Cutting small parts without cutting me.......................

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Last June I bumped into our former (retired) family dentist. He said he'd heard I was a woodworker and he was wanting some help with a project. He showed me a rosary he had in his pocket. He asked if I thought I could cut the parts for the wooden cross. He wanted to make rosaries as gifts to family members, friends and donations at his church. I looked at it and said I thought I could come up with what he needed. He indicated he was going to spend the summer in Montana fly fishing ( I gave him no sympathy!). He said he'd call me when he got back.

The 2 pieces to the cross are 5/16" wide, 3/16" thick. One piece is 1 1/8" long....the other piece is 1 7/8" long.

I thought I could cut them in a similar fashion as I cut plugs to plug holes......ripping, and cutting on the face of piece of wood...then stand the block on edge and ripping them free. It worked but getting a consistent depth due to having to move the t/s fence produced a lot of failures and a very low success rate.

I take two woodworking magazines....FWW and Woodsmith. I found a free plan for a jig at the Woodsmith website. It basically serves as a stop to set the width of the rip and you don't have to rely on measuring each time you move the fence. I spent Tuesday running around town looking unsuccessfully for the parts. I ordered what I needed from McMaster-Carr and found some usable temporary substitutes at my local Ace Hardware.

Yesterday I spent the day assembling the jig only to find out I couldn't get repetitive thicknesses. I was stumped.

Last night I studied the problem a little closer and decided to check the alignment on my t/s fence and to change my technique a little by using less pressure.

Today after aligning the fence, changing my technique....it worked great. I was ripping 3/16" pieces with no problem.

Then I made a zero clearance backstop/table top for my SCMS. I was able to accurately cut off the 3/16"x 5/16" pieces without any chip out while keeping fingers away from the blade.

Tomorrow I will make a sled to notch the pieces with a notch 5/16" wide and 3/32" deep......

Then start producing some pieces for him........

Jigs for repetitive accuracy and safety!

[Todd Burch]

You, Ken, are a genius.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

You, Ken, are a genius.

I have been accused of a lot things and called a lot things.....most of which would violate the TOSs. Genius......isn't one of them.....for obvious reasons....

[Bruce Wrenn]

You could make a cut off sled for your TS that uses a blast of air to get cut offs away from the blade. Or you could take shop vac hose, put a "knee high" hose (don't tell your wife I suggested this,)over end of hose. Turn on vac, and knee high will be drawn into vacuum hose. Knee high would serve as a catch bag for cut offs. Place hose on sled just to right of blade. I think it would be safer than using the SCMS.

[Michael Moscicki]

Honestly for pieces that small I wouldn't feel safe with anything other than a scroll saw, that is if you have one of course.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Michael.......believe me when I say.....my fingers and hands won't be anywhere near the pieces or the blades........I use push sticks and hold downs religiously. I am even one of those guys who uses the blade guard and splitter on my table saw UNLESS..I am not doing "through cuts".

I do have a Excalibar 21" scroll saw, however. I am not comfortable getting enough accuracy with my scroll saw due to my inexperience....

[Jacob Reverb]

Gotta love it when a plan comes together. Jigs can be a pain to make but once you finally bite the bullet, you kick yourself for not doing it sooner!

[Dan Hintz]

Sounds like an excellent project for a laser, Ken...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dan....I agree....but neither my friend or I want to spring for that amount of cash and Moderators aren't elgible for the "Free Stuff" drawings....

[Rich Engelhardt]

Moderators aren't elgible for the "Free Stuff" drawings....

But,,,think of all the money you save by getting to use the SMC private jet to travel instead of having to use the airlines .

Anyhow - IIRC, there's a paper cutter type slicer - Lion Trimmer?? I think it's called, that might work faster than the SCMS.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

But,,,think of all the money you save by getting to use the SMC private jet to travel instead of having to use the airlines .

Anyhow - IIRC, there's a paper cutter type slicer - Lion Trimmer?? I think it's called, that might work faster than the SCMS.

Rich...you forgot to mention the free use of the SMC yacht and hunting lodge too!

[Gary Herrmann]

Ken, I assume the pieces that comprise the cross are both long grain. I have some requests for something similar. I was toying with the idea of glueing up two thinly resawed boards and making the cross of the lamination all in one piece to avoid end grain breakage. Haven't decided tho.

And I do like the idea of your jig.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Gary.....when I get the sled and the jig completed and tested, I will post some photos. I am working on the sled now.

[Thomas Canfield]

Ken,

I recently had a request to make 30 small crosses that were 1" wide x 1- 3/4" H and 5/16" sq section. I made them by first resawing some 6" wide 3/4" stock on bandsaw and planning to 5/16". I then cut the 5/16" W x 5/32" deep dado across the 6" stock using an auxillary fence to my miter gage and a hold-down to be sure of getting full cut. The dados were spaced such that I could cross cut between the dados for the 1" and 1 - 3/4" lenghts. I then used a "Gripper" to cut the sections to the 5/16" width (Gripper has one hold down 1/4" wide and runs against fence but holds down both sides of cut). I was using Mesquite that had some checks and sapwood, so cut plenty of extras to get 30 almost identical crosses, and had 30 extra. The two pieces were then glued using a timy drop of Titebond glue. Of course, there was a step to drill a hole for a cord and some hand sanding. The Gripper was a big help and they really work to keep your hands away from the blade. Just another way for consideration.

[Kevin Guarnotta]

one alternative option - it may not get you a handmade piece-but a good hobby shop will stock wood in the sizes you are looking for. Or I would look into the tools sold at those shops. They are not necessarily as accurate, but they are designed for cutting really small stuff. So everything is smaller, which allows you to get your hands in there.