How to get a straight edge with out a jointer?

[woodman1876]

Anyone have a good ideas how you cut a straight line? I have my ruff cut boards and a table saw but not a joiner. What is the best way to get one edge of the board perfectly straight. I know I'm not good enough to follow a chalk line perfect on real long boards. Ive seen some good ideas for short boards but not long ones.
Thanks for the help

[Ianab]

Hand held circ saw and a long straight edge? Taken to it's ultimate you have a "track saw", where you clamp the board in place, and run the saw down the track to edge and joint it.  But even is simple straight edge can work, because as long as everything is clamped, you can only deviate away from the edge, and into the waste wood. If that happens, a second pass cleans it up.

This sort of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSz7kPwFY0

[tule peak timber]

 

  

  I built a straighter-ater out of an old Oliver shaper, two long torsion box tables, and a 21 foot outside fence. After the straightline rip saw , I feed boards through this machine and get great results at perfectly straight. The power-feeder is equipped with extra gummy wheels that grab -but don't distort the board at  100 plus feet per minute. The cutterhead is a Garniga Bulldozer.. Rob

[woodman1876]

That's an impressive setup.

[Larry]

A rip sled with a track that runs in the miter slot of a table saw.  Lay the board to be straightened on the sled and jamb the end into the drywall screws.  Rip away the waste.  No other clamps, fence or adjustments required.  You need to run a splitter for safety and best results come from a real rip blade.  Its pretty easy to straight line 1,000 board foot of 4/4 in a few hours.  If I was careful I could get an edge ready to glue.

I made my sled out of a sandwich of oak strips covered top and bottom with 1/4" plywood.  I think my sled was 12' long but any length can be made.  For the runner a hardwood strip works and lasts if you keep Johnson paste wax on it.

Its not my idea, there was an article in Fine Woodworking years ago where a sawyer showed off his methods of processing lumber in a timely manner.

A few pictures I found in my gallery that I posted a long time ago.





A table is needed on both the infeed and outfeed side of the tablesaw to support the sled.  This is on the outfeed side.

[tule peak timber]

You can do the same thing by hand on a router table - as long as the table is big enough. Two clamps , a straight board for a reference and  away you go !  Rob

[Ianab]

Comes back to whether it's easier to clamp down the wood and move the cutter. Or have a fixed cutter and move the wood past it. :)

With larger pieces of wood I prefer to move the saw or router on a rail. But I can see how the sled arrangement would work better for smaller pieces of wood.

[davemartin88]

Q

[terrifictimbersllc]

Like the others said, board fixed to a rip sled run through the table saw.  Make the sled out of MDF or particle board.   

Really long pieces this is probably as good as having a jointer.  I have a DJ20 long bed and it takes great care to make perfectly straight really long boards with it (say over 6 feet).

[21incher]

I do it like davemartin88 and screw a straigh 1x6 on and run that against the fence.

[scgargoyle]

The problem is getting a straight jig to begin with. How do you ensure that the rip sled is straight?

I've been dealing with this a lot lately building cabinets. I break down 4X8 sheets by using another sheet as a straight edge, and a circular saw. I also bought a used Joint-A-Bility on craigslist, and it works OK. It is an 8' long fixture that clamps on a board, and you run a router down it to make a straight edge.

For longer stuff, like the 10' table top I'm building, I spliced together two pieces of plywood, about a foot wide. I cut a 45 degree scarf joint on each piece, and clamped it to my table saw fence to keep it aligned while the glue dried. It appears to be really, really straight. I'll clamp it to the board and use it for a router guide. You need a big router, and a looong router bit to joint 2" maple.

[bkaimwood]

I've thought alot about issues presented in this thread... Lots of great ideas, designs, and valid...how do you know its true and more importantly, stays true... We all know wood moves, so something made of wood may have moved a hair over 8 foot in 6 months? Fair assumption? I'm close to convinced that the only way is stays true for a long time is a GOOD track saw, like festool makes, with the long track... Extremely expensive at around 1300 bucks, and not for high fpm production applications like TP shared...awesome setup, BTW...  For the little guys like me, I think festool or the newer DeWalt is the way to go....it will hurt up front, but will save time and money fast, while producing great results...

[trapper]

 board straighteners at grizzly tools   http://www.grizzly.com/search?q=(board+OR+straightner)  copy and paste sorry I could not make it a link

[scgargoyle]

Makita now makes a track saw very similar to the Festool for around $500. If I did more work like that, I'd buy one, but my house is finished, so I wouldn't have much more use for it.

[isawlogs]

 I have an 8 foot alluminium straight edge that can be separated in the midle for shorter cuts that I clamp on the wider surfaces and use the circular saw. I also use a sled  like Ian posted it really goes well on sheet material, but have used it on boards.

  I see where Larry's jig would be very good. But now that I have a jointer  ;)   

[woodworker9]

Besides buying or making a track saw, you can clamp a known straight edge, like the factory edge on mdf sheet (8' long max, but you can snap a line and move it for longer boards) and use a hand held router and flush cutting bit.

Your very best long term option is to buy an older Stanley #7 or #8 and learn how to use it properly.  Planing down to a pencil, or ideally, knife line will yield excellent results and leave you with an edge that is glue ready if you're making a table top.

[hackberry jake]

Really long boards can have a little curve to them. They are easier to bend than shorties  ;D

[Cedarman]

When we straightline to prep for the moulder, we use the woodmizer and edge a dozen or more 5/8" boards at a time.  When making a glue edge, we first use the sawmill, then use the table saw with a good blade that makes a very smooth cut.  Trim the unedged first, then take a smidgeon off the edge from the WM.
We have done 10's of thousands of feet this way.