So I have an upcoming fence build and I am planning on buying rough sawn 8 foot 1x6 redwood rather the finished tongue and groove boards. I save about $13 a board and the first phase alone is 150 boards. So the cost saving are substantial. I have a decent planer and table saw but no jointer. My main concern is getting that first straight edge on boards. I don't want to do anything that requires me to reclamp or manually set a straight edge for each board. It would take forever. I am thinking possible put some sort of foot on the end of an 8 foot level and then push it with the board thru the table saw but not have them be attached. Just held against one another with a feather board.
Here is the order of operations I am planning on.
1) Plane board smooth on both sides.
2) Put straight edge on side 1
3) Put straight edge on side 2
4) Router groove in on side.
5) Route tongue on other side.
I have done something similar when I built the fence shown in the attached photo. I milled all the fence boards but they were shorter and no T&G. The posts and rails came already milled. I am installing a router lift in my table saw and putting an outfeed on.
Any advice would be appreciated.
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