Thin Stock Ripping Jig

THIN STOCK RIPPING JIG

This thin stock ripping jig is modified an article in the 2006 WOOD Magazine’s Best-Ever Woodworking Jigs, Homemade Tools, & Shop Organizers (pgs 6-7). My jig is made from cherry & cherry plywood. It is finished with tung oil, lacquer and wax.

I will be working a project soon that will require ripping matching thin stock for edge banding. After reading this article, I thought this is the perfect solution to quickly make a consistent quantity of edge banding.

The jig is made from scrap bin materials – cherry and cherry plywood. The hardware is from my “miscellaneous nuts & bolts” jar. The only item I purchased was the Miter Slot Hardware Kit from my local Rockler store. You could easily substitute a hardwood runner as illustrated in the Wood Magazine article. I just liked the idea of being able to lock the jig down for multiple cuts.

The jig is basically the same as the article with the following modifications.

A small wooden knob was added the slide rail to make fine adjustments easier.

The hardwood miter slot runner was replaced with a Miter Slot Hardware Kit ($3.99) runner from Rockler.

The tip of the registration bar is a 10-24 socket head set screw mounted in a 10-24 threaded Pop-Rivet insert. A compression spring holds the screw in position once it has been set for the saw blade.

The scale is made from a paper inch ruler downloaded from: Paper Rulers

After trimming the ruler to size it was clear coated with spray shellac and glued in place on the registration bar. The Plexiglas cover is from an old broken drafting triangle.

Use of the Thin Stock Ripping Jig

The jig is easy to use. Just place it in your miter slot. Adjust to zero with the head of the socket screw just touching the saw blade. Slide the jig to the rear of the miter slot as far as possible behind the blade. Loosen the large adjusting knob and set the jig to the desired thickness.

With your stock against the rip fence, slide the fence until the stock is just touching the socket screw. The saw is now set to rip thin stock of the desired thickness. Now all you have to do is move the fence over each time, touching the socket screw, and rip another piece of stock of the same thickness.

Don’t forget to use the appropriate safety gear, blade guards and push block!

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