I used maple harwood flooring with a finish on it. Last night I put it on my fence. I ran a straight edge, (the bottom of my square) along it and at spots could see gaps under the straigtedge when I held it up to light. Does this mean it is not straight or suitable for a fence?
I have some boards that dont have a straigth edge on them. They were rough cut. I need to put one straight edge on it. I would like it to be as straigt as possible. Would a 3 foot or so piece of angle iron clamped to my table and a straight edge nailed to the board itself work for this to get asuper straight edge? Is angle iron more straight than a board?
I get amused when I see people talking about thousands of an inch working with wood. Yes accuracy is needed but wood moves a lot before and after it's cut. "Just a general statement!!"
Now you say you can see light in spots with a straight edge on your fence. It depends on how big of a spot "length of dip" and the length of piece your cutting. For an exaggerated example. If your fence starts at zero and dips in a 1/16" then returns to zero and that dip is only 1/2" in length along the fence and always cutting something say 6" or longer. The board has several inches of support before the dip then several inches after the dip, the board sees this as a straight fence. Now this is untrue if you put a straight edge on your fence and you can see light along a good portion of the fence. Nailing a straight edge to a rough cut board and running it along the fence is a great way to get one straight edge on it.
I was trying to be funny. How about thinking through this. Do you "think" angle iron is straighter than wood? Not sure? Why not try the same test that you applied to your piece of flooring to a piece of angle iron?
Really - you seem like a nice enough person. I don't think I've ever seen you post a real flame here. But fella - you gotta start thinking about things or just get out and try some things instead of just posting the amount of idle questions that you do. If you put the energy into trying some of these things first that you do into posting some of the questions that you do, you'd have a complete set of kitchen cabinets done by now.
Come on - get a little daring. Don't post - do it. Just doggoned do-it.
When I started college many moons ago, the first professor I had told us something I never forgot; "School is the place you go to learn how to learn. But until you begin working in your chosen field, you will never learn very much about your field."
By taking the groups advise and doing things yourself first, and *then* asking questions to fill in the holes, you will likely learn very much more and learn it faster. So go try things out first. If it doesn't work, ask yourself first "Why didn't it?"
That being said, until I straightened out my fence, which was only about .010" depressed near the blade for about 8", and a few thousandths out at the ends, every piece of wood I cut was curved, even when attaching a straightedge to the board and running the straightedge on the fence during the cut. If I mated two cut pieces together there was always a significant gap like an inverse hourglass shape between them. Since I don't yet have a jointer or planer, this gap made the boards unusable.
I got the idea of checking the fence straightness by reading the old posts from this group, and the discussions about fence straightness started by someone who had the same problem and cured it by making his fence straight. I shimmed my fence with tape under the UHMW. Worked like a charm - every board comes out with a straight edge now.
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