Nothing major going on in the shop, just a bunch of little things. I’ve made progress on the shelves for the bench, made a small start on reducing the wood pile, bought stuff and started a display shelf Heather wants. And I went to a meeting of the Marquetry Club, NorCal Chapter, which is part of the American Marquetry Society, and where I learned how to do marquetry. I am hopeful that after a few more shop clean up projects, I’ll be back at my marquetry.
Here’s a new toy safety device I bought for the shop:
The Grr-ripper by MicroJig
It’s a fancy push stick for the table saw. The idea is that it keeps your hand well away from the blade and helps keep the work piece tight to the table and fence. I worked with it a bit on Sunday and I love it. Now I want to buy another one.
Also on Sunday I got a little tired of shelves so I got out some wood for a display shelf Heather wants. Used the Grr-ripper to cut the parts and had an enjoyable shop session. Hopefully, I’ll have pictures of my completed shop shelves and the display shelf next week.
If you need me – I’ll be in the shop.
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 
Everyone seems to be buying these at the moment, even people in the UK! But I must make it clear that they do also seem to buy them in pairs! 😉
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I wish I’d bought two. One is fine for short pieces (less than about 16 inches) but on long stuff just one means you still end up with one hand on the board – sometimes scary close to that spinning blade. With two you can do the ‘leapfrog’ thing and never get hands really close to the blade.
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If I ever get woodworking again I’d like to pick up a gripper. The table saw is the one power tool i still use and I also like having fingers.
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I did a bunch of cuts with it and so far, I love it. It’s best for the small stuff. If you’re ripping a board longer than about 3 feet, you’ll want two of these to walk the whole piece through. If you’re using a table saw you want one of these.
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How wide a board can it handle?
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The directions indicate that you can use this on any size but I didn’t find it all that useful on plywood with more than 12 inches on each side of the blade. Once you get a board or sheet goods that are large enough so your hands are a foot or more away from the blade, the gripper is less useful. Likely, I’ll end up only using this on stuff say 2 feet or less in width.
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