Straight line rip saw.
Straight line rip saw.
I have two 55" tracks and one 42" track for my Festool and two 55" tracks for my Makita.
I'd use the track saw - either one - probably the Festool since it's just a tiny bit more accurate.
13' would require "leap frogging" one track.......which would turn it into a project of sorts, rather than a straight up no brainer.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
If it were me I would use a number 7 or 8 jointer plane.
And here is my thinking on this that lumber is heavy and so then it becomes a two man operation and unless your really synchronized you end up creating a mess!
Solo with a jointer plane would not take very long at all in fact it is possible it might even be faster than running it through a power jointer.
You have absolute control so you can make a beautiful spring joint.
As others have said... support tables. If your going to do a lot of long stock in the future it may be worth your time to look into a set of Aigner tables. They're aluminum tables that you can quickly attach/detach and level to any machine you like. You just buy a simple connector for every surface you want to mount to. I use them in my shop as they are almost indispensable. I had to joint a flat onto some 17' hand rails last month and they made it a fairly easy task. I use one on my bandsaw almost any time I use it, and anything over 4' or so long on the shaper gets them as well. They also have a handful of accessories you can use on them though I haven't tried any yet. They are pretty expensive, but for me they've been well worth the investment.
good luck,
JeffD
Unless you have a jointer substantial enough to handle this size stock, track saw and hand planes.... For facing the stock you could a large enough jig to smooth the face using a router sled. I recently built a dining room table with 12/4 Ash. About 10 feet long and each piece started off around 8-10 inches wide. This was the first big project for which I could use my new 16" jointer-planer combo machine. I had the 18" Al extensions on either side plus roller stands beyond the jointer table extensions. Worked amazing.
There are very few ways to get a perfectly straight cut 13 feet long. Judging by your weight estimation, these are rather wide boards, which will not be clamped into compliance. The only option is have matching errors on mating boards, hence my "cut up the middle" approach.
I have a decent bearing guided router bit with a long cutting length. For this would would rip close with a circ saw, then cleanup using the router guided by a straightedge (which can be jointed for straightness)
I want a set of those now..
Before i upgraded jointers track saw kerfing was my method for really long boards
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Last edited by Jared Sankovich; 12-01-2019 at 5:53 PM.
Some combination of a tracksaw and/or a jointer plane (>=24" long). Depending on board width, matched pairs could be run through theplaner - edges up.
#7 hand plane. Does the trick every time.
I have not done this yet but I have a 10 foot table planned within the next year with a cherry top. My plan is to "joint" the edges with my DeWalt track saw using my 106 and 59 inch tracks joined together. I will have to be careful to get the track straight but I've used the track saw with the 106 inch track on shorter boards and been happy with the results. I also plan to put a few dominos into the joint and glue it together a board at a time in my dining room. That is because of the weight. The top will look like it's 1.5 inches thick but will really be 13/16 or whatever the lumber surfaces to. The edges and ends will be doubled using an offcut from the same board, same location, so the grain will be a better match. I will have to sand the top in the dining room but the dust collection on my Bosch DEVS 1250 is pretty good. I will not worry about the minor irregularity at the joints on the bottom.
I'm interested in how you do this so I can learn from your experience.