My responses here are on the basis of advising the novices lurking in the wings.

I’m not responding to the specific person posting saying, "you should stop doing that."
What ever you do as an individual is up to you, but if you post your method in a public
forum and it goes unchallenged, novices will have no guidance as to whether or not
this is a good and safe, standard operating procedure.

: I totally agree with you about the need for safety.

Safety starts with the first choice and every choice made there after.
Where do we learn which are safe methods? From our peers and from
the instruction we have from books and classes.

If a novice has access to a designed and machined after-market device
intended to make a circular saw, into a table saw wanna-be, I certainly
have less concern for protentual injury. BUT if it is suggested that a novice
will set-up a circular saw under a table, this is dangerous!

You say there is no difference in the safety of using a table saw or a circular
saw set up under a table. That might be so for you.

Let’s take twenty novice woodworkers and give ten, table saws and let the
other ten set-up a circular saw under a table. Ten novice woodworkers with
no guidance on how to do it, what is safe and what is not.

And you think the results will be equal to the safety and quality of results
to those using the table saw.

I don’t.

I've set-up a circular saw under a table. It worked. It was not safe.
I happened to be teaching at a college, a very wealthy college, that didn't
have the money to buy a table saw for my use. OSHA came through on an inspection
tour and ticketed the college for my violation of safety regulations.

I've used almost every set-up you can imagine. I have viseral experience with
the dangers.

And I've had the good fortune to get good advise from some experienced wood workers.
I wish to pass on some of that good advise to novices here.

: Panel-cutting saws which are fairly common at lumberyards and Home Depots use
: off-the-shelf circular saws which are clamped or bolted to the sliding
: platforms. There does not seem to be any problem with the integrity of
: this design.

Obviously, this is a designed dedicated tool to use with a circular saw. I don't
hear you suggesting novices limit themselves to such an after-market device.

: Well, we know what the end product is supposed to look like: a 1/4 inch wide
: strip. And the fence I propose has no need to be adjusted -- just screwed
: down -- as this is a jig for cutting strips. After all, I'm not trying to
: make furniture here, just strips.

The difference between milling a consistant strip easily and an irrgeular strip
with great difficulty is not going to clear to a novice milling a strip for the first
time, with a bad tool.

: What you end up with is a custom tool made just for this job.

If you are a custom tool maker I'm sure you will do a good job. As for a novice
making a tool, a recipe for disaster. Some one who doesn't know the rights and wrongs
of using the tool, is supposed to build it?

:a rental or
: borrowing a table saw might save a few hours of effort.

A few hours and a few fingers.
A few hours that could be spent on the creative aspects of the boat
rather than reinventing the wheel.

: But I do not believe that a rented table saw is inherently less dangerous
: than one which is home made.

I do.

They are both powerful sharp tools which
: demand safety and respect.

I agree, and one is more dangerous.

I just what to make it clear to novices out there that there is an extra cost.
Trying to make a circular saw do the job of a another tool is not going to be easy or safe.
The resulting strips you cut are more likely to be irregular and cause problems
for you in every step of you building project to come.

Your time and tears can be better spent elsewhere.

All the best,
Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.laughingloon.com