Feather Boards

[dusty]

There has been some discussion here about feather boards and the fact that feather boards are on back order. I went on line to see what was available there - there are many but they might not fit in the Shopsmith t-slot.

I went to Woodcraft to see and feel for myself.
http://www.woodcraft.com/EnhancedImage.aspx?ProductString=144518.jpg&NameCode=144518

These looked like they might be an OK replacement; at least until I got my hands on one.

I'll go home and make my own if I can't get them from Shopsmith before I would buy these. By comparison, these are made of flimsy plastic. There is no way they would hold up in the shop for as long as my Shopsmith feather boards have.

I think I'll just order two or three and wait.

[jmoore65]

I've been tempted to make a replacement feather board out of wood and reusing the existing bar, screws and knobs.

[JPG40504]

Was in Sears the last week and ran across this featherboard. It was 14.95, BUT I 'opened a Sears master card acct for which I got $15.00 credit towards my 'first payment'. It comes with TWO miter bars (5/8" and 3/4"). The bars are made of aluminum.

Judicious use of the belt sander reduced the width of the 3/4" bar to fit. The only critical dimension is the portion of the bar which is solid(not part of a slot),

3298

3299

I like the ability to mount over a WIDE angle range(what/when I will need that I do not know, but it IS nice to be able to do so). This DOES reduce the straight line adjustment range. Time will tell if it is truely useful.

It appears to be NOT in the flimsy category.

[reible]

Hi Dusty,

I had the impression it was not the feather boards per say but the vertical mounted ones... of course it could be you are right.

There must be fifty ways to make these and I have several I made in my pre-shopsmith days... just plain old pine I cut with the bandsaw. You have to clamp them on but hey they work. In fact I still use them on my non shopsmith bandsaw. A simple search on the web should yield a pile of designs.

If you need to have the vertical someone just posted (today I think) a way to do it. I've done it a bit different here on my old opr but a simple fence added to the rip fence would work just like shown.

3300.

Ed