Power feeder on a tablesaw question

[Bob Vavricka]

in the latest issue of Wood magazine there is a article evaluating 3 hp tablesaws and there is a picture of them using a power feeder for a test cut to rip about a 2 inch piece off of a wider board. The feeder is set to the left of the blade guard and it looks like the splitter they are using has anti-kickback pawls. (The picture I am referring to is on page 49).
My questions are: Is this how a power feeder is typically used on a tablesaw? And what moves the cut piece from between the fence and the blade? I guess I don't like the idea of a piece left between the blade and the fence once the cut is finished. Just curious because I am planning to get a power feeder in the near future.

[J.R. Rutter]

I always just straddled the blade and used a low profile splitter (or none, depending on the saw). Maybe they were worried about liability and wanted to show the splitter in place. Lousy setup for real world though.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a 3 wheel feeder and have always set it up as follows

- blade is between the in feed, and two out feed rollers

- on my feeder the in feed roller spacing to the middle roller is larger than the spacing between the two out feed rollers

- raise the blade enough to clear the wood, a couple of times I've cut into the rubber wheel slightly due to the unsprung wheel height.

- slight toe in towards the fence.

If the piece being cut is wide enough that feeder fits between the blade and the fence, use the same alignment method.

I've only used mine for ripping narrow strips, like wainscot or moldings.

Regards, Rod.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

I have a 3 wheel feeder and have always set it up as follows

- blade is between the in feed, and two out feed rollers

- on my feeder the in feed roller spacing to the middle roller is larger than the spacing between the two out feed rollers

- raise the blade enough to clear the wood, a couple of times I've cut into the rubber wheel slightly due to the unsprung wheel height.

- slight toe in towards the fence.

If the piece being cut is wide enough that feeder fits between the blade and the fence, use the same alignment method.

I've only used mine for ripping narrow strips, like wainscot or moldings.

Regards, Rod.

I do mostly the same, but I also attach a less tall sacrificial UHMW fence face to my saw fence. This is less tall than the pieces that I'm ripping. By doing this, I can get more of the feeder wheel over the narrow piece being cut.

[Walter Plummer]

When I use a feeder on the tablesaw I set the fence and clamp a block behind the out feed end of the fence to keep the feeder from flexing the fence. Another use is climb cutting.

[Peter Quinn]

On a TS my set up goes from right to left; Fence, with block clamped at the back side of the table outfeed side, Feeder, canted towards fence, blade.

I have seen setups that go fence, stock, feeder to the left most, but this pushes the off cut into the back of the blade slightly on exit, which can be a problem, more for quality than safety. On a shaper molding, run and rip arrangement, you start loosing the last few inches and it can't be good for the arbor of the saw.

I'd loose the splitter, and put the feeder nearer the fence, and use a low fence clamped to the main fence, like a reverse L, for narrow stock where the feeder won't otherwise fit between blade and fence.