Make Perfect Blade-Width Shims WITHOUT Measuring! / How To Make Splines On The Table Saw

Do you have a video of how you built your sled?

Genius. I love the "perfect cut with no measuring" theme. Subscribed!

So simple, genius!!! Thanks for sharing my guy! Got me pumped to go to my garage 🤘

Great idea, thanks. A cut is not the width of the blade. All blades (all rotating elements) have some degree of vibration/wobble in them [the better saws have less]. So the cut in the wood is the width of the blade PLUS any wobble. It's a small differential, but frustrating when trying to get a precise cut. This is a great correction method and a lot simpler than a Kerf Master.

To clarify, the shim is placed against the stop block in order to reference the exact placement of the blade for the first cut of the half lap, thereby giving you the proper dimensions for the half lap opening and not a blade width to big. Smart, but the way you create the shim i also very smart.

I saw the other video on making splines where you used the method at the end of this video, and immediately subscribed to your channel. You have already made my life so much better, so I look forward to watching every video on your channel, whether I need them all (yet) or not.

I'm also gonna give you a shout out on all the ww pages I belong to on Facebook.

Wow, when i saw you do it it was really a "how could i never have thought of this" moment. Genius sir!

very coo-l thz

I'm making shims for a box joint jig, you just answered my burning question, thank you! 👍

That is some fivehead thinking there. Kudos. Definitely watch more of these videos to figure out how to take the measuring tape out of the equation as much as possible.

Off to the shop to make a "shim" and practice a half lap! !! !!!

Wow. Sorry, brother, but you make some dangerous moves on a tablesaw. I sincerely hope no one gets hurt following your example.

Thank you.

Thanks!

Truly brilliant!!
Bob
England

that is a super clever trick!

I haven't been able to get that to work for me very well. My shim always seems to come out .003 to .004 different from end to end. I even tried the other similar method you describe more recently with the same results. I've tuned my saw up so there's a .0005 difference between the blade to miter slot and 0.0 with the fence to miter slot. I'm using the "PALS" trunnion adjustment with a 1999 Delta Contractor saw and a "VerySuperCoolTools" biesemeyer style fence with machined extrusion. So there should be no issue with alignment. I'm using a piece of laminate flooring (MDF) for my shim.
Have you actually measured your shim from end to end? Got any suggestions?
Great idea if I can only get it to work consistantly.

Jody, I’ve been woodworking longer than you’ve been alive - and I learn something useful from pretty much every video you put out. Love your ingenuity, love your presentation style. Please keep on doing what you do!

very good and simple. thank you

Great tip. I watched the half lap video and was impressed, but wondered how to make a blade width shim. Now I know.
Thanks.

I’ve been trying to make a shim all day. Surely someone needed to do this before. And you did! Thank you!

I also agree, the less measuring needed the better.

Not silly at all :) Thanks!

Brilliant!

Mh! 🤔

Lol great tip some of the simplest tips always seem to be the best.

Thank you so much for all of your tips. They are great!

Simple yet brilliant! I'm gonna do this even if I have no use for it.

When I saw your video I was very excited to give it a try. However, I ran into a bit of a problem during the process. I noticed (now) that the saw blade used in your video is the same thickness as your riving knife, maybe even less. While my riving knife is 1/8", my blade was an Infinity 1/4" flat bottom blade I use for cutting box finger joints, This caused the teeth of the blade to extend past the edge of the riving knife. When I ran my first piece I made 2 mistakes: 1. I didn't recognize the problem, and 2. I ignored the cardinal rule of table saws and was standing in the path of the wood (that's "my bad"). Movement of the wood by so much as 1/1000" caused the teeth of the blade to catch the wood and fire it back at me. It felt like what I would imagine a major league fastball would feel like. Fortunately, I was wearing a heavy fabric woodworking apron. Even still, the sharp edges of the hardwood cut through all three layers of clothing lacerating my abdominal wall. It wasn't much of a cut, but the bruise is truly impressive, and it was scary as hell! I gave it another try, this time standing out of the exit path of the wood should it happen again, and sure enough it did. At this point I took a break to analyze the situation. It was only then that I realized my riving knife was rendered useless by the thicker blade. Adding a featherboard to the setup solved the problem and I got my shim cut without further incident. Has anyone else had this problem? Despite all the positive comments, I can't imagine I am the only person this has happened to or will happen to. I would suggest mentioning these points (especially the featherboard) in a remake of this video.

Very clever, but found the shims end up being a little undersized. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

This does work perfectly but it’s a fairly risky cut in terms of kick back. Not telling anybody what to do, y’all do what you feel comfortable with. It’s worth mentioning the risk, tho, so somebody with less experience doesn’t catch one in the face.

Your videos are the most practical woodworking videos for us new guys. I appreciate them more than you know!!!!

You always make VERY useful videos! Really great idea, I'll be adding it to my jig list.! I wouldn't call this "pretty darn good", I'd call it PERFECT!

This was highly informative, I'm trying to get into woodworking and this does help me

This is very hard to do with a thin kerf blade. It really needs to be thinker. My thin Freud Kerr blade was too thin.

THX!! made my day 😀

Simple genius. Said many times before

I make my splines the width of my blade and I now have a way to cut them to size without guessing and eliminating time consuming trial and error , TY !

Pretty damn cool. I'm learning half laps and this is golden. I do like learning how to make things without measuring. I seem to get a better understanding of how shapes go together and interact, i.e. the blade kerf and assemblies. Thank you.

Genius technique, but not so genius hand placement. Man, owning a Sawstop makes people do crazy things, I swear!

Nice one. Respect.

Good tip! I'm needing kerf-width strips right now for a project I'm working on, and this is an elegantly simple way to do it. (Kicking myself for not having thought of it myself)

"Pretty cool," No, that's brilliant! 😀
Thanks, loving your channel.

Brilliant and simple tip 👍

Nice, spent part of yesterday trying to figure out how to figure out how to do this, and your video on “How To Cut Splined Miters Without A Jig” just saved me from building another jig.

This is a very useful video! Thanks for explaining your technique in such detail.

I have only recently come across your channel and I have to say you are first rate. Coming from the UK most American channels really annoy me but you have just been promoted into premier league of American woodworkers together with Steve Ramsey and Stumpy Nubs. I love the no measuring vids. Did you realise you sound just like Ben Affleck or Ben Affleck sounds like you.

Thank you for figuring this out.

Nice! On a previous project, I struggled to make the exact right size pieces to use as miter joint splines. This method should be perfect that that application!