Thanks for a brilliant, elegant solution to the Festool TS narrow stock ripping problem! The animation is worth pages of explanation. After trying both the Festool and Seneca Woodworking parallel guides and fighting with fiddly adjustments and tolerance stackups, I was sure there had to be a better way to may repeatable rip cuts for narrow stock (in my case, lots of 2-3" face frames). Thanks for putting me on the track to a much better solution!
Brilliant graphics but now I know that someone has a more convoluted mind than mine 😂. Unfortunately I am a vegetarian and could not conscience using a Spam tin as a spacer. This video was excellent and a lot of hard work went into it. I see that it was made in 2015 and the advances in tool aids probably renders this a bit obsolete now. Thank you for making this, I enjoyed watching it.
Brilliant. I like that the narrow strip sits under the rail, which produces a splinter free cut. The sacrificial piece underneath will quickly wear out after cutting various narrow sizes. I would create a wide dado, 1/8 deep to accommodate a sacrificial piece as wide as the rail. Thanks for sharing the idea.
This is really an example of over engineering a simple problem. All you need to do is measure from the cutline to the right for your narrow strip that you’re gonna rip. And take into account the thickness of the blade and you’re done. Look up Peter Miller on RUclips. He goes through how to make narrow cuts and you don’t need to sacrifice a 4 x 8 sheet of whatever to make narrow cuts. This is cleaver but just too much work.
Hello, Is the distance between the 2 fences exactly the same as 2 times the width of the rail? Or is it a little wider? I measure 183mm for the Festool rail. (so, 183mm x2 - thickness one fence between the fences?) And do you have any idea where to find affordable scale tracks? Thanks!
Yes, I wanted to get to know SketchUp so started modeling this and discovered that I could make it into an animation. It became a monster. Thank you for your comment!
This is wonderful, I was thinking of something like your ideas/plan/jig . Having some drafting background , I was planning something like a drafting table with a t-square but can’t finalize anything since I am a newbie DIY Wannabe. Like to try these with my MAKITA Track/Plunge Saw. Thank You Very Much For Sharing... 👍👏🏻🙏
This video would be far more popular if you add "turn on captions" in the title. Its a great idea! Cheap too!! Im doing version 1 in the morning while my dewalt tablesaw is in the shop AGAIN!
Thank you for your comment! Sorry about the captions -- my first real project in SketchUp and also my first RUclips effort. Please let me know how it goes after you make yours.
Corwin D Will be glad to let you know. This idea is really good and cheap. I thought I was gonna do it today but, when i said that i didnt take the fact that there is a project on the bench ive got to finish...
Actually this is a very good idea. I have been thinking along the same lines for building an indexing system. Very clever and should be very accurate once you dial it in. The hinge is a great idea.
At around 1:30 I got what you where doing ... and then it just kept getting better and better! This is basically a "copier" ... The best thing is that it is so simple and also easy to apply the concept on other projects ... I am going to use this idea for a jig to use with my router ... :)
The idea of this jig is to assist in cutting strips that are narrower than the width of the guide rail. Placing a same-thickness piece to the left of the jig's fence supports the guide rail during the cut. Hinging the guide rail makes cutting multiple pieces to a given width a faster process.
Yea ... I totally get that. And this probably saved me some money, as I no longer need the Festool parallel guides that I was planning to buy for this purpose. The concept is easy to apply on other jigs for other purposes and also great if you will be making the same cuts in the future. I have a lot of ideas where I will use this principal ... Again, thank you for sharing this ... !
I was thinking about building something similar for my workbench. Do you think there is a paractical solution to have the Saw-Kerf always stay in place, so it cuts at the edge of my bench, and move the stock against a fence, similar to your 3rd jig solution?
Yes, you can make a setup like that. Have you seen my other animation "Zero-Clearance Fence for MFT & Sled w/ Fence?" With that setup, the guide rail is at a fixed location and the sled w/ fence moves left or right to establish the width of cut. For your bench, you could use something like a pair of clamping squares as stops to locate the back edge of the piece in this video that is hinged to the guide rail -- a square at each end with one leg stand up vertical to stop against. This will provide a fixed location and accommodate various thicknesses of material to be cut. Then, you could have scales (like the final version of the jig in this video) to locate either the workpiece to be cut, or for narrow cuts, a fenced sled with your workpiece on top. The workpiece or sled would need to fit between the guide rail stops on either end... Hope I've explained this correctly, and in a way you can understand. :)
I show three versions, each a little more complex than the one before. I did this in an attempt to not overwhelm the viewer with too complex a jig (or fixture, if you prefer.) Make sure to view with Closed Caption turned ON.
Sounds like maybe you didn't watch far enough. While the jigs were made of sheet goods, they wee indeed used to rip solid wood along the grain. Look again. Then again, this jig can be used to cut narrow pieces on either solid wood or sheet goods.
True, and fixtures have benefits over jigs, depending on the situation. Corwin's fixture could be evolved to handle multiple thicknesses thru the use of something like the tall Parf Dogs or similar. In any case, the track wants to be supported by a scrap of a similar thickness as the workpiece(s).
Too bad you guys have focused on the jig vs fixture issue rather than understanding how this works. It does handle different thickness material by simply using similar thickness material to support the rail. No Parf Dogs required. Really. This will work for any thickness that your saw will handle without any further evolution. And, the original reply from 'The President of The Internet' is both a misunderstanding of thickness vs width, and a failure to view to the end of this video to see the third version of the jig/fixture.
Corwin, as Pat McRight points out, this is a very simple and elegant solution; however, because you also own an MFT setup, you keenly understand the challenges of single purpose jigs and fixtures, which includes storage. My comment about the use of Parf Dogs is not intended to drive people away from you solution, but rather to get them to explore how your 3rd solution can be further evolved into a fixture with greater adaptability and fewer uniquely applicable parts.
Corwin D 137th like although I still dont understand what i just watched. I know i should get it, really want those repeatable narrow cuts but, just not there yet. Gonna keep watching and see if the bell goes off for me. I know you just laid it out. YOU NEED TO PUT "TURN ON CLOSED CAPTION IN THE TITLE"!!!!!!!!!
I know it has been 9 years since this was posted, but kudos! This is so helpful! Thanks!
Thank you for watching and I do appreciate your nice comment!
Thanks for a brilliant, elegant solution to the Festool TS narrow stock ripping problem! The animation is worth pages of explanation. After trying both the Festool and Seneca Woodworking parallel guides and fighting with fiddly adjustments and tolerance stackups, I was sure there had to be a better way to may repeatable rip cuts for narrow stock (in my case, lots of 2-3" face frames). Thanks for putting me on the track to a much better solution!
+Pat McRight Thank you for the kind comments, Pat! Very much appreciated.
Brilliant graphics but now I know that someone has a more convoluted mind than mine 😂. Unfortunately I am a vegetarian and could not conscience using a Spam tin as a spacer. This video was excellent and a lot of hard work went into it. I see that it was made in 2015 and the advances in tool aids probably renders this a bit obsolete now. Thank you for making this, I enjoyed watching it.
Thank you for your kind reply! Much appreciated.
Brilliant graphic explanation and animation! Thanks!
Thank you!
Brilliant. I like that the narrow strip sits under the rail, which produces a splinter free cut.
The sacrificial piece underneath will quickly wear out after cutting various narrow sizes. I would create a wide dado, 1/8 deep to accommodate a sacrificial piece as wide as the rail.
Thanks for sharing the idea.
I love the wooden add-on on the router. I'm definitely going to make that!
how thick is your wood. 2 spam cans and a chapstick diameter. thanks can you convert that to baked beans?
Careful using beans around a tracksaw. Wouldn't want to accidentally cut the beans.
This is really an example of over engineering a simple problem. All you need to do is measure from the cutline to the right for your narrow strip that you’re gonna rip. And take into account the thickness of the blade and you’re done. Look up Peter Miller on RUclips. He goes through how to make narrow cuts and you don’t need to sacrifice a 4 x 8 sheet of whatever to make narrow cuts. This is cleaver but just too much work.
Hello, Is the distance between the 2 fences exactly the same as 2 times the width of the rail? Or is it a little wider? I measure 183mm for the Festool rail. (so, 183mm x2 - thickness one fence between the fences?) And do you have any idea where to find affordable scale tracks? Thanks!
Can’t thank you enough for providing this to the community, did you use Sketchup to produce this animation?
Yes, I wanted to get to know SketchUp so started modeling this and discovered that I could make it into an animation. It became a monster. Thank you for your comment!
This is wonderful, I was thinking of something like your ideas/plan/jig . Having some drafting background , I was planning something like a drafting table with a t-square but can’t finalize anything since I am a newbie DIY Wannabe. Like to try these with my MAKITA Track/Plunge Saw.
Thank You Very Much For Sharing... 👍👏🏻🙏
Excellent explanation in this way -
Thank you for passing this on - A Gem of an idea 💡
Glad you liked my SketchUp animation. Thank you for your comment.
Very interesting animation. I find it hard to follow where it is going from time to time though.
This video would be far more popular if you add "turn on captions" in the title. Its a great idea! Cheap too!! Im doing version 1 in the morning while my dewalt tablesaw is in the shop AGAIN!
Thank you for your comment! Sorry about the captions -- my first real project in SketchUp and also my first RUclips effort. Please let me know how it goes after you make yours.
Corwin D
Will be glad to let you know. This idea is really good and cheap. I thought I was gonna do it today but, when i said that i didnt take the fact that there is a project on the bench ive got to finish...
Actually this is a very good idea. I have been thinking along the same lines for building an indexing system. Very clever and should be very accurate once you dial it in. The hinge is a great idea.
+Gary Howorka Thanks Gary. However, there is no "once you dial it in" aspect here -- this type setup is accurate without any fuss at all.
This is so brilliant ...
Thank you for sharing!
You're welcome. And thank you for your nice comment!
At around 1:30 I got what you where doing ... and then it just kept getting better and better!
This is basically a "copier" ...
The best thing is that it is so simple and also easy to apply the concept on other projects ... I am going to use this idea for a jig to use with my router ... :)
The idea of this jig is to assist in cutting strips that are narrower than the width of the guide rail. Placing a same-thickness piece to the left of the jig's fence supports the guide rail during the cut. Hinging the guide rail makes cutting multiple pieces to a given width a faster process.
Yea ... I totally get that. And this probably saved me some money, as I no longer need the Festool parallel guides that I was planning to buy for this purpose.
The concept is easy to apply on other jigs for other purposes and also great if you will be making the same cuts in the future. I have a lot of ideas where I will use this principal ...
Again, thank you for sharing this ... !
Spam and Chapstick in the same video! Why couldn't I find this when I needed it?
What? I offer up both Spam and Chapstick and I don't get a thumbs up? Seriously? -- No soup for you! LOL
Damn, I knew that last beer was a mistake, have this thumbs up young man and well deserved it is too.
I was thinking about building something similar for my workbench. Do you think there is a paractical solution to have the Saw-Kerf always stay in place, so it cuts at the edge of my bench, and move the stock against a fence, similar to your 3rd jig solution?
Yes, you can make a setup like that. Have you seen my other animation "Zero-Clearance Fence for MFT & Sled w/ Fence?" With that setup, the guide rail is at a fixed location and the sled w/ fence moves left or right to establish the width of cut.
For your bench, you could use something like a pair of clamping squares as stops to locate the back edge of the piece in this video that is hinged to the guide rail -- a square at each end with one leg stand up vertical to stop against. This will provide a fixed location and accommodate various thicknesses of material to be cut. Then, you could have scales (like the final version of the jig in this video) to locate either the workpiece to be cut, or for narrow cuts, a fenced sled with your workpiece on top. The workpiece or sled would need to fit between the guide rail stops on either end...
Hope I've explained this correctly, and in a way you can understand. :)
is this one jig or different alternatives?
I show three versions, each a little more complex than the one before. I did this in an attempt to not overwhelm the viewer with too complex a jig (or fixture, if you prefer.) Make sure to view with Closed Caption turned ON.
I think "ripping" is cutting along the grain of natural woods.
Sounds like maybe you didn't watch far enough. While the jigs were made of sheet goods, they wee indeed used to rip solid wood along the grain. Look again. Then again, this jig can be used to cut narrow pieces on either solid wood or sheet goods.
Thanks for sharing. Lots of saw dust. There's got to be an easier way
thats not a jig, its a fixture, and it relies on a new one for every new thickness of material
Man who only read half a book
Never know full story
True, and fixtures have benefits over jigs, depending on the situation.
Corwin's fixture could be evolved to handle multiple thicknesses thru the use of something like the tall Parf Dogs or similar. In any case, the track wants to be supported by a scrap of a similar thickness as the workpiece(s).
Too bad you guys have focused on the jig vs fixture issue rather than understanding how this works. It does handle different thickness material by simply using similar thickness material to support the rail. No Parf Dogs required. Really. This will work for any thickness that your saw will handle without any further evolution. And, the original reply from 'The President of The Internet' is both a misunderstanding of thickness vs width, and a failure to view to the end of this video to see the third version of the jig/fixture.
Corwin, as Pat McRight points out, this is a very simple and elegant solution; however, because you also own an MFT setup, you keenly understand the challenges of single purpose jigs and fixtures, which includes storage.
My comment about the use of Parf Dogs is not intended to drive people away from you solution, but rather to get them to explore how your 3rd solution can be further evolved into a fixture with greater adaptability and fewer uniquely applicable parts.
Cannot you demo all this in real life with real tools and materials!? Please!
99 Likes thus far! Thanks!!!
Wonder who will be the 100th?
Corwin D
137th like although I still dont understand what i just watched. I know i should get it, really want those repeatable narrow cuts but, just not there yet. Gonna keep watching and see if the bell goes off for me. I know you just laid it out.
YOU NEED TO PUT "TURN ON CLOSED CAPTION IN THE TITLE"!!!!!!!!!
what is this cartoon.
Well done sir
Thanks, Luigi!
Thx!
great animation man....
Thank you, Marc!
It makes no sense. Why the brown board in the first version? You don’t have that measurement. Silly.