Cutting Bindings Accurately & Safely on Tablesaw

[Allen]

If you want to cut your own binding strips or any other multiple narrow pieces on a table saw, and have them accurately sized, the safest way is to have the narrow strips come off the blade on the opposite side of the fence. It is just far too dangerous to try and cut a 2 mm binding strip that is trapped between the blade and rip fence.

Here is a method that will give you accurately sized pieces, and more importantly allow you to do so while minimizing a serious injury. Note My riving knife and blade guard have been removed to make the procedure easier to photograph. I also make my own zero clearance blade inserts. These make most tasks on a table saw much safer than using the stock insert that has a huge throat that will allow stray pieces to come flying back at you.

First up you will need a feather board. Easily made, or buy one if your flush with cash. You must place the feather board so that it is entirely in front of the blade. This allows the narrow strip to move away from the blade as it is cut.



Notice that the feather board is place to the left side of the blade the desired thickness of the piece that I'm wanting to cut. Now all you need to do is fit the piece that you are going to cut against the feather board, then bring the fence up against the board. Just snug, you don't want to force the piece against the feather board. This will end up making the strip wider than you want.



After each strip is cut, repeat fitting the wood against the feather board and adjusting the fence. You'll have to judge how narrow you are willing to go with the piece you are cutting. I've gone down to 5 mm between the fence and the blade, but you will want to have your wits about you.



All that's left is to give them a light pass through the drum sander.

Hope that this helps, and gives you some inspiration for other uses for a feather board.

[Taffy Evans]

Thanks for the tip Allen, I usually use the bandsaw with the same idea, but I'll give this a go, easy peasy.

[Allen]

I'd used the bandsaw before as well, but I found that I spent far more time getting the blade marks out of them, and getting them to the desired thickness. And by the time I'd done that I'd used up any wood savings from the reduced kerf of the bandsaw on thickness sanding.

If you go with a small blade on the table saw, you can get them in a much thinner kerf. No need to be spinning a 10 or 12 inch blade for something this small.

[Dominic]

Alan, Cool tips. This and the bevel back strip one. I have not really looked in this section of the forum much. I've been missing stuff.

Have you thought of getting the fret saw blade for your table saw to do fingerboards? I want to try one on my saw.

I was wondering if it would work for cutting bindings. Being thin kerf it would save a lot of nice figured binding wood and it does not need to cut too deep.
Dom

[Kim]

Dom, the thin kerfed fret slotting blades work very well for bindings and purflings and as you say, they do save a lot of valuable wood.

Cheers

Kim

[kiwigeo]

If you cant be blowed making a featherboard then youd better get one of these:

[Kim]

Now Martin THAT looks like a man almost suitably dressed to apply epoxy grain filler safely, all that he needs now is a positive pressure face shield and he will be right to go. I will elaborate soon, don't worry about it for now.

Cheers

Kim

[Allen]

Dom, I've got the fret slotting blade from Stew Mac and it was my first blade to try for kerfed linings, but I found that the kerf was too thin for reverse linings. Might work for the more traditional style.

It might be work for cutting bindings, though with no set to the teeth and ground for cross cutting, I'd be concerned about the blade heating up too much in a ripping cut this long, and stuffing up a very expensive blade.

I'd look for a blade for a small drop saw, or circular saw as an alternative. I've grot a Freud blade that has a very narrow kerf from years ago when I had a drop saw back in Canada.