: On my first boat I cut *" strips holding them by hand on my table saw
: with a cabinet makers blade. The strips were rough and varied in
: thickness. Now I am cutting these strips down to 3/16".The setup you
: see in the picture is mostly Rob Mack’s and boy does it work. I used a
: small kerf saw blade,,,I made a wood insert with no slot clearance so the
: strips wouldn’t be sucked down into the saw, and a seperation nail in back
: of the blade in the insert to keep the wood from curling together,,,the
: two feathering boards do all of the holding for you and all you do is
: push,,,and a clearance slot at the end of the wood fence to allow the wood
: to curl away from the blade to the right. The improvement is like night
: and day for safety, smoothness of the cut and accuracy. I cut down eight
: strips yesterday and micrometered them all at the ends and middles. They
: all came out .193 thousands of an inch. Really unbelievable. Most of the
: veteran builders use this system but for the new guys it might be worth
: your while to build this type of setup.

: John

The side pressure featherboard (shown in John's photo) can be slow and a pain
to reset after each strip is cut. I tried it a number of times and found I could do
as well by just developing and keeping constant hand pressure against the fence.

The Makita portable saw I used to use, made it hard to use a side featherboard,
because the miter channel in the table surface was a joke. The fence was very small
too, that's why I built up a high auxiliary fence like the one John shows in the photo.

Now I have a Delta contractor's saw with a cast iron top, a real fence and big quite motor!
I can clamp a small vertical featherboard to the fence with spring clamps and apply side
pressure with the magnetic hold down. It takes me about 30 seconds to set-up the saw for strips.

If you have a saw with a cast iron surface like John's, shown in his picture, you
can use a magnetic hold down to apply lateral pressure. It works well and is fast to reset.
The one I own is call the Grip Tight Guide.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K