To joint long pieces of material, tune in to J-channel

I needed to put a nice straight edge on a long piece of stock, but because the piece was longer than my jointer's tables, I wasn't having much luck. I headed to the hardware store and bought an 8' length of aluminum J-channel (normally used with aluminum siding).

I sawed off the flange, as shown above, and attached the J-channel to my board with cloth-backed double-faced tape. Keeping the channel against my tablesaw's rip fence, I then cut a straight edge on the opposite edge of the stock. With this one 8' piece of J-channel, I've found I can joint stock up to 10' long. The tape will keep its tack for many boards if you wipe the dust from the wood before applying the channel.
—Ron Radecki, Grand Rapids, Mich.