Hi Everyone,

I helped a mate rip strips for his build, and I found using a hand-held circular saw per Chris Cunningham's SOF book worked really well for me. He suggests bolting the saw down to a piece of ply with a slot in it to clear the blade (I used a piece of 1/2" around 18" x 18") so you have a nice flat base, then clamp 2 fences to it. One fence is set to cut at strip width, the other is adjustable so it can be fitted up against the off-side edge of the board being cut.

The wider, flat base helps keep the saw at 90°, and the 2 fences allow you to maintain the correct cut width easily. Other benefits are:

1).. The board being cut can be clamped and supported on stands 'coz it doesn't need to move... you only move the lighter, more easily managed saw.
2).. You only need enough workshop space for the length of board being cut, rather than 2x length.

The downside is that it is a little slower process 'coz you need to adjust the off-side fence after every cut, but once you get going it really doesn't take that long.

Regards,

Phil.

: 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.