Feather board on planer

[Froggy]

I've never seen or heard of anyone using a feather board on the outfeed end of a planer. Is there a reason for. I ask because I have some long thin pieces of oak that I want to plane but because of their length I'm struggling to feed them through and keep pressure on the outfeed end. I thought a feather board attached to the fence could solve this problem, but as I've never known anyone do this before thought there might be a good reason that I'm missing?

 

[James C]

Hey,

I'm having similar problems and am looking for a decent, featherboard that is quite versatile and can't work on all my machines.

Some of them do not have T-slots so I'm currently considering this.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/magswitch-universal-table-featherboard-prod796867/

You could definitely use it on your planar table or planar fence I reckon.

Costs a bit tho.

 

[Jacob]

Making your own is easy - just parallel stopped cuts in a board along the grain like a long toothed comb, size and shape to suit the job, clamped to the fence. And/or clamped to the table if you want to hold in both ways.
You'd certainly be able to improve on that expensive axminster offering.

 

[Lons]

Hi James

What also works in place of the board Jacob suggests is an offcut of 10mm PVC foam board. An offcut from a facia or windowcill cover board is ideal and the UPVc guys throw it away by the skipload. Same construction method Jacob suggests.

Don't know if freely available in France but there are many other plastics which will do the job as their strength is flexibility / strength, polycarbonate is even better if you can find it.

bob

 

[Froggy]

It's not actually making a feather board that I have a problem with, it's just that I've never known anyone use a feather board on a planer table before and wondered if there was a reason for that or do people actually use them and it's just that I've never seen it before?

 

[James C]

All the ones that I have seen, bought or home made, seem to be used on the infeed table to push up against the fence or on the fence keeping it pressed against the outfeed table.

 

[andersonec]

All downward pressure should be on the outfeed table, any downward pressure on the infeed table (especially with thin stock) is negating the straighteng effect of your planer, there should be no need for a featherboard.

Andy

 

[Froggy]

Thanks James, as you've seen it done and noone is screaming 'don't do it!' I think it will be safe to go ahead and try it.

Thanks Andy, but I don't need it straightening, just cleaning up. I intend to use the featherboard to put downward pressure on the outfeed end.

 

[Teckel]

Have you got a thicknesser??
If so stick them through that they will be fine.

Teckel

 

[Froggy]

I intend doing that after Teckel but if I don't plane one side first it will damage my thicknesser bed. It has done before.

 

[Tony Spear]

I intend doing that after Teckel but if I don't plane one side first it will damage my thicknesser bed. It has done before.

If you want your board to be square, you need to plane one side and one edge to 90 deg. first.

And Magswitches will only work if your fence is Iron or Steel!

 

[Froggy]

Thanks for that Tony, but I am competent with a PT - just never used a featherboard on one. I plan to clamp the featherboard so the fence material is not an issue.