Power feeder question

[Jay Jolliffe]

I'm thinking of getting one for my router table. A question for the people that have on on the router table is how narrow of a piece of stock could you use with it. What would be a good one to get. I'm not looking to spend a real lot of money & I know you get what you pay for so. I'm looking for recommendations.

[Peter Quinn]

I'm not sure which feeder is right for your router table, that depends on how stout your table is and how large the work you want to run is. I would think somewhere between a baby feeder and 1/4HP would be appropriate, beyond that is very much overkill for router table use. Most imports are made by one company, Comatic, so pick your color and price.

But on the "How thin can I go" question, 1/2" width is the practical limit for most feeders. The feeder must be skewed towards the fence, so less than 1/2" doesn't allow for much skew to hold things tight. It depends also on the size of the cutter, the depth of the cut per pass, and how much additional stock "guidance" you wish to create. For instance with a "cope carriage" jig I can run the sticking for window bars on a shaper as thin as 3/4", which means the wood left in the center after two 1/2" cuts is 1/4"! But that involves a good jig. For most edge molding operations it is typically preferable to use wider stock, run the edges, rip these off, repeat to make up your lineal footage. You only run narrow or thin material when you must.