How do you cut a straight edge on rough sawn lumber?

[Keith Jackowski]

Hi guys, getting ready do start on my winter project, building a bed loft for my daughter. She bought a birch desk chair from Ikea, Ugh, and now she wants me to build her loft to match the chair.

I found a guy selling rough sawn maple at a great price and has an assortment of sizes. figured I'll probably need somewhere around 25 to 30 board ft to complete the project, including side rails and a couple 4x8 sheets of ply for the stairs/storage areas.

Anyway, he has all this lumber that's rough sawn and I need to make sure I have a nice straight edge on each plank to make sure this looks halfway decent. I have a '27 Tannewitz table saw that is a monster size. Any thoughts on a jig that I can have slide along to give me a nice clean edge? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Jerry Wright]

Use toggle clamps to tie down to a flat, straight piece of mdf or plywood. Use the straiggt edge against your fence and trim the rough edge.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Hi Keith,

Do you plan to mill the lumber flat, square, and straight? Do you have access to a jointer and planer?

If so, before attempting to do a straight line rip cut, I would first joint one face flat on the jointer, then plane the opposite face parallel (and flat) on the planer.

Then, there are a few options for getting one straight edge.

1) You can use a handheld circular saw with a guide, like this:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/4283497

2) You can run it through the table saw.
-One of the simplest ways is to lightly nail a straight board to your workpiece that overhangs one edge of the workpiece. That straight board rides against the fence to give you a straight reference point while you cut the other side off.
-another more sophisticated method is to make a straight line ripping jig, which can also be used as a tapering jig. But this only works if your boards are relatively short, otherwise you have to make the jig really long. here's an example of a store-bought jig you could make yourself:

http://www.rockler.com/taper-straigh...Ok8aAlXG8P8HAQ

3) If you have a jointer and the rough saw boards are sort of straight, you can just make lots of passes on the jointer to get one straight edge. You can then make the other edge parallel on the table saw.

I definitely do not recommend doing a straightline rip on the table saw without jointing at least one face and using a guide of some kind to ride against the fence. Otherwise you risk kickback, which is extremely unpleasant (especially on a saw as powerful as the one you have). Kickback might seem like a joke, but it ripped my forehead open to the bone one time. You can get pretty badly injured, so be careful.

Good luck!

[Jamie Buxton]

Does your saw have a rip fence? If so, make a sled from a piece of plywood that's wider than your widest maple plank. It runs against the rip fence with the other edge at the saw blade. Fasten each plank to the sled with the edge you want to straightline hanging over the edge. Run the sled-plus-plank through the saw. You can use Destaco clamps to hold the plank to the sled if you're feeling fancy. But a screw at each end of the plank is a lot easier. Put the screw right near the end of the plank, in wood that you're likely going to cut off because it has end-checks anyhow.

Of course, if you can persuade yourself to not use your Tannewitz, a track saw does a really good job of straightlining.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Oh - man. A simple question with a million answers.

I'll go first - this is just one way - others will be coming. Pick the one you like.

1. The objective is to hold the board securely as it passes through the blade, but with the rip fence way off to the side. The problem you are avoiding is kickback from an uneven edge against the fence.
2. Chunk of 3/4" plywood. Sat 12" - 18" wide, 8' long.
3. Put a piece of 3/4/" x 3/8" [approx] hardwood on it to run in the miter slot ont eh TS table.
4. Tee-track. Say, 4 pieces. Inset into the ply and running across the narrow dimension.
5. 4 clamps [link below] with knobs that slide in the tee-track to adjust for width, and then lock down the jig.
6. RUn the empty jig throught the TS to cut an edge. Now you know where the TS blade will cut.
7. Put the rough board on the jig, overhanging the cutting edge just barely enough, tighten the clamps, cut a straight egde.
8. Joint [or not] that edge, and use it agains the TS fence to cut a parallel 2d edge.

http://www.rockler.com/mini-deluxe-h...FYU7aQodb7gADg

THe other way I do it is this:

Draw a straight line on the board.
Go to the bandsaw, and follow that line as closely as possible. Freehand.
That edge should be good enough to go to the jointer and get a perfect edge. May take a few more passes than normal - that depends on how good you are following the line on your BS.

[John Schweikert]

Funny how topics coincide on other forums too with decent discussions. Whether it's allowed or not, here is the same question on Wooden Boat forum I read regularly:

{ forum wooden boat dot com search on straight edge }

Same topics on other forums are useful. No need to reinvent answers that are already out there. Not everyone has access to the same tools or has the same needs or skills. Unless you have a huge shop with tremendous infeed and outfeed for a table saw, an 8ft plywood rip sled is a bit much.

[Jim Becker]

Flatten on the jointer and then thickness on the planer. At that point you have a board that you can put a straight edge on that will be perpendicular to the faces. The actual edge cut depends on your equipment. If you have a traditional cabinet or contractor's style saw, you may need to tack a known straight edge on one side of the board to ride along your rip fence to get your first edge cut. If you have a track saw, things should be self-explanatory. I have a sliding table saw, so once that board is flat and a constant thickness, I just clamp the board to the sliding "wagon" and run that first edge that way.

[Keith Jackowski]

I had a feeling I'd get some great answers. I do have a 13" thickness planer but no jointer. I also have a 14" Delta band saw but not sure I'll have enough surface area on it to run a nearly 10' long board. I think the widest board I'll be working with is maybe 6 inches. Should I run all of the boards through the planer first and then work on the straight edge?

I'll be doing most of the work myself, my wife is not very handy in a shop and my son is too busy with college. Lucky me I have a 3 car heated garage so I'll be spending my weekends for the next couple months out there.

[Shawn Pixley]

Four ways:

Table saw with straightline / tapering jig
bandsaw
skillsaw with guide or track saw
handsaw

I've done them all. Normally, I'd use the tablesaw with a striaightline jig. I made my jig out of scrap and hold down clamps.

[Keith Jackowski]

I have the original rip fence on the Tannewitz, I'm thinking I'm going to get a big piece of plywood. All of the wood have been air dried for a few years so I'm hoping it shouldn't be a problem cutting and not gumming up the blade. I'm sure I'll be asking more questions as the project progresses. Thanks everyone.

[M Toupin]

Running rough lumber though a table saw is a recipe for kick back or worse. I just had this conversation with a co-worker today who was showing me his "war wounds" from a TS kickback with rough lumber over the weekend. Lucky all he got was a nice bruise in the hip. A table saw is designed for flat lumber, that is, with at least one flat side (without wind) to ride the table and one jointed edge to ride the fence or miter gauge. How you get that flat reference face and edge is up to you wither it be a jointer and planer, handle planes, some creative router jigs or some other means. You might get away with it on a under powered contractors saw you can stall or overpower, but a real cabinet saw isn't going to be very forgiving. I have no idea what a "'27 Tannewitz" is, but I do know all the Tannewitz TS I've ever been around were serious industrial machines with a minimum of 5ph and most 7.5-10hp. Play loose and free with them and they will not be forgiving. If you're going for the "rough look" stick with a bandsaw and hand tools, otherwise thickness and edge your lumber first, then run it though the TS.

Mike

[Mike Heidrick]

Depends how rough. I flatten a face on teh jointer, The take that face to the jointer fence and joint an edge. I then use the flat face on teh TS and the jointed edge on the fence and rip to width. Then plane to thickness.

Other variables are I take to the planer after the jointer, then rip on teh TS or crosscut on the scms.

You can do a lot with a flat face and a straight edge 90 degrees to that face.

[Jesse Busenitz]

when I'm using rough lumber I break my boards down into shorter lengths or whatever my project calls for before I try and get a straight edge on them.

[Bill Huber]

There are a bunch of good ideas above and they will all work.

This is just the way I do it.

I run the board though the planer until I have one nice smooth side.
Now I flip the board over and run the other side, this gives me 2 parallel faces.
Now depending on how long the board is I will use the skill saw and a guide for long boards.
For shorter boards I just use my tapering jig on the table saw. My jig rides on the fence so I can use it with a some what wide board.

jig.jpg

[Yonak Hawkins]

Last edited by Jim Becker; Yesterday at 9:26 PM. Reason: Direct links to other forums not permitted by TOS

Why aren't links to other forums permitted ? Shouldn't our commitment to better woodworking be independent of the source of good information ?