When feeding plastic laminate on the table saw, the material tends to pinch in the gap under the rip fence. It also wants to ride on top of the spinning blade if the sheet isn’t held down. Furthermore, the heel of a push stick too often slips upward off of the thin stock. This simple jig neatly solves all three problems. Make the parts from plywood or MDF, gluing the riser strip to the bottom edge of the auxiliary fence. This configuration prevents the material from slipping under the rip fence, and lifts it enough for a push stick heel to easily catch. The hold-down, of course, prevents lifting.
I use double-faced tape to attach the hold-down board in case I need to raise it more than 1/8" to accommodate acrylic or other slightly thicker material. The hold-down is a few inches shorter than the auxiliary fence to allow inspection of workpiece/fence contact at both ends of the fence. For most cuts, you can simply clamp the jig to your rip fence. However, clamps can impede push stick travel on very narrow cuts, in which case I attach the jig to my rip fence with double-faced tape, applying clamp pressure to the taped areas for a few moments to ensure a good bond.
—Paul Anthony, Riegelsville, Pennsylvania
