When faced with the task of straightening the warped edges on several hundred feet of 12-ft-long 1×12 stock (for an order of baseboard), I remembered a previous Methods of Work contribution in which the reader clamped an 8-ft. piece of aluminum channel to the tablesaw rip fence. Then I remembered seeing a straight 20-ft.- long piece of steel channel, 1/4 in. thick, at a local metal shop. Without a second thought, I went back to that shop and left with the channel on the roof of my pickup.

I clamp the channel to my existing rip fence as shown above and run the concave edge of the board against the fence so that only the ends touch the long fence. After I’ve ripped one edge of all of the stock, I remove the auxiliary fence and rip the other edge of the lumber using the regular fence. In my shop, most stock now passes through this low-cost, very efficient, straight-ripping process right after planing. I store the fence overhead on two plywood hooks. I can lower my new 50-lb. helper onto the saw table one end at a time.

Mike McKenna, Ayer’s Cliff, Que., Canada

Fine Woodworking Magazine, June 1999 No. 136

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