Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "Hubbard, Eugene"
I spent Sunday afternoon ripping my capstrip material, and I'd likesome opinions about the process and finished dimensions. I'm usingWestern Red Cedar 1 x 8" x 8' , and I attached a plywood straight edge onthe boards and ripped both sides to a nice straight edge. Then with mytablesaw fence set to 1/4" (measured from the blade) I started . My sawblade was parallel to the fence. As I progressed thru the board, I foundthat one end became narrower than the other end. The last cut had the boardjust over 1/4" at the front and about 5/8" at the back, when it started outat 5" both ends. Something was wrong, but I don't know what. Any ideas? It seemed hard to get a consistent 1/4" width the complete length ofthe capstrip. At various places the capstrip would measure + or - about1/64th to 1/32 from the 1/4" I wanted. Should this be a major concern? I'mhoping the sturdiness of the design will help me out here. I checked the archives in rec.woodworking and rec.boatbuilding andthere are differing opinions about having the thin strip against the fenceor on the outside of the cut. One way has the fence set once, the secondway has you moving the fence for each cut. I had the capstrip against thefence. Kent Hallsten . ________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: Kent Hallsten [mailto:KHallsten(at)governair.com]
Kent,I'd say that you just discovered that errors accumulate. Actually, in thegrand scheme of things it doesn't make very much difference. You've cutabout 15 strips and accumulated an error of 3/8 inch, less than 1/32 overthe five foot length of each strip. If you're comfortable with thedimension of each strip individually, the only problem with the accumulatederror would be if it got the grain direction too far off. 3/8" in five feetisn't enough error to affect the 1 in 16 grain slope.As for what the "problem" is, I would guess at a less-than-sharp blade, orpossibly case-hardened wood that bends as it comes out of the saw. Butfundementally, you get (and got) what you measured, and you'll sand morethan that off of the capstrips during assembly. If you wanted the remainingstrip to stay straight, the only way would have been to move the fence eachtime. The strips would probably have come out less uniform, but you wouldhave gotten that last one out of the 5/8" end (assuming that it didn'tsplinter going through the saw.As they say, it's an airplane, not a swiss watch . . .Gene HubbardSan Diego-----Original Message-----

Original Posted By: Gary Gower

Original Posted By: Kirk & Laura Huizenga