A few years back I went to the Woodworking Show in Charlotte, NC. One of the brothers that own one of the many companies at the show was there demonstrating his system for safety and accuracy. The system is called the Grip-Tite system. Basically it is a long piece of steel about 4 inches tall and bent at 90 degrees at the top. The bend is only to add strength to the steel, it isn't important otherwise.
The steel plate has holes counter sunk into it along the length and you screw it to a piece of wood which becomes the back. The wood is then held against the original fence of the table saw. So if the picture isn't clear mentally at this point, you have a 4 inch tall fence now attached to your original fence. The part that makes this special is the clamps that hold the wood down. They are awesome magnets inside of a lexan housing and they stick extremely well to this fence face. On the side of the magnet housing is a wheel that rolls as the wood passes under it. This keeps the wood pressed firmly against the surface of the saw bed and won't let a board raise up off the blade as the leverage increases at the outfeed side. There are 2 magnets, one for the front and one at the back of the fence. Since I bought mine, they have come out with some new accessories that I haven't checked into yet but since I just got a new table saw myself, I will need to figure out a better way to fit this. I have the Biesemeyer fence on the saw and can't attach the old system to the new fence. They do however, make clamps to fit the bigger fences. If you ever get near a Woodcraft store or something similar, be sure to have them show you how this works. I am a hard head when it comes to blade guards and leave mine off all the time. As dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." And I do. So I know how far I need to keep my hands from the blade and don't challenge the blade in any way. What is so neat about these magnets is once they are in place on the fence face, there is a handle on the housing that will also serve as a blade guard. If you are having a brain cramp while feeding wood through the blade, your hand will run into the magnet first. Believe me, it is big enough you won't just pass over it and hit the blade unless you intend to. I don't have 1 handy, but estimating I would say the magnet housing is about 3 inches wide and about 6 inches end to end. The handle fits my hand and comes off the top which is probably an inch and a half thick. So at the end of the handle it is roughly 5 or 6 inches tall. Tall isn't the right word since the bottom sticks to the fence and that makes the handle point to the side at that point... I have never had a kick back when I used the magnets on a cut. Once you stick one to the fence, you are in for a surprise getting it loose. They have a lever on the tail that works a cam to help break some of the magnetic force. They will snap to the fence from about an inch away so you learn quickly where not to have your fingers. Obviously I was impressed with the whole Grip-Tite system. But I think what sold me completely was the guy selling it. He puts on a show so you can see how well it works. At the show I watched the guy push a 2 by 4 through the blade and after it was about half way along the cut, he gave the wood a push sideways and the blade was binding and screaming. The board never kicked back at him. It was a demonstration of course he knows better than to cut like that. After everyone was through talking to him I introduced myself and asked if he would show it to me. He let me run my hands all over the saw and then he asked if I wanted to make a cut. I'd have bought the tool at that time just because of his attitude. What he wanted me to know was that I couldn't get my hands near the blade unless I wanted to. He said once you run into the handle of the magnet, you know the blade is about 4 inches beyond and that is your stopping point. He knew I was a total and it didn't scare him at all for me to use the saw. And you know how the courts would nail him if I would have gotten hurt. You can Google Grip-Tite and read some of the reviews on it. They sell for around $129 US, and they are worth every penny. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Alton To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2007 11:29 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] tips, tricks, and knowledge Well I did it. I bought both. I am still hesitant with the table saw but am excited to use it. I want to be as careful as possible and want the subject on using a table saw. I am primarily concerned with a piece larger than the table. How is a person suppose to run say a 8 foot piece of 1" x ^' through the table by himself? I like my 10 digits. Thanx, Dale [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
