Rip cutting guide setup for power saw

Last week, at the asylum I configured, nay, setup a table saw guide for a circular saw. More correctly it was a rip cutting guide for a power saw. A width stop crossed with a power saw cutting guide. If you are like me then, you don't like words and explanations; why words when an image would suffice. So here's the image of the setup.

Problem Statement

I'll lead you through the problems I faced and the consequent solutions.
First; an 8x4 sheet of 12mm ply (useless ply this is, need to find a better source) has to be cut up into 17 strips of 2 1/2 inch width.

With a table saw, 

1. Set the width guide to 2 1/2 inches 
2. Rip through the sheet.
3. Remove the recently cut strip. butt the sheet to guide and repeat steps 2 and 3. 

Steps 2 and 3 would be repeated 17 times

Now with the darling power saw

1. Measure 2 1/2 and draw line with straight edge.
2. Measure 1 1/2" from that line, draw another line.
3. Clamp the straight edge to the sheet at the second line. 2 clamps, so walk around the table
4. Clamp the entire sheet to the table. (Stability!!)
5. Rip through the sheet with sole pushed up against cutting guide set in 3.
6. Unclamp the guide. (going around the table again)
7. Unclamp the sheet.
8. Move sheet carefully so that the cut will be over the channel, but not too far otherwise we lose stability.

Repeat steps 1 through 8 17 times.
After the first cut, I optimized the measuring to simple do a 4 inch line for the guide.
Clearly the entire  task was going to be extremely tedious and inaccurate. Inaccurate since each time a measurement is done, you introduce a tiny error. Further, placing and clamping the guide to a line is always inaccurate. So differences of up to 2mm can be introduced in the width of the strips.
I'm a lazy ass, I'm really not going to spend an entire day ripping 17 strips. So...

Solution

Setting up the width stop

On the far side of the cutting channel I clamped down one length of ply. The placement was such that it was about 2 inches from the near edge of the cutting channel. This means that the 2 1/2" cut would always be over the cutting channel. 1/2" into the cutting channel to be precise.
Great, now I didn't have to keep pulling and pushing the sheet and trying to line it up so that I wont cut into the table. I would simple butt the sheet up to this "stop" and I would know I'm safe. It is best if the stop is the same size as the material so that the cutting guide can be setup on top of the stop.

Setting up the cutting guide

The cutting guide can be setup on either side of the cut. Now in this case the stop was on the left so I would setup my guide on the left of the cut. Setting it up on the right would mean that I would have to clamp to the material being cut, which is exactly what causes the problems in the first place. as I've described above.

So the stop is 12mm and I placed the cutting guide atop this in a such a way that it was exactly 4 1/2" from the cutting line. (the sole of the power saw is large on one side. in my case it is 4 1/2" and 1 1/2"). 

Having clamped that, I was ready for repeated cuts with precision. 

Conclusion

In this case I'd made the thickness or width of the width stop such that I could easily mount the cutting guide onto it. The guide was clamped to the stop to make it a single piece. The single piece was then secured separately to the table. If you do the math, the cutting guide would be placed exactly 2" away from the edge of the width stop.

Limitations

While this setup allowed me to quickly and easily cut the 17 strips of plywood that I needed, it has the following limitations

1. The width stop has to be the same size as the material being cut since the sole of the saw rests on the material. 
2. The point above also effectively means that for each material of different height, the width stop has to be changed. Material thickness ranges from 3mm mdf to 2 inch thick teak.
3. You will have noticed that if I need a 4" width, I would move the cutting guide to 1/2" from the edge of the stop. Ofcourse if want a width greater than 4 1/2" then I stuck. Or maybe I could have the cutting guide overhang the stop.

In a little bit I will talk about the setup for a cross cutting (cross cutting on ply??) guide for the power saw.