Round Ripper - Cutting Bowl Blanks

Truth: The Round Ripper was born out of fear - a fear Paul had that someone was going to cut off their fingers in the middle of his booth!

While attending wood shows with The Little Ripper, turners would regularly stop by our booth to have their logs sliced in half.  Once cut in half they would inevitably want to knock the corners off using a bandsaw to prepare them for turning.  Paul & Ethan proceeded to watch turner after turner feed wood through their bandsaw, putting their hands in very dangerous situations.  After witnessing one too many turners almost
severely injure themselves, Paul had to stop allowing others to use his bandsaw.  He couldn't bear to watch the dangerous fashion in which they were knocking the corners off their turning stock.  In that moment Paul said to Ethan - "When we get home, we're going to come up with something safer for these guys!" Shortly thereafter the Round Ripper was born.

The Round Ripper was introduced at the AAW in St. Paul, MN, 2011.  The first reaction was a little unexpected.  Thursday, during set-up wood turners would stop by to check out this bright yellow new tool.  Once finding out it's purpose, they would say to Paul  "Turners don't need this. We turn our stock round".  Not being one who worries too much about what others think, Paul continued to set-up as wood turners cast off his latest idea.  On Friday morning something very interesting took place - The professional demo guys, the one's who would be giving seminars throughout the weekend, lined up to have their stock cut round by Paul and his new circle cutter.  Finally Paul asked one of them "Yesterday none of the turners were interested in this.  How come today you guys are lined up to have your bowl blanks cut?"  The demonstrator's response...."What idiot would turn a square piece round when he could just cut it?"  It didn't take long for others to follow suit.  Today the biggest application of The Round Ripper is (safely) cutting bowl blanks.

John Long, a loyal customer and avid user of our Round Ripper cut these blanks shortly after getting his Round Ripper .
 "Setting up the circle cutter took about an hour and I cut some very nice bowl blanks. They were near maximum size and thickness from lemon eucalyptus which is a very hard wood but turning nicely. I could hardly believe how easy it was. Turning the knob with one hand, I found that I had to be careful not to turn the knob too fast. Thanks again for all you help." -John Long

John was also in charge of cutting bowl blanks for all of the international demonstrators at this years AAW in Tampa.  Pictured here is Glenn Lucas, using one of John's blanks to turn a bowl.




Come check out the Round Ripper and our other innovative wood working tools at a local wood show! 

Heading West Again!

We have just received the first part of The Woodworking Shows 2013/14 show schedule and we need to tell you...we're excited!! 

Throughout last season, great disappointment was continually expressed from the woodworkers from the West Coast & Houston regarding the lack of shows in these areas.  After a one season sabbatical we are SO pleased to hear that The Woodworking Shows are headed back!

Kudos to The Woodworking Shows promoter, Bryce Beerman for not only hearing the pleas of these attendees, but responding in such a great way.  It has been no easy task to make all of the arrangements to get the shows back in these areas and we want to say a big "Thank you" to Bryce for all of his hard work.   We are very much looking forward to getting back to the West Coast to catch up with the woodworking scene there. 

We certainly hope that the attendees from California, Oregon & Houston will show their appreciation to Bryce by supporting the shows in a big way this season.  The best ways to do this... start spreading the word about your local show, save the date, make sure to attend and bring all your woodworking friends. Click here to check out The Woodworking Shows on Facebook and to get the latest updates and show news.

 Let's make 2013/14 the best wood show season yet!

If you don't see your local area on the list, don't worry!  This is just the first part of the schedule.  More shows will be added as soon as details have been finalized!

The "V" Drum - A Drum Sander Idea "Built" to Last

It all began while driving home from The Ottawa Woodshow in 1999.  After a successful show season with the introduction of the Sanding Mop, Paul an Cheryl were discussing the following year.  How would they be able to top The Sanding Mop?  Paul often does thinks out loud, and according to Cheryl, this trip was no different.  After many discussions, some between both Paul and Cheryl, and many between Paul himself there was an abrupt stop in the conversation.  Suddenly Paul burst out "Oh No!  Oh No!   .......I've got an idea!"  That idea, and the discussions that took place that day would eventually develop into the V-Drum Sander, and it's successor, The Flatmaster.

 Paul's original thought was this would be a "poor man's" drum sander, but we have come to see that our simple sander has out performed commercial sanders in many ways.  We hear regularly from people who, being frustrated with the limitations of their $2000 machines, are pleased as punch with their V-Drum Sanders.  One major difference is that a commercial drum uses the drum to push the sandpaper into the wood, creating big time heat!  The warm sandpaper then clogs up with melted pitch and can burn the wood.  The sandpaper for these commercial sanders is VERY expensive, so this is a big disadvantage, especially when it is so easily damaged.  Most of these commercial sanders are designed with the drum on the top, allowing what dust that doesn't float up into the air or get sucked into the dust collector to fall down onto the piece you are sanding.  This causes what we call re-grinding of sawdust, once again contributing to heat, burning and deteriorated sandpaper.

The biggest difference between a commercial sander and The V-Drum Sander is the set-up.  Unlike the set-up for a commercial sander the V-Drum is set BELOW the table....yes below!  How can this be possible you ask? It's pretty simple really, centrifugal force.  When turned OFF the sandpaper on the drum sits below the opening on the top, but when switched ON the loops on the paper pull to the ends of the hooks on the drum, lifting up the paper and creating several major advantages.

1. An air gap between the paper and drum, preventing heat
2. Allowing the paper to do the work of wood removal, rather than forcing the drum into the wood, in turn the sander requires very little power
3.No adjustment required after the initial set-up.  Depth of cut is controlled by the grit.


Other than the set-up, there are some fairly distinct advantages of the V-Drum.  (We'll expand on these in future blogs.)

- No clips required to hold the paper on which means very simple grit changes
-Larger Drums can hold more than one grit of sandpaper
-The drum is made from a non-static plastic material, preventing heat build up and allowing the dust to fall down into the box, rather than float up in the air.

The V-Drum Sander comes in kit form, allowing you to either customize the sander to your own shops needs or build the standard version.  There is a free plan available here.  For those who are unable to build their own version we have the Flatmaster.  What's the difference?  Nothing, other than one is built already and one you build yourself.

 All in all the V-Drum sander has proven itself a worthy tool in the woodworking industry. I'm sure there were those that saw the simple, rustic sanding box that Paul built at the first few Woodshows and thought to themselves "This will never last!"  We have proved the naysayers wrong and today, more than 10 years later the V-Drum sander can be found in large cabinet shops, schools and the shops of many small time hobbyists. Just goes to show that sometimes the simplest ideas work the best!



Stay tuned for more blogs about this great tool!  Make sure to come see the V-Drum Sander at a Wood Show near you.

Save Money, Save Minutes, Sand Moulding

Like nearly every other one of our unique woodworking products, The Moulding Sander was born out of a need we found within the woodworking industry.
We had been selling the Sanding Mop for many years before the Moulding Sander came along.  Ultimately, from talking to real life woodworkers at woodshows and doing some of our own research we realized there was nothing AFFORDABLE available to sand trim & moulding, including crown moulding.  There were other products on the market, but they were priced ridiculously high for the average woodworker.  As is the nature of what we do, we decided it was time to change that.

If you are familiar with the Sanding Mops it’s easy to figure out the general concept of The Moulding Sander.  It’s a profile sander, designed to sand things that have profiles – in the case of the Moulding Sander the profile can be wider… up to 7” - 8”, so it’s perfect for sanding trim and moulding while still maintaining the detail of the piece.  The Moulding Sander replaces hand sanding twenty to one.

Like some of our other of our products, the Moulding Sander is a “Build-it-Yourself” kind of tool.  We provide the basics and you provide a motor, as well as some creativity to construct an incredibly useful tool in your shop.   The advantage of tools like this is that you can customize them to work specifically with the set-up and needs of your shop.

We regularly hear from people who are interested in sanding out out knife or chatter marks, but we like to remind them - the Moulding Sander is a profile sander, not a shaper.   The moulding sander may assist in removing some of those marks by passing trim through on an angle, but will likely not remove these marks completely.  The key is to have sharp tools making your trim look good in the first place.  We do not want to advertise this tools as something it is not.

The Moulding Sander has become a popular little tool, proving itself to be indispensable to many moulding and trim shops.  Just like The Sanding Mop, The Moulding Sander is great for in between coat sanding. If you find yourself staring at a shop full of moulding or trim it's time to get yourself one of these incredible time savers. Trust me, you'll thank yourself later!

Side Note:  US readers...You can call the Moulding Sander a Molding Sander if you'd like!
Check out our other innovative woodworking tools here and make sure to come visit our booth at a woodworking show! 

A Sawmill for EVERY Bandsaw

Have you ever wished you could own a sawmill?  If you're a bandsaw owner, now you can!   Any bandsaw, with the addition of our Little Ripper Sawmill package can be milling logs up to 8'.  The best part?  When working with a friend, cutting 8" diameter logs, 6' long it would only take 2-3 hours to pay for the unit!  This tool will practically be paying you to use it.

The original Little Ripper was introduced over 10 years ago and it was revolutionary for allowing the average woodworker to re-saw their own lumber but it was limited to cut a log 8" x 24".  Over the years we continually heard how great The Little Ripper was, but we were always getting questions like "Can it cut anything bigger?"   Those questions ate away at Paul, so off fishing he went. ( that's where he goes to solves the woodworking world's problems)  Through trial and error, Paul re-designed The Little Ripper and introduced the Sliding Track system.  The Sliding Track system is made up of a main 28" track and  clamping mechanism.  The Track and clamps attach together to create a "table" which slides back and forth on top of the existing bandsaw table.

The bottom of The Little Ripper is lined with 3 plastic guides which allow the Ripper to sit into the track.   The Ripper is then able to slide back and forth in the track, slicing the wood.  The biggest advantage of the Sliding Track System (besides being so easy to use) is that multiple tracks can easily be attached together for cutting larger pieces.   As long as you have enough track with enough support you can cut any length up to 8'.  The Little Ripper has always been a great tool, but  when we reconfigured it to be able to handle longer pieces, that's when it REALLY took off.  The current standard kit includes a Little Ripper & Sliding track, allowing you to cut logs 14" around by 30" long.  By adding a second Little Ripper & more track you can cut 14" around up to 8' long.

With the Little Ripper you literally have the opportunity to make a product from the log to the finished product - how amazing is that?

The Little Ripper can be purchased alone or in conjunction with it's sister product, The Round Ripper.

Woodturning Design magazine featured The Little Ripper & it's sister product, The Round Ripper in it's June 2013 issue.  For plans on this unit please click HERE.

This piece was sliced using a Little Ripper and then the middle was cut using a scroll saw.  Made by recent "Customer of the Week" Bobby Roy.