It's time to stop monkeying around and adapt safe practices.

Properly set-up a riving knife does not impede anything you've done before on a saw. You won't even remember it's there but you'll be able to count to ten on your fingers.

Hi Rob and John-

I'd seen a couple of approaches to table saw set up so I checked with my cousin, who's a master furniture maker. He advised against featherboards (not sure if he thinks they're unnecessary, or if they cause some sort of problem - if I get a chance I'll ask) but otherwise it's basically the same as Rob's set-up. I don't have a great photo, but I built a simple roller gizmo for an out-feed, which seems to be working well. Helps that my boards are max 7' due to lack of access to a truck.

I had to buy a commercial zero-clearance insert to fit in my saw (the "ledge" it rests on is only about 1/8" so no room for plywood) and it has a slot already for the riving knife, so that works fine. Saw blade is raised about 3/8" above the stock. No auxiliary fence - just the regular rip fence, nothing clamped to anything.

My method is to rest the board on the saw, side-step to feed it until my left hand touches the saw bed, then I switch to a scrap of wood in my left hand to act as a guide (as Rob is showing in his photo) and I keep my right hand flat (palm or back) to push until it hits the saw bed, at which point I pick up a push stick. Seems to work OK. So far so good, anyway!

The saw blade I switched to is the red Freud Diablo 24 tooth - the finest ripping saw blade Home Depot offers. Also, the only ripping saw blade Home Depot offers, which is better than Lowes, which didn't have any. I'll see if its kerf presents any problem, but the 7.25" seems noticeably thinner, so I'm hoping for the best.