TS Gripper Jig

[leehljp]

Do any of you use any of the variations of the TS Gripper Jig?
https://www.amazon.com/GRR-RIPPER-Pu...s%2C177&sr=8-5

I have the advanced system: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WL4WD9O...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

I have one, have had it for 4 or 5 years and never used it after the first time. I saw an ad in Highland Hardware for one in an email and started wondering "Who uses these things?".

the problem I have with it is that it is so complicated and so many parts. It is one of those tools that would work fine if the time were available to adjust it for each setting, depth and width and purpose. A quote of Steve Jobs comes to mind: Anybody can make something complicated; it takes a genius to make it simple". It is just too much with all the add on gadgets to the point it has become useless to me.

Maybe if I spent time - two or three hours just playing with it, the complications might go away.

You guys use one?

What situation or circumstance make it viable practically?

[capncarl]

Oh yea, that bugger has way too many parts. I have several push sticks and hold down pieces that I use that don’t have movable parts. I have one of my favorite 2 handed push hold down that does the same thing as the gripper that I am going to duplicate and rebuild because I used a pin nailer to hold the bottom piece in place while the glue dried….. and don’t want SawStop to have an excuse to blow up the brake and blade.

[radhak]

I have one, bought in - I think - 2006. That was when I was building my confidence in using the TS, and wanted to be totally safe. Not sure if its the regular or advanced.

I did use it quite a bit in the early days - and then it tapered off, and have not seen it for so many years; I think it's buried under my stack of sanding sheets.

Frankly I never analyzed why I did not use now, and you put your finger on it nicely - too complex to set up a cut that itself takes only a few seconds.

Not to detract from its positives - I remember it allows cutting very narrow strips keeping my fingers safe from the blade and from kickbacks, and if ever I need to do that I should definitely dig it up again.
But I can't deny that it feels like a luxury item - bought for a sizable amount for a very specific need that doesn't arise all the time.

Now that you have reminded me, maybe I should go looking for the nail that needs this hammer; now I wonder what sort of project will need narrow strips of wood...?

[twistsol]

I've used mine for non through cuts and on the router table.

I keep the 1/4th leg installed on one side and the 1/8th on the other with the wide leg in the middle. Then in the rare occasion I need narrow rips, I'm set up either way. I have two of them and don't use them hand over hand, but slide the one nearest the blade backwards when it gets to or beyond the blade.

I have found that with melamine, they tend to slip if the rubber feet are dusty which makes them useless unless I keep them clean.

Most of the time, I just use a push stick.

[mpc]

Interesting. I use mine quite frequently. Since I have a long sacrificial fence on my table saw miter gauge (an Incra gauge riding in a Ryobi dual-slot miter accessory), the stock BT3 blade guard doesn't work for me during crosscuts. My miter gauge fence pushes both the keeper and the cutoff side of the workpiece so the stock riving knife gets in the way. I used Lee Styron's patterns to make a true riving knife (i.e. just below blade height) that is on my BT3 the vast majority of the time. Thus the GRR-Ripper is my go-to safety item for rip cuts. I have the basic version: the GR-100 with the "M" shaped body and one "L" shaped side foot. Most of the time the "L" foot is raised all the way - basically nullifying its presence. Shifting the center (wide) foot is the primary adjustment. When cutting narrow stock - something narrower than the GRR-Ripper itself, I'll lower the "L" foot to provide an extra support leg. I don't have the add-on plate for the "L" foot - the plate faces the rip fence - as a way to hold a workpiece against the rip fence as the GRR-Ripper folks show in their examples. See Plate on "L" foot In my mind, that would make it too easy to force/trap the workpiece against the side of the blade after it's been cut - bad. If I really need to hold a skinny workpiece both down AND against the rip fence, I'll use a second push stick - ahead of the blade only - for that. I don't have the "Adjustable Space" piece that attaches to the opposite side either; that simply looks like it would be in the way most of the time. It would certainly make it more difficult to use the GR-100 for smaller rip cuts unless it was removed first.

I guess my opinion is the basic GR-100 is pretty useful... the add-ons in the "Advanced" and "Complete" not so much. They add a lot of fiddling for little real gain. The "Gravity Heel" pieces would be more worthwhile in my opinion but any workpiece that needs them is probably better served by a plain 2x4 style sacrificial push block with a heel.

I have their other push gizmo for my bandsaws - the GRR-Rip Pushblock. It has a 90 degree edge so it rides nicely on the bandsaw table for normal cuts; the rubber pad is large and grippy, and the ends have small tabs that hook over the end of a workpiece to push it.

I've never used either one with a router table to control smaller workpieces as Microjig's website examples show. I typically use twin-screw clamps for those jobs. My GR-100 is almost exclusively used on the table saw. I have a pair of simple/basic push pads for the jointer - they came with the jointer. The GRR-Rip push block would be useful on the jointer too with the tabs to help push the workpiece. I made an overly-fancy push block for the jointer though that includes a push tab.

mpc

[leehljp]

I guess my opinion is the basic GR-100 is pretty useful... the add-ons in the "Advanced" and "Complete" not so much. They add a lot of fiddling for little real gain. The "Gravity Heel" pieces would be more worthwhile in my opinion but any workpiece that needs them is probably better served by a plain 2x4 style sacrificial push block with a heel.
mpc

This is probably why I don't use it. I need to simplify my use of it. You are right - too much fiddling with the extras for something that is only going to take a few seconds to cut. Once that becomes the norm in cutting, the gripper is forgotten.

I have used this phrase often in my church work: "How you start out determines how you will end up 90% of the time." . . . As to the Gripper - start out simple, you will probably use it; start out complicated, it goes into a box!

[LCHIEN]

I use a sacrificial push block described here https://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/di...you-made/page3

in post #42.of the thread.

[BadeMillsap]

I have a couple including the "extra" stuff. I use the plain version frequently and the "extras" only occasionally.