Shop Made Hold-Downs

Shop Made Hold-Downs

Tricks to keep lumber safely tight to a machine while cutting or routing are always helpful. Here are a couple of ideas I find useful:

1. Simply slice a piece of 3/4″ plywood with a thin saw kerf cut at about a 30 degree angle. A flexible blade putty knife is then secured in the kerf, and the unit is clamped on the table saw’s rip fence at the desired height.

2. This is also a piece of 3/4″ plywood with kerfs long enough to hold wooden slats about the thickness of paint stirring paddles. I bevel the bottom edge for better contact with the wood. The slats are slid into the kerf, then glued and tacked into place. This hold-down can be made any length or width needed. Longer models are great for controlling really long pieces as they’re being ripped on a table saw.

– R.B. Himes
Vienna, Ohio

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