Woodpecker ThinRip Guide

[rmhinden]

Received the Woodpecker ThinRip Guide last Friday.  This morning, I set it up, aligned it with my saw-blade and did some 1/16" test cuts.    The strips were very consistent across their length and right on the mark.

It's also more substantial that I was expecting (a good thing) and has an imperial and metric scale.

I am pleased, I think it was worth the money (and I don't say that about all Woodpecker products).    I have made strips using other methods earlier, this is an improvement, especially for making specific thicknesses.

Bob

 

[Birdhunter]

I had the same reaction. I placed a small strip of tape just under the scale to mark the zero point so I don’t have to reset it every time I use it.

I’m trying to build a wall mount. Any ideas?

 

[rmhinden]

I had the same reaction. I placed a small strip of tape just under the scale to mark the zero point so I don’t have to reset it every time I use it.

I’m trying to build a wall mount. Any ideas?

When I calibrated mine, I was able to adjust the scale maker to the longer scale lines.    I have been thinking about how to store it (where and how), but nothing definitive yet.

Bob

 

[Birdhunter]

I made a simple wall mount with two protruding wood dowels that fit through the two holes in the jig. It's a bit fiddley.

 

[rmhinden]

I made a simple wall mount with two protruding wood dowels that fit through the two holes in the jig. It's a bit fiddley.

Here is what I did.

Bob

View attachment 1View attachment 2View attachment 3

 

[Birdhunter]

Is there enough margin on the miter slot guides to be secure?

 

[rmhinden]

Yes, I think so.

Two option though, I can tighten the knobs, or I was thinking of adding a flip up gate to keep in in the slots. 

Bob

 

[Bob D.]

I made a simple wall mount with two protruding wood dowels that fit through the two holes in the jig. It's a bit fiddley.

Here is what I did.

Bob

View attachment 1View attachment 2View attachment 3

Funny as I have been working on something very similar in SketchUp when I get time. It is almost the same design as your wall mount  but I have a couple magnets set to grab the jig when it's slid into the hanger and I will print it on the 3D printer. Should be done early next week. I have a couple days worth of printing to do making some items for a friend that he sells.

I should add thought that since I don't have a Thin Rip Guide most of my dimensions are a guess except for the WP T-Slot Nut which I have a few of so I can grab dimensions off that. But the overall size of the Guide itself I can only take an educated guess at.

 

[Birdhunter]

The guide’s body is aluminum and “immune” to magnets. Not sure about the two bolts that fit into the miter slots. They may be magnetic.

 

[Bob D.]

yes but the T-slot nuts are steel, at least mine are.

 

[Birdhunter]

I tested my unit ands the T-slot nuts are steel and magnetic.

 

[smorgasbord]

I don't understand the appeal of these kind of guides:

1) Takes patience/skill to setup.
2) Takes eyesight and skill to move the guide for each rip.
3) They're expensive.
4) They can't be that accurate.

Let me explain:
1) Setup:
1a - slide the unit into the miter gauge
1b - lock the base down with the unit at the right front-to-back distance
1c - slide the top piece until it "just kisses" a tooth (may have to adjust front-to-back distance, or raise/lower the blade)
1d - zero the scale
1e - slide the top piece until the cross hair is at the desired thickness

2) Each Rip:
2a - slide the fence with the wood against it until it "kisses" the bearing
2b - lock the fence and check wood/bearing clearance.
2c - most fences move a bit when locked down, so re-do 2a->2b until you're satisfied with the clearance
2d - perform the cut

3) $150

4) Accuracy
4a - The graduations are a coarse 1/16" for the Woodpecker's version
4b - The cursor is not magnified
4c - It's literally your eyesight and hand control that determine the actual resulting thickness.

Although I'm a Boomer myself, I see the new digital world as better than the "tricks" old-time woodworkers have employed (myself included) in the past. There was a thread here on tablesaw fences and I replied with positive things to say about my Wixey DRO (Digital ReadOut). Without buying anything new, that Wixey enables me to perform more precise rips more quickly than I bet anyone can do with the Woodpeckers. For literally the same money ($150) I get a multi-purpose and more accurate tool.

So, how do I perform thin rips:

0) One-time setup per blade: Cut a kerf in a block of wood and use digital calipers to measure it. Write it down. That measurement stays with the blade until you sharpen it.

1) Setup:
1a - Set the fence so it'll trim off the slightest bit of wood on a rip
1b - Zero the DRO's Incremental readout (aka, push a button for 2 secs)
1c - Perform that rip
1d - Math. Add the kerf thickness to the desired rip thickness and memorize/write that sum down.

2) Each Rip:
2a - Slide the fence until the DRO displays the Sum value you memorized/wrote down and lock it down
2b - Perform the cut
2c - Re-zero the DRO's Incremental readout (aka, push a button for 2 secs)

That's it. No special tools to buy or figure out how to hang on the wall. Way more accuracy. How are you going to get a 5/64" rip when your graduations are in 1/16", not to mention doing so with accurate repeatability? With the DRO, accuracy is in the range of a few thousandths of an inch. I myself use metric now, btw, so even the math part is trivial. Even the tap-tap of moving the rip fence is easier and faster to do against a DRO than with a block of wood against the fence just kissing a bearing.

When I look at tools like this Thin Rip Guide and their Flip Stop system for Tablesaws, I can't help but think that Woodpeckers are over-engineering antiquated ways of woodworking. Why spend $150 just to do thin rips and another $200 just to have repeatability for some (not all) rip fence settings and yet still not have a way to accurately set your fence? A single $150 DRO permanently mounted to the saw will cover that and so much more, such as cutting tenon cheeks to an accurate thickness, etc.

Technology has made straightforward accuracy available to many home shops. Time to abandon the tips and tricks the real old-time woodworkers employed to compensate for deficiencies that are no longer necessary, and certainly time to not spend huge amounts of money of expensive single-purpose tools whose convenience and accuracy are questionable.

 

[4nthony]

I can understand not wanting to buy a tool for whatever reason, but wow, there's a lot in your post. I'll bite, but I'll keep it to your first 4 points.

I don't understand the appeal of these kind of guides:

1) Takes patience/skill to setup.

Slide it into the miter slot, adjust the width of the rip. Make the cut. Nudge the fence.

I'm a pretty patient person, my skill is debatable, and I can set up the jig in less than a minute.

2) Takes eyesight and skill to move the guide for each rip.

Eyesight, yes. I've acknowledged that I can't get by in the shop without my readers. Ugh, the fun of getting old. Skill? Well, you're just placing a cursor over a mark, not sure how much skill is required.

I moved the fence, kissed the bearing with the material, did a quick feel of the friction on the bearing, and made my cut. It wasn't hard and I didn't need to use a feeler gauge.

3) They're expensive.

I'll give you that. Certainly more expensive than my DIY jig. But it's shiny and red!

4) They can't be that accurate.

I needed a few 4mm thin strips for edge banding. I used my old eyes to set up the jig and if you look close enough, I was ever so slightly + of the 4mm mark. It took me about 5 minutes to knock these out (I take my time, this is not production work for me, and I turn off my saw between rips to be safe). Even so, my accuracy from cut to cut was 4.10, 4.11, and 4.12.

Wixey fence accuracy:

Anyhow, my results might not be accurate enough for a machinist, but they're pretty accurate for my woodworking.

Cheers,
Anthony

 

[smorgasbord]

Hmm. You wanted 4mm rips and got 4.11mm (average) rips and you're happy with that from a dedicated $150 tool?

Even if the Woodpecker's guide gave you perfect 4mm thin rips right of the bat, wouldn't it still be better to spend that money on a DRO retrofit to enable so many other types of cuts to also be accurate?

 

[squall_line]

Keep in mind that the thin rip guide, much like 4nthony's prior jig, is intended to cut the thin strip on the opposite side of the blade from the fence, rather than the near side of the fence.  This should lessen the chance of a kickback or other pinch of the super narrow piece.

With the DRO, accuracy is in the range of a few thousandths of an inch.

Hmm. You wanted 4mm rips and got 4.11mm (average) rips and you're happy with that from a dedicated $150 tool?

0.11mm = 0.0043 inches, which is literally "a few thousandths of an inch".  4nthony can defend himself, but given that he acknowledged he set up his guide slightly wide of the line, this seems to be even within your own definition of "Way more accuracy".

 

[4nthony]

Hmm. You wanted 4mm rips and got 4.11mm (average) rips and you're happy with that from a dedicated $150 tool?

Yeah, I'm cool with it for woodworking. I'm going to lose some of that .11 when I sand.

Even though they were +.11 -- no fault of the tool -- from the intended size, they were all +/- .01 off the average. They may have been slightly off, but they were consistently off. "Kissing" the fence worked fine. If I wanted needed exactly 4mm, I could've used a setup block, at which point, I'd argue it would be more accurate than a DRO (see below).

Even if the Woodpecker's guide gave you perfect 4mm thin rips right of the bat, wouldn't it still be better to spend that money on a DRO retrofit to enable so many other types of cuts to also be accurate?

All DROs, especially Wixey products, have accuracy issues. They state as much on their website. Their fence DRO is +/- .13, so my .11 isn't looking so bad. [cool]

Otherwise, I don't often have too many accuracy issues. The analog features built into the majority of my tools are working out OK me.

 

[Cheese]

Hmm. You wanted 4mm rips and got 4.11mm (average) rips and you're happy with that from a dedicated $150 tool?

[member=77266]smorgasbord[/member] ...Just curious what kind of tolerances you're capable of holding when you're ripping narrow slats. Would slats that are .004" too thick be stuffed into the recycle bin? How about slats that are .003" too thick or .002"?

You're talking about holding machined wooden parts to a tolerance that is only practicable using a knee mill and even then that's a push because of the existential properties of wood. I've milled both metal and wood on a Bridgeport and metal will give you a more consistent result because of...well you know.

FWIW, after looking at the 4nthony results, I just dialed up and ordered the Woodpeckers Rip Guide.

 

[smorgasbord]

Again, my beef isn't about accuracy, it's about what you spend your money on.

For $150 one can get a nicely made tool dedicated to thin rips.

Or, for the same $150, one can get a decent DRO that can be used for more than good-enough woodworking accuracy for thin rips, regular rips, repeat an old rip days/weeks/months later, cut tenon cheeks, etc., etc.

That's all. It's not that the Rip Guide is bad, it's that for the same money one can get a more general purpose tool with I believe the same accuracy. I'll try some rips this weekend if you really want.

 

[cpw]

Consistency likely matters more than the absolute error.  I am sure that I will have more repeatability with the thin rip jig (or the cheap alternative that many of us use) than having to use a DRO and moving the fence each time.  For something that is more than a 1/4", I will probably use the fence as is, but for actually thin things I do use the same concept (but not the $150 jig).

 

[ChuckM]

As discussed in this thread, in terms of consistency, no methods -- manual or digitally aided -- can match a method that doesn't require the resetting of the fence.https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...oodpecker-thin-rip-guide/msg673259/#msg673259

Also shown in that thread is how to rip thin strips without moving the fence and without any enhanced risk of kickbacks.

Woodworkers are known to love to spend money on gadgets, jigs and tools. Often, they see "values" in their purchases that only they may see -- for one reason or another. As long as they enjoy spending their own money, it's already a good decision made.