WANEY EDGE ON A TABLE SAW

[Lazurus]

A friend has asked me to rip some waney edged ash boards for him. Is there a "correct" way of doing these. They do not need the waney edge but I can forsee problems running along the fence?

 

[Inspector]

Make a sled that rides in the mitre groove or against the fence. Place the board on it and the off cut drops safely off.

Pete

 

[Racers]

Screw a long offcut to give you the first straight edge or use a track saw.

Pete

 

[marcros]

If there are several to do, your friend investing in a cheap tracksaw wouldn't be a bad idea at all, particularly if he needs it from time to time. It is one of my most useful tools.

 

[maznaz]

A friend has asked me to rip some waney edged ash boards for him. Is there a "correct" way of doing these. They do not need the waney edge but I can forsee problems running along the fence?

No idea about correct, but you have lots of options:

Screw a flat reference board to run along the fence.

Attach to a sled with a straight edge. You can use toggle clamps or screws for this.

Plane one edge flat and run it against the fence. This is what I do, and hand planing a waney edge is pretty quick and fun!

 

[Trevanion]

Now, I don't recommend it at all and I know some people here will absolutely cringe but I've always done boards that are circa an inch or so thick with a really waney edge just freehand through the saw following a chalk line carefully. On thicker boards, I'll drop the surface planer infeed table for a heavy cut and just knock off the high spots down quickly by pushing and pulling the timber back and forth over the cutterhead without lifting it off the table until a full flat pass is achieved, again that's a pretty sketchy way of doing it and I don't really recommend it for the faint of heart.

Hand-held circular saw and a straight batten of wood clamped down is the simplest and arguably safest way to rip it off but is rather time-consuming if you've got a lot to do.

 

[doctor Bob]

Now, I don't recommend it at all and I know some people here will absolutely cringe but I've always done boards that are circa an inch or so thick with a really waney edge just freehand through the saw following a chalk line carefully.

Yep, done this plenty of times, I do like a chalk line, good old days, I sometimes knock a wedge in to stop binding.