Originally Posted by Vaughn McMillan
As far as ripping 1/4" thin strips, there are two safe ways I do it. I rip a LOT of 1/4" wide strips and thinner, and have learned by my mistakes. (There's still a foot-long strip of 3/4" x 1/8" walnut lost somewhere in my shop as the result doing everything the wrong way, before I got smart.) One way is to rip a wide board, and let the 1/4" piece be on the "waste" side of the blade -- the side away from the fence. That way you're dealing with a 2" or 3" or 4" wide board between the blade and the fence. The other way, and better if you need multiple pieces and don't have a very accurate, repeatable fence (like an Incra) is to set the blade 1/4" from the fence, then use the Grrripper to guide the wood through the blade. The Grrripper seems a bit pricy on first glance, but it's the best $50 I've spent for the shop in a long time. I also strongly recommend using a splitter. I use the MicroJig splitter, from the same company that makes the Grrripper.