To get a good cut, following the basics is important.

That's a big chunk-o-wood. Shorter is easier to handle than long. Lighter is easier to handle than heavy. Consider cutting the length or width down.

Use a good thin kerf rip blade. I use a 24 tooth Freud LU87R010 ... works fine on my 1.5Hp belt drive contractors saw for up to 2" Oak.

Horse power is your friend!

A long fence will work better than a short one.

Use feather boards. I use at least 3 ... one before the blade, one after the blade and one on top of the stock.

Use in-feed and out-feed support, the longer the better. It's real tough to handle long or heavy stock without support. It's an absolute necessity for your 2 X 10 X 12'.

Reduce friction ... I use paraffin ... I'd think the corn meal idea would work too.

Use a splitter. This will help keep the the wood from getting thinned by the back side of the blade.

If ya need to first put a straight edge on your stock it's not that hard to do. Al Edie's method works fine ... I use it all the time on Oak.

You may get to a point where you've cut enough strips off of your plank and the plank will start to warp a bit and not want to stay flat to the fence. It's normal, but you may end up with a few strips thinner than you'd like.

Ken Blanton

: I ripped my first 2x10x12' today (after quite a bit of practice on
: scrap), and ran into a few issues.

: My cuts on scrap weren't completely straight once I was handling a
: 12' board, so I decided to do 1/4" cuts and use the planer
: to bring them down to 3/16". As the imperfections added up,
: sections of a 1/4" strips approached 3/16". I'd plane
: down the high parts of the board's edge a bit, but eventually
: just flipped the board and worked from the other side. Is this
: the best way to go? No huge deal but I have a 2x12"
: tomorrow so flipping may not be the best option (I could always
: flip the board and then rip as many inches as the narrow) point.

: I'm wondering if a) the best way to improve cuts and b) how to
: clear up bad board edges.