Stock feeder guidance?

[John Hollaway]

Last month I spent two weeks visiting my son out near Bozeman, Montana. Long story short, I spent about $700.00 purchasing about $1,500.00 worth of tools and tooling at a tool store being forced to close due to the economy. At 50 and 60 percent off it was really hard not to totally blow the vacation budget. Amongst my purchases is a General International 1/8 hp. (baby) stock feeder for $207.00, and a Delta
36-850 1/4 hp. stock feeder for $229.00, with the balance spent mostly on Amana router bits, Freud router bits, and a whole batch of Rockler goodies. I really had a hard time passing on a Kreg 4' X 8' pneumatic clamping table ($2,995) for just $1,198.00. Anyhow, having always wanted but never owning a power stock feeder, I have zero experience with them. My search of the internet woodworking forums has yielded very little info regarding recommend mounting locations, tips for usage, etc. Can anyone point me toward a good source of information. Thanks.

[Chip Lindley]

You don't say what machines you plan to use the feeders on. The 1/8 hp feeder may be useful on a router table, but barely powerful enough for a full-size shaper. The 1/4 hp feeder may be useable for shaper work, if light cuts are taken. Not sure if it will raise panels in one pass or not. Worst case scenario, you can probably get most of your money back if you find them inadequate.

In my experience, most routing/shaping is done from right to left, facing the machine. For this reason, it makes sense to mount the feeder column at the rear right corner of the table, so controls are easily accessible. I recall lots of info here in this forum on stock/power feeder use. Try your search again.

[Peter Quinn]

Can anyone point me toward a good source of information. Thanks.


Lonnie Bird's shaper book has a good section on feeder use. There are so many potential set ups that it could fill a small book to explain them all in any depth. but basically you aim the feeder slightly towards the fence, have at least one wheel before and after the cutter, and have the wheels about 1/4" below the stocks height. And then theres the back fence set up.....but thats another story. They can be mounted either to the left or right of the spindle or collet on a router or shaper. I typically mount them to the rear left on a cabinet saw, though some set ups require holes on the rear right. Many are squeemish about tapping the tables with too many holes. I say its a tool, a feeder is very useful, and get over it. There are some great posts in the creek archives on mending plate mounting options if your table doesn't allow mounting the base of your feeder.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi John, I don't own a router, I have a shaper so take my router comments with a pinch of salt.

The GI 1/8HP feeder has a minimum speed of 6 ft/minute versus the Delta minimum of 14 ft/minute. In addition the GI feed speed is infinitely variable

The 14 ft/minute may be too fast for a router table, although it's fine for many shaper operations. The 1/8 HP feeder may be ideal for a router table.

The 1/2HP feeder on my shaper has 9.5/15/25/38 ft/minute and I use all of the speeds depending upon what I'm cutting, shaft RPM and number of knives in the tool.

The issue with a router table is that even a small feeder can apply force in the hundreds of pounds range, which can warp the table, deflect the fence and bend or break the bit, if used in a ham fisted way.

A small feeder would be useful for a router table, if I owned one it would have a feeder on it for safety and quality of cut reasons.

The back left corner is probably the best mounting location, make sure that you can adjust the feeder far enough to the right, and that it flips upside down to push vertical stock against the fence properly.

If you didn't receive manuals for your feeders PM me with your e-mail address and I'll e-mail you a copy of the manual for mine.

regards, Rod.

P.S. Here's a video showing a feeder in use.

http://www.feldergroupusa.com/us-us/video/hw-wp-iv-78-window-tooling-from-felder.html?videosgruppen_id=0