Today I was cutting braces and tone bars down to 3/8ths in height. To save whittling time I wanted to do it on the table saw, but that is pretty fine work ripping that width. To keep my fingers out of the way, I grabbed a scrap of 1/4 inch plywood out of the scrap box
sawed this notch in it on the bandsaw
| And used it as a safe push stick to guide these small light pieces of spruce through the saw. Worked slick as heck and my fingers were a long way from the blade. |  |
Next, I wanted to trim up these small pieces by cutting the slope at each end. This time on the band saw, again a dangerous operation because of the larger blade hole on the saw, at least on my saw.
Once again, a scrap of 1/4 inch plywood comes to the rescue. It provides a flat, smooth surface and the hole around the blade is no larger than the blade itself. No bouncing, grabbing or getting fingers close to that moving blade.
So I was able to get most of the pieces shaped with an exacto knife and sanded smooth ready to be glued to the sound board. There are three of each piece since I I building three ukes.
Only five or six more pieces to do now and the job will be finished and I will be glueing them to the top and back of the ukes.
