: Thanks for the answer.
: But my saw (Skill) was almost new and hardly used. I did find it
: difficult to set the fence straight and now suddenly I
: understand what happened beside the sawdust running between
: fence and board. I tried to use the tooths of the saw as a
: reference but they are not all to the same side. I should have
: used the blade itself for straightness and one teeth for
: thickness. I will give it an other try because i like the idea
: and hate saw tables.

: Greetings Daan

Ah! that could be it. The easiest way is probably to plane down a hardwood spacer to the thickness you want and use that to set the guide. I want to have a set of spacers but never seem to remember to make them. For common thicknesses like 6.25 mm - 1/4" - I have some metal off-cuts I use, which are more accurate than wood.

I used a micrometer to measure the thickness of my blade plate and the width of the cut (kerf), so now I just add half the difference - 0.4 mm in my case - to the thickness of the strip to get the space between the blade plate and the guide. You can also measure between the teeth and guide, but for my finishing blade that is complicated because the set of the blades involves 3 teeth and is hard to see because it's also a thin-kerf blade. It cost me more than the saw!

I took my own advice! I checked my saws and found one had 0.25 mm end play; it was a cheap saw so it has worn. That is the variation I have been getting in thickness along the length of the strips I cut recently: now I know why ...

One change I will make is to the guide; I am going to get a piece of thick Aluminum and use that instead of plywood. It should be more stable - if it is straight - and the Aluminum extrusions have a narrower edge than the ply wich is also rounded, so I think that will prevent chips getting between the guide and the plank I am cutting.