small stock hold down jig

[michelevit]

i am working on a small box and get nervous when working with small
pieces of wood on the table saw. I am using the SMT and just use my hands to push the small stick against the miter fence and push it through the blade.

I was wondering if anyone has made a stock hold down just that clamps on the smt fence?

i am not sure what the device is called, but where can i get the parts
i need to make such a device. it looks like it would be a locking lever
type thingee. It would slide into the slots located on the sliding miter fence.


thanks for your help.

[radhak]

First of all : STOP THAT! You get only two hands, and you have run up your quota!

next, do you use push-sticks? whether small or big, a nicely constructed push-stick is always a must. Tom has a nice page here

then you could look at the featherboard system or the GRR-Ripper

[steve-norrell]

Scary, scary, scary!

Featherboards, push sticks, etc! To paraphrase an old add . . . "Never go near the saw with them!"

I use and recommend Benchdog featherboards. They ride in miter slots or t-slots. I also use and recommend the "Gripper" (see previous post).

I have not tried the magnetic featherboards because I am not sure they would work on the aluminum table of the BT3100. (Anyone who knows please comment.)

The Benchdog stuff is widely available from many vendors including HD and Lowes.

http://www.benchdog.com/featherloc.htm

Good luck, Steve

[Tom Miller]

If enough of the stock is still on the SMT (as opposed to the main table), then you could use the accessory miter clamp. You could also make your own.

A sled is also a very good way of dealing with small parts, because you can affix just about any type of hold-down on it.

Regards,
Tom

[Anna]

Michel,

There is a clamp that comes with the accessory kit, but I'm not sure how well it works because I never really liked it. It's supposed to attach to the slot on the miter fence. You can probably still get the accessory kits at HD or maybe in eBay. In the HD in my town, we still had seven boxes last time I looked.

I don't use the SMT anymore and built a sled instead. With the sled, you can use the eraser end of a pencil to hold down smaller pieces (ala David Marks). The other thing I've done, again with a sled, is just to clamp a block of wood against the fence to hold down the piece I'm trying to cut.

I'm not aware of home-made clamps for the miter fence, but if anyone's built one, he/she will probably say something here.

Good luck.

[Black wallnut]

With a selection of "T-nuts" and some toggle clamps I can think of a few ways to hold small stock against the SMT fence.

[Skeezix]

Tried the link on your website to the SMT jig at 3:12 p.m. Mt time. Link broken. Rest work fine.

[jackellis]

Is there any reason not to use a sled that rides on the rip fence for small pieces?

[RodKirby]

This has been useful for me...

[Stytooner]

Nice jig as always Rod. I was going to suggest a small dedicated crosscut sled just for small parts. Table saws are not designed for small parts at all. Making a larger jig that will securely hold small parts is the safest way to cut small parts on a table saw. If the parts are near the base size of the Gripper, they are too small to adequately control.

I do use the SMFence sometimes, but when the guard is in place and the parts are longer than about 7 or 8 inches. That is still too close.

It appears I will be stealing yet another of Rod's designs.

[Stytooner]

Is there any reason not to use a sled that rides on the rip fence for small pieces?

Hi Jack.
What type sled are you talking about here? If it's a larger sled that holds smaller parts securely, I don't see a problem with it.

[jackellis]

Actualy, something not all that different from Rod's sled, but it would ride the rip fence.

Rod's photos also helped me solve another problem, I think. I'm about to pull my hair out trying to align the SMT. It's half a degree off and I can't measure well enough with a ruler to fix it (old eyes).