I have bought two of the magnetic feather boards which hold wood against the rip fence of a table saw and also down against the table. I had originally thought that I would use one before the blade and one after. I am now wondering if having pressure against the board on the back side of the blade after the cut would tend to close up the saw kerf and pinch the wood against the back of the blade. I am now using a SawStop which has a riving knife. Using a feather board only in front of the blade at present, I am getting very good results. The last piece I ripped was only about 36 ” long, but measuring with a digital caliper, there was only about 0.001″ difference in width over all. There is always a possibility that after the wood is pushed past the feather board before the blade, it will not be as tight against the fence and therefore be cut slightly narrower.
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Replies
It would not be useful with the riving knife/splitter in place, and further, you would be closing the kerf. You are pushing against the cutoff piece, not the finished stock, so it does not serve a purpose (other than to close the kerf).
The only way I can see that as useful would be if you were trimming off less than the blade width so there is no cutoff piece on the outfeed side of the blade and you could carefully position the featherboard to hold the piece tight to the fence on the backside. But again, with the riving knife it seems that you wouldn't have room for it. W/out a splitter/knife I could see it being done.
Typically when people use two, one is to puch the board against the fence just before the blade and the other mounted on the fence to hold the board down onto the table such as when routing. I would NOT use a second featherboard after the blade on the table saw as you are just testing your splitter's lateral strength and, depending upon your splitter's proximity to the blade, kickback.
DO NOT use one after the blade. you a run big risk of kickback.
I use 2 one near the front edge of the table and 1 just before the blade
I also use 2 on my fence one just before the blade and one just after it to hold the stock down.
Just remember, that wood expands and contracts a 0.001 differance in width one day may change to something else the next. nore, even or less depending on humidity, season and species of wood.
Thanks to all who replied. That is pretty much what I had decided too, but wanted confirmation from the experts.
who? where are they?1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
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