Shop Tips
Featherboard Fundamentals
Why you should use a featherboard, what to look for when buying one, and how to make one.
In this Drawing Board video, see why you should be using a featherboard, what to look for when buying one, and check out a few shopmade alternatives.
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Comments
Featherboards are great. Table saw fences are not typically designed to work well with them -- No lock on what I call the "back" of the saw. With a lock on the far end they tend to flex with pressure out there. I know you say put it in front of the blade. One out back is not bad in some cases. If the fence does NOT flex at all. Your video showed Bob Van Dyke using a featherbaord to push DOWN. Also a great technique. But without a rear lock a table saw fence will just lift up with not much pressure. Does any manufacturer make a good quality, easy to use, accurate fence that locks front and back? Paralock was great, a bit of a pain to remove the fence, but otherwise very solid. But not popular.
Interesting. Of the two tablesaws that I have a significant amount of time with (Grizzly and Sawstop) neither of them have had this problem. Is you fence a t-square style (biesemeyer style)?
That should be: "WithOUT a lock on the far end"
This video is pretty annoying to watch and to listen to. It's too fast to really learn much from and is a bit nauseating to watch. I'd drop all the fancy video tricks and edgy music and use all your talents to make a presentation that is more enjoyable to watch while being more informative and useful.
Yes -- Biesemeyer brand -- fine for normal ripping, but definitely will move left or right with pressure at the back end. Not much, mind you, but I don't like it to move at all when I am using. And easily lifts 1/2 up at the back end with slight down pressure from a featherboard.
Nice work! I like the video style and the energy - it a good, quick overview with just enough detail. I might spend a bit more time a couple of the details, but I like the spirit - keep it up. (and just in case people wonder, I'm closer to the geezer end of the spectrum than the millennial end)
Ben, appreciate the effort and enthuaism that you put into this video. A number of your creative methods used to produce this video worked well. However, some of the others fell flat for me - the speed of the video was way too fast overall to understand what was going on, especially after you finished "the classic". And while I thought your approach using your phone as a method to view parts of the video, the viewing area of the phone is too small to see what's happening.
As with any form of communication, you have to consider the content of your message, your audience, and their reason for watching. When I watch a technique video I want to see and understand what's going on so I can learn and apply the content afterwards.
Thanks Ben!
Style, speed, creativity, content, compliments all around.
If FWW wanted a same ol' video about featherboards, they could have asked Mr. Kenney to do it (wink wink), but they didn't. They wanted your creativity and style when they hired you, keep it up!!!
I go to FW to learn, not for edgy music or entertainment. I suppose learning and entertainment don't have to be mutually exclusive, but the entertainment value of this was pretty low (given my tastes) and what I really "learned"from this video is that there are different kinds of featherboards. We rely on FW to do better than this.
I love the diversity of comments in this thread. I enjoy Ben's Drawing Board videos and was pleased to see even more creativity come out in this one.
I knew the music would get some people, but as a 40-something dad who grew up in the 80s, I found it to be fun and enjoyable.
What I love is how much information Ben can pack into a 2 min video with this approach. I thought the use of the cell phone was awesome. Most of the content was review for me, but I realized the placement of my featherboard is a little further back than what he showed. I was also very intrigued to see the new rubber foam weatherboard used, as there is an article in the latest issue on that particular model.
Great work, Ben! Keep them coming!
Please slow the next ones down.
Ben, this vid kicked ass. Please keep it up.
This would do well on YouTube and probably help with viewership and diversifying the audience and subscribership. Not that you needed me to tell you this.
Own it brother.
B+ for style, C- for content. I agree with the comments about speed - had to back up and play / stop to read the comment about clamping in 2 places. It was extra annoying because I knew that already. Also showering the video on a cell logos was clever but ineffective.
Ben, despite other comments I find your video rather clever in approach. I am an old dog and had no problem getting the content. The video technique is reminiscent of early cartoons where the cartoon artist would draw the character which in turn would come to life in a stop action mode. A lot these were made in the late 1920's and 30's. At any rate Ben well done.
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