Straight Cut-Beginner Question

[Richard Alexander]

I bought a piece of moulding 2 1/4" wide by 7 foot long. I wanted to cut it down to 2" wide and ran it through a TS. Of course, I didn't realize that the moulding had a bow to it. Now the ends are 2" wide and the middle is 1 7/8". To make it worse, the cut side isn't even straight.

How should I have gone about doing this? I take it a jonter would help but I don't have one yet.

[Wade Lippman]

I don't follow the problem. If you kept it tight against the fence a slight bow wouldn't have mattered. A feather board might have helped.
If you run it though again you ought to be able to get it to 1 7/8" from end to end. A jointer wouldn't help here, even if you had the nerve to hold something so small in it.

[Jim Becker]

As Wade suggests, a feather board to keep the material on the fence would solve this problem and also make for a safer cut.

[Charles Wiggins]

Richard,
IF I understand your problem, I think a featherboard to hold the stock against the rip fence would have made a big difference. And if you have a splitter use that too. See the fourth page (p. 89) of the linked article:
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/PDF/Free/021180086.pdf