Hi Jamie,
What featherboards/ ripping accessories would you recommend if you had the following to choose from?
I was just checking out tablesaw accessories on the LeeValley website.
They have quite a few to choose from. There are 3 I’m interested in.
1. Grip-Tite magnetic featherboards
2. Magnetic featherboard and hold-down attachemnt
3. GRR Ripper system .. which isn’t that much more expensive than the Magnetic featherboard and hold-down attachment.
Saw an excellent video on the Grip-Tite website so I’m leaning towards buying the Grip-Tite magnetic featherboards. I’ve noticed that the ones at LeeValley don’t come with the rollers. hmmm and they don’t sell the metal subfence either. Probably be better off buying their complete system than just the individual Grip-Tite Featherboards.
Do you have any experience with the GRR Ripper system. Lot cheaper than buying 2 Grip Tite featherboards.
What do you use on your tablesaw when ripping narrow boards/panels/large sheets of plywood/ Thin sheet goods such as 1/8″ and 1/4″ mdf or hardboard which can be hard to hold down. They have a tendency to ride up.
Wanda
Replies
I have two of the grip-tights, but don't often use them. I generally want to place the featherboard tips right near the blade, and the magnetic base doesn't grab to the insert, which is the area nearest the blade.
Hi. I have the GRRipper, and use it for very thin stock, or for awkward shapes such as dowels, for which I think it's unbeatable. You can also use it for similar stock on a router table. However it only works safely on relatively short stock. For longer stuff you need 2 GRRRs, using them hand over hand. I didn't buy mine from LV, but if I remember right they don't sell the top of the line model, though there isn't really much difference -- adjustable handle?
Can't comment on the others, because I don't use them. Where possible I use a springboard in place of feathers. Sarge showed a honking big deluxe one on a recent thread. Mine are more modest, like my skills.
Jim
Jim
Hi Jimurock,
"I use springboard in place of feathers".. Do you mean those anit-kickback safety rollers. Woodcraft sells them for $44.99 each I believe.
Wanda
Nah, it's an old fashioned device you make yourself from scrap wood -- I'm not even sure I've got the right name for them. Hard to describe, and I'm nowhere near the shop to photograph. It works like a featherboard, but the face in contact with the workpiece is long and continuous, so you get even pressure all the way along. Works really well on a router table. I don't think that many people use them anymore, but I prefer them.
Cheers, Jim
So these anti kickback safety rollers that Wanda mentions, are they of any value? I've seen a couple kinds.
T3, the first ones she mentioned were the little tiny ones that are sold with a GripTite kit, they attach to the side of the GT that's mounted to the fence. The second ones sound like the Board Buddies, big tapered rollers, right? Is that what you're thinking of??forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Sorry, can't help -- I've never used them. I've pretty much given up on new aftermarket gizmos for machines. They rarely work as well or as fast as the beaten-up traditional stuff I'm used to, and wind up in the local May jumble sale. An exception would be the GRRRipper, which to me is the safest way to handle small thin stock.
Jim
I picked up a pair of Grrripers at a show last fall but I haven't used them yet. I've been in the habit of leaving the guard in place and of course they are incompatible. I've been to busy building on the shop, house and yard to do any real shop work. One of these days.
I'm a guard guy too, but when I've been burned in the past -- or bloodied -- it's been cutting narrow, small stock with the guard in place, so I was happy to find something that worked. There is one use for it on their video that I don't try, the one that involves running the pad over the blade. I figure it would take forever to get replacement pads sent to Canada.
Jim
I've been using Board Buddies for a couple of years and have been quite happy with them. Have been doing a lot of work with sheets of melamine-coated particle board, the rubber wheels are about the only thing that will grip this stuff. The BBs don't work well for pieces less than about 3" wide, other than that I've found them to be a useful addition to my saw.
Cheers,
P.
Do they replace the kickback pawls, or do you use them also?
Do they replace the kickback pawls..
I was twice.. The last time I hope! Last time I thought for sure I would die! Hit me in that Solorplexes! I was sure it was my last breth but somehow I lived through it.
Wanda, I've had some GripTites for several years, and while they are very handy, I think they been left in the dust by the MagSwitch Universal Featherboard, as found at Lee Valley:
View Image
It doesn't have the hold-down that the GripTite has, but I have ended up removing that most of the time, as it's so stiff it tends to mar the stock.
I have a couple of friends who swear by the GRR-ripper, but I've not used one yet.
As far as thin sheets go, to prevent them from riding up, I simply clamp a board, maybe 1/2" thick, to the fence in such a way that it forms a channel for the thin stock to ride in, in other words, just a hair over 1/4" above the table for 1/4" thick ply.
Wanda,
I don't think you can do an either/or between the GRR Ripper and any type of feather board. I have both the Grip-tite and GRR Ripper. I've used them together occasionally. I use the GRR Ripper much more than the Grip-tites. I find it useful on my router table too. If I had to pick one, I would buy the GRR Ripper.
I also have the Bench Dog feather boards. You can get a set of them from Woodpeckers for $23. They also sell T-slot adapters for $7.
One thing that has come up with the Grip-tite is I have made my own zero clearance insert from wood. So if I need to get close to the blade, I'm limited to the edge of the insert. It just happened the other day so I used the Bench Dog feather boards. I also have a metal fence but have never attached it my saw. I've not had a situation where I needed it.
I cut thin stock and acrylic all the time. One technique that makes safety guys cringe is to raise the blade up high. It's actually safer than when you only raise the blade up 1/4 inch above thin stock. The blade comes down on to the stock holding it to the table.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Wanda,
I've had Grip Tites for years - but have always found them difficult to use: once the magnets hit the table they really stick and therefore it is tough to adjust them to the appropriate 'pressure' against the work.
The automatic feather boards that FG pictures are the "cat's meoww". They do not stick until you turn the switch - and then they REALLY stick. Easy to adjust after each cut. I also bought the hold-down attachment and use it often.
Frosty
"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
Frosty, the GripTites can be a little fussy to adjust, but I found one of those small mallet-type hammers with the fiberglass head on one side (rubber on the other) works great, a gentle tap. The GT's can scratch the table surface though, for those who are fussy a downside.
I'll probably get one of the Magswitch featherboards (or a pair) soon. Keep the GT's for use as a one-point fence, stuff like that. Too bad Wanda's up in Canada. Down here, we can access Rockler, which sells a few different Magswitch goodies, including this one:
View Image
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 5/17/2008 11:54 am by forestgirl
Hi,
Like Len I have a wooden zero clearance insert I made for my table saw. Would I be better off useing the Bench Dog featherboards that insert into the miter slot instead of the magnetic featherboards?... after all you want to place the featherboard just in front of the saw blade for the most effectiveness.
Forest Girl I did manage to find a load of magnetic featherboard goodies at Woodcraft (0nline) They do ship to Canada and fortunately for me I don't have to pay duties. They are linked up with Border-free Canada Post.
So many to choose from hey. The Pro magnet table featherboard looks good and you can also buy the pro magnet vertical accessory to go with it. Apparently the Standard Magnet table featherboard doesn't work with the vertical attachment. Then you have the Universal magnet featherboad like the one you mentioned. Then there is the Pro Fence Magnetic featherboard.
If you could choose just 1 which one would you pick????? Would be nice to have a pair. I could attach a steel fence to my auxilary fence and use a pair of pro fence magtnetic featherboards or Universal magnet featherboards.
I'll only be using them on my Table Saw.
Wanda
Wanda, even if you had a steel insert, you'd not want to be putting a magnetic featherboard on it. You only want those on something solidly part of the saw. Table qualifies nicely <grin>.
The Bench Dog featherboard looks like it is very well made, and gives you good flexibility in positioning. If I can get the same qualities in a magnetic FB, that's where I'm going to go, just because it's a bit quicker to get it in working position. [Len'll throw eggs at me for that.] Based on the picture below, it appears that the miter slot would not present problems to the Magswitch. I can tell you from experience that the GripTite is not so blessed, I frequently find myself trying to maneuver around the miter slot with it.
View Image
If Woodcraft will ship to you, you're in a good situation! When you say "pick just one" do you mean one style, or one item?? If you mean one item, that's where the Bench Dog would trump the Magswitch -- looks like you could mount it to either side of the blade. There may be a situation where you'd want to switch it around.
As always, it's your decision!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
"Len'll throw eggs at me for that."
Have you been to the market lately? Eggs are too expensive for that. LOL. Now, I might serve a couple of tennis balls at you. Those are reusable.
Remember quicker is not neccesarily better. Easier, yes.
I'm not against any of the devices mentioned. I have all of them except for the Mag-switch ones. Plus a few that are homemade and are easier to set up because they were designed for a specific task.
One thing about Mag-switch bother's me. The picture you posted with the hold down. Why in the world, would you want to hold down the off cut? Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
"Why in the world, would you want to hold down the off cut?" Good question I suppose, but since the point of contact is on the infeed side of the blade, does it really matter? At that point, it's neither an offcut or (whatever the opposite of an offcut is). It's simply "stock." I'm in a contrarian mood this morning!
It does look a little odd though. Probably because, traditionally, the hold-down is attached to the fence.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Yes, I noticed.
The setup would stop the offcut or stock from completely passing by the blade. Leaving the piece next to the spinning blade.Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
For some reason I'm not seeing it. Of course, in the picture (repeated below), they don't even have the saw blade raised up to operating height for a through cut. Do you see a problem if the hold-down is placed appropriately before where the blade makes its cut? These pictures are rarely evaluated for "real-life" properties, as we've seen often in the magazines.
View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Third try. Apparently Knots didn't like something I was doing.
Yes, it's a markeing photo and not the real world. I've included a couple of photos right from the Mag-Switch site to illustrate my points
I was taught that the hold down should be on the fences side of the blade. Or the hold down should be close to the alignment of the blade. If you look at the first "marketing" photo you can see the board has a slight cup to it. If you cut the board with the feather board in the location shown it would have a tendency to lift the edge that is against the fence.
The second photo show the feather board in use. It's a perspective shot but you can see the feather board is located past the miter slot. The vertical portion is closer in alignment to the blade.
What I'm getting at is. The vertical attachment is not be a useful as a Griptite. The horizontal Mag-Switch looks pretty nifty.
This is really just nit picking, since most of us will only use feather boards on narrow stock. Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Yeah, I don't like the looks of that.
I have a vague memory of an ad awhile back, not even sure what it was for (blade, accessory, whatever) that showed stock being fed in from the wrong side of the saw table, ROFL!
Hey, what's the URL for the Magswitch site? I tried to find it yesterday, but it didn't show up in the first page of Google returns.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 5/19/2008 12:50 am by forestgirl
http://magswitch.com.au/usa/
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&cat=1,43455&p=56000With some of these you can make any kind of clamp, hold down, feather board, or jig to suit the machine and the work being done. Or you could save a few bucks and hold them to the table saw with some clamps. The link is for Canadian prices.
Thanks! The link (from Google) that didn't work for me yesterday is working today, but your link is more direct.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Good afternoon FG,
I'll probably order the Bench Dog along with one of the Magnetic featherboards.
? is which style? What is the more versatile style....
Wanda
Wanda,
If you do buy the bench dog. The best place to get them is from Woodpeckers.
http://www.woodpeck.com/benchdogfeather.html
They sell in a pair. The only thing you need to get is the miter adapters Or you can do what I did and cut a piece of oak to match the miter slot. Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
LV carries what you pictured.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Ahhh, I see they do, Chris. It doesn't show up on the page that the other "safety aids" are on, but a search brings it up. Thanks.
**Turns out they had the items listed in different categories, and since that's the way I found the Universal FB, that's all I saw.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 5/17/2008 11:23 pm by forestgirl
Jamie,I've got the model you show with the hold-down attachment. It really is a step up fro the GTs. I still use the GT on the bandsaw on occasion.I've been waiting 90 days for my SharkGuard (all the horror stories about table saw safety provided motivation) I hope it arrives this week. I'll let the group know how it installs and works.Frosty"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
I just put the MagSwitch on my Lee Valley wish list for the next order. Yep, the Shark Guard guy is running full-tilt-boogie trying to keep up, it appears.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
To add to what Len says, comparing the GRRR to the others is comparing chalk with cheese. The others stay in place and contain the piece mechanically for you, leaving your hands free. The GRRR is essentially a more sophisticated push pad, with the advantage that you can push it past the sawblade. It relies on your weight to keep the piece flat to the table, and tight to the fence without mechanical aids.
Jim
Grip-Tite magnetic featherboards. I have two and they work SORT of WELL! NOT knocking them BUT They still can move.
I have found for stopping kickback.. Which I have had on some cuts.. I clamp a 'stopper' above the 'the 'sticks' onto the fence using clamps, likely to kick back at me.. Yes even with a splitter .. NO Riving knife here and not sure that would work always!
OK.. so someday I may be hit in the head with a clamp or the above hardwood block!
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