Customer Reviews

Bench Dog 10-005 Feather-Loc Single Featherboard for Table Saws and Router Tables

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We all know that home made featherboards are makable. The problem is the way to clamp them down. Normally you are using clamps that are far reaching for a table top, or over the top of the fence, which may get in the way of your workpiece.
With the Blade Loc featherboards, they use the existing mitre slot of your table saw or router table (3/4" approx) for their grip. They have a tapered cut on a built in metal mitre track (that you can not see from the photograph) that the nut underneath mushrooms out, squeezing it against your mitre track.
Since those locking T-handles that you see are installed along a sliding groove (that you can see) you are able to slide-adjust the featherboard to meet with your workpiece. No far reaching clamps to deal with.
The feathering action is nice. They give in such a way as to make the grip as gentle or as tough as you want it. I find that with home made featherboards, that aspect is harder to control. If you cut the tongues too wide, or too thin, they can break. With the Bench Dog, they are more durable, never break, and are fully adjustable to the tension you want.
You can buy the mitre slot adapter, or style which is what I am talking about in this review. They also come with a T-nut style so you can use them in a track. That is simply a nut underneath that rides in your T-style track. They work even better than the mitre track method, which depending on your mitre track on your saw, may or may not grip as tightly as you would like, if it has even the slightest bit of oil, or waxy residue on the surface.
I must say that with either method, all in all a great piece of equipment. Handy, universal, and inexpensive considering how often you may get to use it.

I recently had to borrow a feather board from a friend. I had broken a home made one. So I did and found it be totally versatile easy to use and take off. It also felt very comfortable in many different positions. Changing angles quickly and it also was very accurate, no hangups. The material also allows the wood to pass through without binding. So I automatically went to the amazon.com web site found it and ordered it, along with the bench dog blade lock easy blade change is a must to keep your blades and cuts accurate. I'm waiting anxiously. THANK YOU IFLEM-INC.

I purchased about five of these for use on different tools. Initially they looked good, but in use they are annoying and end up breaking. Most other commercially available featherboards for table saws are better designed, better built and cost less! I am surprised other reviewers rate these so high, I suspect the ratings are given before much use.

1. The black plastic knobs that you use to tighten the featherboard in place capture onto a nut head. The largest problem with these featherboards is that it is easy to strip the black plastic knobs when they are tightened, allowing the plastic knob to turn freely on the captive bolt.

2. A better design would ensure a more positive capture into the miter track by having both black knobs works to lock the split aluminum bar into the miter slot, in this design only one of the knobs does this. Which BTW is the one that strips as above, since you have to tighten it enough to stop the featherboard sliding in the miter track.

3. The black plastic knobs are small and feel cheap, other commercial featherboards have larger knobs that are easier to tighten.

4. Also after using them for a while you've start to hate the non-parallel bolt slots that the featherboard slides around on. Most other commercial featherboards have parallel slots and these are easier to adjust.

Amazon has wooden featherboards and the Grip-tite model available, both are much better than these. Also Rockler makes a good $7 table saw featherboard that is a much better product.

I've been using this featherboard for several months now on my table saw. It is another excellently designed Benchdog product. The miter bar included with this model enables it to firmly lock into the miter slots of the table saw and yet be moved quickly and easily for other set ups. Its features include a special short finger among the plastic "feathers" that enables you to correctly tension the featherboard against the workpiece. I just wish that Amazon had the package that has the two featherboards without the miter bar for use on my router fence.

Either these fingerboards work well or they don't. This one does. Good quality all around. The short "starting" finger is a nice idea. It's also plenty big to fit just about any need. It's pricy but I would buy again.

I have been using one of these feather-locs on my DeWalt DW746 tablesaw with great success. The "feathers" have just the right amount of stiffness to hold my stock tightly against the fence without leaving scratches. I also love how easily adjustable this tool is. As for downsides - if you use any sort of spray-on saw top protectant (I use T-9), it will make your miter slots a bit slippery and take away from the effectiveness of this tool until you clean and dry the miter slots. However, when the miter slots are clean and oil free this thing holds just fine. Coincidentally, I have the Bench Dog cast iron router table wing on my tablesaw and this featherboard doesn't work nearly as well in that miter slot as it does in my tablesaw slots. Go figure...

Anyway, this is a good tool that in my opinion is slightly too expensive. If it were $19.99 or less I would give it five stars!

Well-made tool that does what it's supposed to do. A little pricey, but I'd buy it again.

I bought this to use with a $200 Craftsman 10" table saw only to discover that it will not fit the Craftsman miter slot (evidently, Craftsman elected not to make the slot a standard size on their cheaper models). So if you are wanting to use it with a Craftsman table saw, unless you know the miter slot size is adequate, don't waste your money. I have a Bench Dog router table that I will use this featherboard with, so it wasn't a total waste. However, it is way over-priced for something that is made almost entirely of plastic.

It does what it claims to do. Locks into the channel and guides the workpiece nicely. As to its longevity...we'll see. I'm a bit skeptical of the plastic's ability to survive continued abuse.

I have an old sears tablesaw with a 3hp motor. It will cut through just about anything I put to the table.
Last year while cutting dados in a table leg, I had a kick-back and lost half of one of my fingers.(ouch!) I knew that I should have had feather boards in place but could'nt get any to stay in place where I needed them. Sure am glad now to have the BenchDogs feather boards in place. They lock into my miter slot and stay put even through long rips. The T handles make adjustments easy and quick. I put a t track on my rip fence to use a second BenchDog as a hold down. Works great.
Live and Learn.