Workshop Featherboards

From Bill Pound - This page will be dedicated to notes and tips from my woodworking shop. These things I find interesting and I hope you find them useful or interesting as well.

With this adjustable miter-slot featherboard, a twist of the wrist is all it takes to hold your work in place. This featherboard has a pointed end, which allows me to switch from the tablesaw to the bandsaw without having to disassemble the gadget.

Follow along and make your own wide sliding featherboard. Lots of shop pics to help you.

By Gord Graff in Newmarket Ontario - After posting a How To on making traditional feather boards I received a number of e-mails, and one in particular caught my eye. It seems the fellow does not have a band saw which negates the band saw method of making a feather board, and he was concerned about making one using the table saw method.

Springy fingers, eh? Interestingly enough, the amount of flexibility in a feather board is inversely proportional to its effectiveness; the springier the fingers, the less likely they will control your stock when you really need them to. After all,...

Featherboards are simple jigs that enhance both safety and accuracy. Also called fingerboards, they will hold narrow or thin stock securely against a tool fence or table without jeopardizing your fingers.

This is a link to a Google 3D SketchUp drawing for simple jig to use with clamps to make feather boards. You will need the SketchUp software to download this drawing and its freely available online. We do not provide support for this software. Not all drawings have the measurements displayed but you can use the measurement tool in SketchUp to easily and accurately determine the dimensions of each lumber part. Most drawings do not have instructions, its assumed you can build it based on the completed drawing provided.

Feather boards have been around in one form or another for a long time and for most woodworkers they are invaluable. It is like having a second or third pair of hands that never get tired. [At this link] are two methods that I have used to make feather boards over the years, one is a band saw method and the other is a table saw method.

I have always had problems with traditional finger-type featherboards. It is a real nuisance to discover that when the featherboard is applying enough pressure to hold the workpiece securely, it is hard to push the wood through the blade. I finally came up with a couple of alternatives that hold the stock tightly, yet do not resist forward movement. A further very big advantage of these jigs is that they permit safe climb cutting on the router table for unusual situations or for wood that has a tendency to splinter.

I use my table saw when cutting a groove in the edge of a workpiece. To keep tall pieces stable during the cut I made a featherboard that applies pressure over a wider area of the board.

Guarantee perfect rip cuts with this quick-to-set tablesaw helper.

A featherboard makes working with smaller stock on your table saw or router table much safer and simpler. These free woodworking plans will show you how to create your own featherboards.