Two gadgets that help when ripping:1) ripstrate: A roller device that sits on the rip fence. It holds the wood down and the angle of the wheels drives the wood "into" the fence. Wheels only turn i one direction to prevent launches. A heavy duty and well made device. 2) At the opposit eend of the spectrum is a simple plastic tab, that mounts inline with the saw blade in a zero clearance insert. It works like a splitter, but the plastic springyness keeps the woo pushed up against the fence.
Mitch
I'll give that a qualified endorsement- you're only likely to get into trouble with sheet goods if they're way too big for you to handle (in that cased, get a helper) or if you try to rip without using your fence. With the fence in place and the work held snug against it, there's little or no risk.
The only thing I've got to add is that the suggestion in another post that you set the fence at a distance further than your 2" and use a block is a bad idea. That works really well if you are using the miter gauge and want to use the fence as a stop block to make a lot of crosscuts that are the same length, but with sheet goods, it's just more likely to make the peice twist on the saw, and then you *will* have problems.
Use a push stick for the end of the cut. This is a meat-and-potatoes use for a table saw- use caution, certainly; but if you don't feel fairly comfortable with this operation pretty quickly, woodworking may not be for you- everything else you can do with a tablesaw is far more difficult than what you're describing.
They're called Board Buddies.
Sounds like you're talking about a Microjig Splitter.
You can put a hardboard foot on the circular saw as well, and then plunge the blade through it to make a zero-clearance insert for it. Reduces splintering immensely. If you just plunge it, you lose your blade guard, with is a bad idea, but you can cut a wider groove on the back side to let the guard through- as long as the hardboard is close to the blade in the front, it'll do the job. And as an added bonus, the hardboard foot is a lot nicer to your stock than the average circular saw foot.
That being said, it seems a little odd to use a circular saw for something like ripping a bunch of 2" strips when the table saw is right there.
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