Making a board longer

What do you do if you have a board that's a few inches shorter than it needs to be and you don't want to shell out more to buy a longer board?

If you're Arnold, you grab hold of the ends of the board and stretch it until it's the right length. For the rest of us mere mortals, there is another approach that doesn't rely on brute strength. Instead, it involves cutting the board in half diagonally and sliding the two halves along the diagonal until the board is the desired length. Then it's a simple matter of gluing the pieces together and trimming to size. Here are the illustrated steps:

	The original board that needs lengthening.  Draw a diagonal line across two of the corners and cut along this line using the band saw. (Note: this technique works best if the grain is fairly uniform across the width of the board).
	The board as two triangular-shaped halves. Run each piece through the jointer to clean up the cut edge. For a smoother cut, feed with the narrow end of the triangle towards the rear.
	Slide the two pieces along the diagonal cut line until the desired length is reached.  Glue and clamp the pieces together. When dry, cut off the angled "nibs" and rip the board to width.
	The final board, longer and narrower than the original. With any luck, the grain will match up reasonably well.

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