[TexasTimbers]

You thought I was gonna ask you if you like your Excaliber didn't you? C'Mon admit it.
Anyway, I was just gonna ask how many of you have made an edxtra long fence for straightlining alot of boards?
The longest one I ever made was 30' to straightline some 14' boards for a bookcase I made for a law office. I think that was my first actual commission. Anywho, I made a 22' fence this weekend because I am straightlining some boards up to 10+'.

Yes I know I could have built a sled but these boards are green/heavy and large some of them up to 14" wide. All 2" thick. Nad yes I know I could have just clamped some 12' 2xs down and presto, and that's basically al I did with a little more precison thrown in for good measure since these joists have to be straight straight.

We don't have a "Shop Tricks" section yet but Nathan is kicking it around I think (don't quote me on that!) but I thought I might try to get a thread started along those lines. Ever had to get innovative to perform a certain task? Doesn't have to be a long fence could be anything you did to solve a problem/challenge.

Here's my most recent simple poroblem solve. The fence is made of 15ply LVLs that I straightlined (even LVLs are not perfectly straight you know), slowly and meticulously with a 10 1/4" circular saw. I didn't use a chalkline as they tend not to be so straight, so I pulled a tight, lightweight contstruction line and made pencil marks directly under the string, and used aluminum straight edge to connect the dots along the LVL.

Then, I ran the LVLs through the planer to take off the rough circular surface to lessen the friction of the joists sliding down the fnce. I attached them together with a 57 degree scarf joint and topped it with a 4' 2x4 screwed to the top, and then attached the whole 22'2" fence to the old oliver fence and claped both ends to the ends of the infeed/outfeed tables. No intermediate clamping was necessary.

When unclamped, the whole thing moves with the turn of the Oliver adjustment knobs! Worked out great. I''m running behind schedule as I was gonna have them up this weekend but didn't hapen. The wife and me ripped them yesterday after church, lunch, and a powernap!:thumbsup:
Now I have a pile of perfectly straight 2 x 8s ready for the next phase of the operation which is planing, and then after that across the shaper for a nice round-over on both side for the exposed bottoms.

 

[Mad]

Hard to believe after 11 years, I'm the first to respond to this thread, but it is quite interesting, as I want to straighten long boards also, using a table saw (I don't have a jointer, shaper, or planer).


One "tip" I read about ripping long boards was exactly the opposite of what Texas Timbers demonstrated above. The tip suggests that the sacrificial table saw fence addendum should be as short as possible, extending no further than the front of the blade in front, and no further than the rear of the (cast) table behind. The reasoning given was that the shorter fence reduces the chance for crooked long boards to get bound up.


How is this seemingly conflicting advice reconciled to a table saw newbie like me?

 

[woodnthings]

Here's a similar 28 ft fence I made ...

I needed to straight "straight lined" ripped boards from the mill because they weren't all that straight. I came up with this setupo for a RAS and it worked quite well:
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f2/evil-machine-28461/

We have lost our founding member, and my personal friend, Texas Timbers a few years back after he resigned here and started his own forum, Woodbarter. There were some troubled times back then and quite a few member either quit, lost interest, were banned, or have passed on. There are very few of the original group still here. :|

The short fence is a wives tail as far as I'm concerned and is supposed to help prevent kickbacks. I don't believe it, and I never will and there are much better ways to prevent kick backs that don't impinge accuracy. The longer the fence the straighter the board will be when you make your pass. Here's why. Any curve in the workpice when placed against the fence, concave side in, will eventually stop contacting the fence at the far end. This will allow the workpiece to move inward and follow the end of the fence from that point on. It will duplicate the curve that's already on the board instead of straightening it. A short fence has no chance of straightening a curved board for this reason. You wanna make curved boards ??? ... use a short fence.

 

[Mad]

Thanks WoodnThings. What you said about short fences is what I was thinking, but then again, I don't trust my thinking, because I don't know what I don't know.


I was in the process of trying to find the right board to use as more or less permanently mounted sacrificial fence, so that I can set the zero markers on the T rail of the real fence according to the increased width of the fence due to the sacrificial add ons. My first thought was oak, but now I'm thinking some type of MDF or Melamine shelf board would have a better chance of remaining dimensionally stable throughout moisture and temperature cycles, and be flatter from the get go, being an entirely manufactured product.


What say you to ideal fence board material? (ha ha, try searching THAT on google. I've seen lots of backyards online lately)


PS... sorry to read that you lost your friend. If my dredging up old threads is bad form, let me know. I like to bring back old threads, because it helps demonstrate that I am doing a search before asking new questions, and oftentimes there is no need for me to post another question, because I already found the answer through search. I know it irritates regulars to see the same questions asked over and over and over again by new people, and there is no sense in reinventing the wheel. Yet, for some reason, some forum folks seem to get just as irritated about bringing up old threads. Really hard to know where to tread... so many social faux pas and landminds in the minds of others, that cannot be read.


.

 

[woodnthings]

no issues here

The same questions keep coming up because ... some folks will not do their own research, spelled lazy, AND because they are common issues. As you probably have noticed, I do not give a one word, one sentence answer to questions here, but try to explain the "what" and the "why" for my responses. If I can't explain the "why" for my reasoning, then maybe I don't know what I'm talking about ... just sayin' :wink2:

Chances are on quite a few old threads, that the OP is long gone in more ways than one... so we can't be concerned with offending or we would have little to say. But when the last poster has obviously not read the date on the original thread and possibly all of the succeeding replies, then YES it will get my goat.

For example, I got a brand new 7 MM Magnum Remington Long Range rifle, an awesome firearm. It has a 26" heavy barrel, great adjustable trigger and B & C raised cheek piece camo stock. So I'm all jacked up about this gun, and so I tried a once fired case in the camber and the bolt would not close on it. :surprise2: So I tried some new live rounds, same thing. :surprise2::surprise2:. Next step is to go online to search for this issue and found lots of extraction threads, bad ejector threads, and general bad mouthing of Remington extractor/ejectors. Apparently a common issue. None of this helped me and I didn't want to cam over the bolt on a live road only to get it stuck in the chamber, and even worse issue than I have now. I read all the posts in the 3 separate shooting forums which came up, but did not leave a question nor a reply. So I called my gunsmith buddy and after a 1 hour trip to his shop, he claimed I had a great working firearm, great trigger and perfect headspace all good things! I just had to use a bit more force and when new, they are sometime a bit tight and need some "break in" by working the action. :smile3:

 

[Mad]

So you're saying I should use a Remington bolt action on my "long range" table saw rip fence, with raised cheek camo stock instead of oak or melamine or mdf, and then work the fence lever action with a bit more force to increase the effectiveness of the material ejector?


Or did I just not read the succeeding reply correctly?

 

[woodnthings]

Exactly !

So you're saying I should use a Remington bolt action on my "long range" table saw rip fence, with raised cheek camo stock instead of oak or melamine or mdf, and then work the fence lever action with a bit more force to increase the effectiveness of the material ejector?


Or did I just not read the succeeding reply correctly?

Just don't force the fence lever or it will lock up and you won't be able to change the blade without a very large hammer. OK, it was a bit "off topic" but I thought some one would find the analogy amusing....:wink2: