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I just replaced mine with the maglock magnetic feather boards. I like Bench Dog stuff, but I am disappointed in this featherboard. Also, their universal feather board can be found at HD made for Ridgid for $10 less than anywhere else. While they're more expensive they work great if you have a cast iron table saw top. Like other people have said, it slips in the miter slot unless you really crank it down. I even scuffed up the sides to get some more grip.
Why wait to find out the hard way if some quality inspection worker had an off day at Bench Dog. The knobs were as tight as they could be. I cannot trust this product and nor should you. I bought these units to make my shop safer, but instead have a tool that introduced danger, unexpected danger at that.
I bought two of these and almost immediately one of the units slipped in the track while the other seems to be solid. What are your fingers worth. How long until the other unit slips too. When did I discover the slip.
This is not the kind of situation where poor design or quality can be accepted. Do you want to be suddenly distracted while using your table saw. While ripping some wood on my table saw. I was not happy.
I usually start with a piece of scrap wood and set the compression force on that piece in accordance with the operation that I am planning. I tend to mount these devices as close as possible to the cutter. That said, I can use these in the vertical plane and in the horizontal plane to maintain proper orientation. I tend to set one handle and lever off that to set the second, then re-adjusting the first to fine tune the effect. The directionality of the device does force me to plan ahead and be mindful of the feed direction. I have several of these featherboards now.
My router table has several T-slots that are compatible with the adjustable fasteners. The "T" handle adjustments work well. I use them with my router table. The angularity of the device helps to get a little more positional control just a bit further under my router table's protective viewing shield. Overall, I find this to be a good product and will probably get another pair before long. They do a good job of controlling the position of the stock that I am cutting or shaping.
I use them on the in-feed side and the out-feed side.
I have not used the product yet, but it should add to the quality of my work when i'm using my saw.
This is a handy little device. When ripping long boards (8-12 feet) on my table saw, the featherboard functions as an assistant holding the board snuggly against the fence. Quick turns of the 2 toggles hold the featherboard firmly against the board and in the miter slot.
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