibility of the narrow pieces shooting back. Also, with that particularl system, there's no need for being up close to the blade, as you just use your next piece of stock to push the working stock through, and use a piece of scrap to push the last one.
Just to give niikiwood a hard time <g> the "one tooth above" method might lessen the chances for a bad push-stick collision, but the resulting physics increase the odds of kickback, however slightly.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
It's all about speed, time and accuracy.
My fence is dialed in exactly to my blade, so I set the fence on it's scale to 1" and rip exactly a 1" strip, without having to think or measure.
Willie
Sorry, I don't see anything in your post that relates to the original question.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Apologies, I'll work harder on my English grammar.
In reply to the original question, I always cut between the fence and the blade, using the ruler scale on my fence, as this is the quickest easiest way in my opinion. This means on the right hand side of the blade and the left hand side of the fence.
The only exception is when the cut becomes too thin.
Hope this explains better. Don't think there is any right or wrong answer to the original question.
Willie
Edited 8/6/2004 12:10 am ET by Jellyrug
JR, thanks for the details on your approach (I think the exception for "too thin" pieces is an important one to mention). As indicated in my post above, I agree that there's no right or wrong answer -- it seems to be both person- and situation-specific.
My apologies for being flippant and curt above -- I read a "tone" into the message that really wasn't there, and violated my own civility standards!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
No problem,
Good focus on safety in your post. That's an area I have to improve on, as the dust is gathering on my guard/splitter, but still have all my unscarred fingers and waiting for that first kick-back, which comes as a surprise.
Willie
"A surprise...." Yep! Between the real-life stories I've read in the forums, and heard from cabinetmakers, etc., I've grown to have pretty strong priorities when it comes to safety. Have to admit, I'm operating without a guard right now, but always with a splitter, glasses and strategically placed body, LOL.
There was an article in the local paper the other day about the revival of the use of (close your eyes) leeches to treat some surgical wounds, restore ciculation, etc. The patient they mentioned specifically was a worker who had managed to remove all five fingers from his hand at a table saw. They re-attached them though!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Table saw? I've heard of that often enough on a RAS bec of the climbing action, but...all five on a TS...have a link, by any chance?
I tried to find it in the archives at Seattle Times, but got a cyber-runaround. It's certainly possible the reporter got it wrong.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Here's the Seattle Times article. I'll see if I can find anything that verifies it was a table saw.
Don't look if you're feeling squeamish!http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2001995746_healthleeches04.htmlforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Yep, it said in the article it was a table saw. One CA shop i was in in '77, there were three fingers hung with strings right above the table--a reminder to the rest of the crew of what happened to the last guy who cranked up the blade. I guess in those days, it was tough luck--or they didn't find them in time to go with the guy to the hospital an hour away.
Thanks for digging up that article, bugs and all, for me. Now i have to go watch African Queen again...
I'm not finding anything else on his accident, but I talked with a cabinetmaker a couple of years ago who told me about having a panel of sheetgoods get away from him, skating across the blade somehow (sorry, don't remember the details). The only reason he didn't lose digits is because of how low the blade was set.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
BIG, all those previous posts offer helpfull advice.
Here's another two cents worth, to mull over.
If you must make multiple rip cuts from the same board, and be safe, let the 'Keeper' fall away on the outside of the blade and use a pushstick.
You have just removed the width of the 'Keeper' PLUS approximatly 1/8" of 'Kerf' '(Sawdust).
Don't move the fence for the next cut , but use spacers approximately 1/8" wider than the keepers.between the stock and the fence
At each new rip, add another spacer to the last and don't move the fence.
Another reason not to cut close to fence and blade, is that the keeper slices off cleanly at the end of the cutting operation,
BUT The stock piece retains a little 'Nub' that protrudes against the fence on the next rip,( Causing the keeper to lose it's parallelism)
Each additional rip adds up (Cummulative error) and pretty soon you have long wedges.
This can be avoided by using a sacrificial block in front of the pushstick.
Steinmetz
Edited 8/5/2004 1:25 pm ET by steinmetz
My fence is zeroed to my rip blade, I have a Beismeyer Splitter, and I use a nice big featherboard and a sacrifical shoe style push block and will therefore rip down to about 1/2" between the blade and the fence. Less than a 1/2" I'd go the other way or use my band saw.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
This is where those short European style rip fences shine, and no-one here in this thread has mentioned it if I remember the contributions rightly.
The short rip fence doesn't trap wood between the fence and the blade after the cut is complete. The short style of fence only holds the wood to the blade to just beyond the point of the downward chopping front teeth. The Delta Unifence is of the pattern we commonly use in Europe.
A birds mouth style push-stick and the short set fence make ripping multiple narrow pieces off wide boards simplicity itself with good safety.
A replica of the short rip fence can be made from two bits of wood assembled in an L shaped profile. Cramp the one leg of the L to the long US style fence with the bottom leg of the L on the saw table facing towards the sawblade. Other patterns of add-on short rip fences for US style long fences can be made to suit your saw usage. Slainte.
Hi Richard, I notice as soon as you get to the UK you've developed "cramp" we still suffer "clamp" out here.Must be the beer! Take care, Jako
There seems to be an understanding by everyone that one will be using a power circular saw of some kind. It ain't necessarily so.
Tom
I used to cut a lot of big lumber down to 1/8" widths. I always cut with the 1/8" strip between the blade and fence. I never got hurt because I knew what I was doing.
People get hurt because they forget that most saws have more power than people do and the saws often have a mechanical advantage.
A bandsaw seems safe to many - no kick back. I have heard of people loosing fingers on bandsaws.
Have respect for your tools.
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