I purchased several of these. Initially they looked good, but in use they are annoying and end up breaking. Most other commercially available featherboards are better designed, better built and cost less! I am surprised other reviewers rate these so high, I suspect the ratings are given before much use.
1. The black plastic knobs that you use to tighten the featherboard in place capture onto a nut head. The largest problem with these featherboards is that it is easy to strip the black plastic knobs when they are tightened, allowing the plastic knob to turn freely on the captive bolt.
2. A better design would ensure a more positive capture into the track slot by having both black knobs works to lock the split aluminum bar into the track slot, in this design only one of the knobs does this. Which BTW is the one that strips as above, since you have to tighten it enough to stop the featherboard sliding in the track.
3. The black plastic knobs are small and feel cheap, other commercial featherboards have larger knobs that are easier to tighten.
4. Also after using them for a while you've start to hate the non-parallel bolt slots that the featherboard slides around on. Most other commercial featherboards have parallel slots and these are easier to adjust. Bench Dog 40-011 Feather-Loc Double Featherboard for Table Saws & Router Tables
I have been using these featherboards for a little while now both on my router table and on my table saw fence.
They do there job but I find it awkward and time consuming to set them up because of the non parallel slots.
I'm on just now to order one more pair. I appreciate Darrel's review above and want to add my thoughts.
Darrel is referring to the feather locks that come with an aluminum split bar you can use in a standard ¾ miter gauge slot. I got one of those when I purchased the cast iron Bench Dog router table that attaches to a table saw replacing the left table. BTW I love the router table. I got the fence and their switch, which all have been working great. The heavy cast iron table mated perfectly to my old Delta contractor's saw and the extra weight helps add mass to the whole saw. I bought a new porter cable 891 and love the whole set up.
I agree with you that the aluminum split bar thing is a joke. I looked at it once and never even tried it. It looks like it would only grip the slot at one end. I can imagine that you might strip the knobs out trying to tighten it sufficiently. I would trash that whole idea.
On the other hand, I love the feather locks used with the router table. They are really easy to use and work great. Routs are way cleaner with feather boards. I have two and need two more so I can use two on the table and two on the fence. It's hard for me to imaging breaking one when used for a router application. Another carpenter in my shop thought that the magnetic base feather board approach would be good for ripping on a table saw, which sounds like what you were trying to do?
Although it is possible to make these I decided to purchase the Bench Dog feather boards to go with my bench dog pro-top router table. I am glad I did as it makes it a lot easier to handle routing the longer items. The feather locs can be attached effortlessly, adjusted easily and are like an extra hand, making it easier to manipulate the workpiece and much safer. I think I could probably have made a pair but for $20 I think I made the right choice. Its a nice product and a feather board of some type is an excellent safety addition. They look great and work well.
I imagine they might have a good product but their marketing sucks.
I expect to take something out of a box and begin using it. You pay for a product and you should get something that works.
Once you try to use this, it doesn't adapt to your saw. Upon investigation, you need to purchase the adaptor which they offer for another $10 as I remember. Thats not what I expect from a business. I thought being made in the usa was good but I'd rather buy something chinese that I can use.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I purchased one of these on amazon a while ago. Initially, it was great. But as others have noted, they are not well made. They do strip out after some use, making them worthless. I did not use this often, so its not like it was heavily used - or abused. This is in a rarely used hobby shop, so saw very little action. These would last a week in a shop where they were used with any regularity. There has to be a better quality featherboard out there. I would not recommend this one - not even for a very light duty shop.
These featherboards looked good so I bought. In use they are hard to adjust because the slots are not parallel and the bolts bind. Because the slots get closer as you move the fingers closer to the blade, the featherboard has more leverage on it and is not that stable. They should have kept the slots parallel
Also, featherboards only work when the fingertips are parallel to the fence and these are hard to adjust.
The other problem is only one of the bolt knobs actually cause the miter track to expand to hold the featherboard in!! This is the biggest problem. The other bolt only pulls the orange plastic down to the track but does not expand in the slot. So there is always some rotational play in the featherboard.
The bottom line is-- this is an expensive featherboard with two insurmontable problems, so keep looking.
I bought these to go with a table saw I just purchased for home use and have used the bench dog featherboard before. My three star rating is not so much for the product as I thought it works quite well, but for the infomation given on the product.
You should know these two things:
1) The miter slot adaptor does NOT come with these feather boards. Either I did not read the item description very well, or it does not state this in the online info. It does however clearly state this on the packaging the item comes with. If you are expecting to use these featherboards on your 3/4" miter slots, you can't unless you purchase the adaptor. They fit 1/4" T slots.
2) The two featherboars that arrive are mirror images of each other. The photograph of the items online, as best as I can tell, shows two itentical items side-by-side. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but don't expect two identical boards. Use one in the left miter slot (once you purchase the adaptor) and the other will work in the right miter slot, or on your rip fence. - Bench Dog - Featherboards - Benchdog Router Table - Router'
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