After weeks of strip ripping set up experiments, I finally found a method that works for me. It's not nearly as safe as the other methods I've tried, but it quickly produces accurate, precise strips. Strips are smooth, and hardly have any blade score marks. To illustrate the difference, it took me about an hour to set up a rough ash board and rip 24 strips for stem laminations. Previously, I was getting 1 - 3 strips per 30 minute set up before I lost precision and produced useless strips. All I did was remove all my featherboards. I'm still raising the blade into a featherboard, but it functions as a blade guard, and doesn't do much to control the stock. Feeding by hand, I was able to keep the stock against the fence and table, and feed through at a consistent rate. I have an inexpensive saw, and I think the force of feeding through all those featherboards resulted in poor cuts by shifting the table, moving the whole saw, etc., and the effect was cumulative over time. I'd feel better using all possible safety measures, and I think my previous set up would have worked on a high-end, large, stable saw, but at the rate I was going, it would have taken me years to finish with my $80 Ryobi. Maybe I'll be able to use featherboards when I start cutting cedar...

: Good Monday. I finally tried my hand at ripping strips this weekend, with
: almost satisfactory results. I'm using a tablesaw set up gleaned from many
: posts which includes: inexpensive Ryobi saw with bolted-on 3/4" ply
: top; zero clearance insert; aux fence that stops just before the center of
: thin kerf, 24-tooth blade (8.5"); vertical and horizontal
: featherboards (one directly over blade), and 10-foot infeed and outfeed
: tables. I've checked and re-checked for blade-to-table squareness (fence
: to table, too), and I've aligned the fence as close to parallel to the
: blade as I can get it. Possible problems with my set up: no splitter, no
: wax to ease board passage. My known problems are: 1. The last few inches
: of each strip are problematic. I push each strip through by hand until
: about 2 feet until the blade, at which point I switch to a push stick.
: When I get to an inch or so away from the blade, I walk to the other side
: and pull the board/strip through. At this point, the saw whines, and
: yellow dust (from the paint on the blade) is seen. The resultant strip is
: uniform until the last few inches, over which it decreases to the point of
: uselessness. I'm careful to push/pull straight through, but I seem to get
: a bit of angle over the last few inches. Aside from using a powerfeeder,
: how can one ensure consistent feed angle (zero) when there's no longer a
: fence (it having ended mid-blade) to push against?

: 2. My blade (DeWalt, 8.5" thin kerf, general purpose) leaves marks on
: the strips. I can't recall if the Freud Diablo I used before left them,
: too. What level of finish should I expect for strips fresh from the table
: saw? The marks look to be easy enough to sand out, but what's the
: standard?

: Thanks for the help, and have a great day.