Hello everyone I figured I would give you all an update on my slider ripping jig as I now have had some time to put it to good use. See the link below for the initial posting on this
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29871
Well to my surprise I am finding out it is actually more useful than I thought and I finding out more and more just how versatile these EFSTS's truly are. Today I needed to make some very small brackets for some shelving I am making for my wife (yes I am actually building something for us for a change!) Long story short I had some small cutoffs left from the smaller shelves...roughly 3-1/2" wide x 5" long. I needed the brackets to be 3" wide. Normally I would rip something this small on the bandsaw but I currently do not have one ( I am expecting and it ain't our 4th). Now we all know when you do rip on a bandsaw we get those rough edges and usually I just run that edge through the joiner or planer but these pieces would have been way to small for either of those......Soooo I took out my handy dandy slider ripping jig to rip those small pieces. In the "old days" ripping anything this small on my Unisaw would have made me sweat the whole time but today it was a breeze.
In the first picture you will see the stock in the jig. The jig is set to 3" away from the blade. The distance is registered off of the right side of that plywood you see. Notice the overhead guard that completely covers the blade. I am currently using a 12" blade but I can use up to a 14"!.
In the next two pictures I show how I hold down the stock. The clamps I would have normally used (the ones with the red handles) could not be adjusted to accomodate a piece that short. Maybe in my next jig I will allow for this adjustment. Anyway, I held it in two ways, since I could not hold the camera and hold the stock ( I unfortunately do not have three hands) I did it in two pictures. One you will see me holding it with my fingers and the other you see me using my push stick. Note at the far end of the stock, the black piece, that is part of the cross cut fence. It is the sacrificial piece that allows it to be a zero clearance crosscut fence. I am pushing/holding the stock against that edge and the jig edge so this small piece is being held firmly against two perpendicular edges!
The fourth picture shows the stock as it is passing through the cut. Note the blade is completely covered with no exposure to me what-so-ever. Once again I would have had my hand holding that edge near the jig... The end result was a perfectly smooth ripped edge on a very small piece of solid stock. This is only feasible due to this being a format slider, as the slider is directly on the left side of the blade.
Now even though I say it is worth the extra dollars to get at least a 8'+ slider this jig is coming in very handy and would also work as well on a 5' slider. So those of you that think format sliders are only for sheetgoods should rethink that. I am learning more and more about these machines everyday and I have been using them for a little over two years now.
Reply With Quote
