: I was cutting 1/4" strips yesterday and had one board that in the last
: 18" the saw blade began to bind and then move from side to side
: slightly, as if i had hit a big knot or other major density change, but
: nothing was visually obvious. So I scratched my head, flipped the board
: ant tried the other edge, same thing, same place. The result was strips
: that varied in width from 3/16-5/16 in that section. There are no visual
: clues as far as I can tell as to the cause. I ended up cutting off that
: section of the board and ripped strips from the rest, which were fine. Any
: thoughts?

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In the past I have had a similar experience. As others will no doubt add, it could be for a bunch of reasons.

My problem was that the board had a slight curvature to it. What happened was that this curvature caused the board to have uneven pressure on the blade as it was going through. That uneven pressure caused the blade to "drag on the board" sideways at those spots (when the board was exiting the blade) where the pressure existed and thus make the strip thinner in those spots. Judicious use of feather boards both before and after the blade helped to significantly reduce the problem.