Customer Reviews

Milescraft 1406 FeatherBoard for Router Tables, Table Saws and Fences

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

 

 

I replaced a set of worn out homemade featherboards with two of the Milescraft 1406 single FeatherBoards and one 1407 tandem FeatherBoard. Both of the 1406's were shipped missing the 5/8" miter guides. It's a packaging deficiency, not the vendors fault. The 1407 tandem ships in a compact box making missing pieces difficult. Check the instruction page of the FeatherBoard or the Milescraft webpage for the missing parts and make note of the missing part number. A short email to Milescraft and the problem was solved. Within 24 hours had a phone call and an email confirming shipment of the missing parts. Overall, the Milescraft 1406 single and 1407 tandem FeatherBoards are good products at a fair price with excellent customer service.

Nice design. Had to return the first one I got because it was missing the 5/8 inch miter bar I needed for my table saw. Probably the same one the other reviewer returned. Amazon needs to make sure their packages are complete before shipping. They were quick to send a replacement and provide return shipping label so all is well that ends well.

Need to down grade this item to zero stars. The replacement came today and was also missig he 5/8 inch miter bar. Looks like Amazon has a couple of incomplete items in stock that they just keeps sending out to someone in hopes they just give up and keep it.

Do Not Order this item - I'd question Amazon's quality control going forward.

It is a good value, but does have some shortcomings.

Making adjustments to the position is a little difficult.
The sliding rail doesn't slide very well.

But that is it. It functions fine other than the rail/adjustments.

The product was shipped promptly. I had to file down the rough cutouts on the side to fit in my guides on the tablesaw. After that it worked smoothly.

Had to return the first order as the miter slide for my saw was missing. Typical of Amazon, they were very quick and proactive in sending me a new one. Works good for being an inexpensive finger fence.

The Ryobi table saw has a 5/8 miter slot so this is one of the only featherboards that would work right out of the box. The featherboard itself is substantially sized and feels solid. Making adjustments takes some patience, but after a couple tries you will get the hang of it. I was suprised to find out the miterbar only locks down on one side using the back knob. This makes the front vulnerable to lifting up, however, this has never happened. Overall, the product does what it is supposed to do.

This feather board has a number of problems. The aluminum castings that ride in the miter slots are very roughly cast and don't fit well in miter slots. The movement of the feather board along the one straight slot and the second curved slot is painfully clumsy, making a good adjustment very difficult. Skip this feather board!

I like the concept of the design of this featherboard and most of the design is well executed. The metal bar (there are two different sizes of bars to fit different width slots) secures well to the slot by expanding when the hand nuts are tightened (the expansion of the bar wedges the bar in place). Positioning the featherboard relative to the blade and the width of the board being cut is fairly easy. I found that the combination of the stiffness of the feather (fingers) and their friction as they press on the side of the board to be too high, making in difficult to push the board through the blade. I could work around this awkwardness by very carefully positioning the featherboard such that the feathers were just barely touching the board. Such positioning was a bit tedious to do but it got easier over time once I better understood what the issue was. Even when so positioned, the featherboad still worked well enough at keeping the board pressed against the fence when ripping boards. In summary, I believe the feathers are too stiff and/or have too much friction against boards (I was ripping mahogany) but I found that very careful positioning of the featherboard was a workable way to compensate for the issue.

Does an adequate job, once it is setup and properly positioned. Have found that this featherboard is harder to adjust that most other featherboards that I have used. The "serpentine path" for the clamping bolt on one side of the featherboard tends to make the clamping bolt "hang up" in the slot, when making adjustments to the position of the featherboard. Also, had to "deburr" the slots for the adjustment bolts in order to make the bolts slide in the slots. And, even after deburring, the bolts still do NOT always move smoothly.

The plastic thumscrews were not tapped, so I had to go get two wingnuts from the hardware store. 1/2 track snapped in two on my first use. It's made of very brittle metal. Very poor product. I had a similar experience with a router bushing set from Milescraft. I won't buy from them again. They've crossed the line between cheap and worthless.