Thanks for the advice. I am reading Nick's book and have some experience in restoring furniture and fibre-glassing sailing boats. On the other hand I am no experience in cedar stripping or using table saws. I certainly will be taking safety seriously.

Mark

I distrust the average table saw and do not use one if I can avoid it. For the light lumber on a kayak a portable circular saw (skilsaw type) is entirely adequate and safer IMHO, the blade is covered and if there is a kickback the saw kicks itself off the plank instead of hurling the plank back at you. The down side is the power cord: I suspend an extrension cord from the workshop ceiling and plug the tool into that, which helps control it.

For a table saw used for cutting strips it is recommended to fit it with a zero clearance throat plate. For a skilsaw the equivalent would be attaching a plywood base plate to the metal plate, then drop the blade into it with the motor running to cut a close-fitting slot for the blade. Ensure the blade is exactly vertical of course before doing that. With either tool that will give you a clean, splinter-free cut and reduce the chance of kickback.

This does prevent the blade shield of a skilsaw from covering the blade so obviously the blade must stop before you put the tool down; like as a portable sander. For a skilsaw I set blade depth to the material thickness plus half the depth of the blade teeth. on the theory that it minimizes the amount of damage it can do if I put the tool down while still running.

With the skilsaw, attach a long guide to the ply baseplate: this performs the same function as the fence of the table saw. It should be about 3 times as long as the saw and be perfectly straight. It runs along the plank edge, which must also be straight.

With either tool, brush off sawdust before each cut to prevent errors.