In praise of that wheeled thingey

[Ole Anderson]

Working on some tall bookshelves so I am ripping 3/4" ply and using my dado blade to cut a rabbit in the edge. These wheels, that I have had for at least ten years, work really great. They hold the stock down, they force the stock into the fence (mainly why I use them) and they only turn one way so they prevent kickback. Love them. I have the dovetailed mounting brackets screwed to my fence top which allows the wheels to be removed easily when not in use.

[Mike Chalmers]

+1. Board Buddies work well, and are relatively inexpensive.

[Dick Mahany]

I had a set of orange board buddies for a radial saw. They had a bearing that would only allow one direction of rotation for infeed when ripping which I believe was opposite rotational direction of the ones for the table saw. They worked well in that configuration. I bought a set of the green free wheeling ones for a shaper and used them on my table saw with a Biesemeyer fence. I didn't like them on that as they could lift the free floating rear of the fence. I wound up going with feather boards for general use and preferred them, (although a feather board can also lift the outfeed end of the fence if not set precisely).

[Don Sundberg]

I have them on an Incra fence and love them on it. Made some rise blocks to get the angle where I wanted them and to get the base on once above the bracket that attaches the adjuster to the fence. It already has t tracks on the top of the fence. I'm sure the Jessem ones are much nicer to use but I cant make myself invest that $$ at this time. There are other things on the list. :D

[Bill White]

Have been usin' them for many years. Some might think that they don't allow full access on the TS, but I've never had an issue. Also used them with the appropriate wheels for the RAS with good results.
IMO, the are the best bang for the buck. I do use feather boards and other safety devices 'cause I value ALL my fingers.
I'd buy 'em again.
Bill

[Ole Anderson]

I only use mine on sheet goods.

[Jim German]

I only use mine on sheet goods.
How come? They seem like they would be useful on any board.

[Ole Anderson]

How come? They seem like they would be useful on any board.
There is some setup time involved and they do not work with rips less than a few inches wide. Holding larger sheets next to the fence seems more problematic in my feeble mind than ripping boards. Particularly thin sheets that need to be held down flat on the table while pushing against the fence.

[Mike Chalmers]

... they do not work with rips less than a few inches wide.
I have a two inch strip of ply that attaches to my fence using T nuts (there is a track on the side of my fence, Ridgid R4512) and 90 degree angle braces (small). It is my sacrificial fence for dadoing, and allows me to use the Board Buddies on those thin rips.

[Franklin Scott]

What is that drawer-type thing in the upper right of the pic? Is it a homemade air cleaner?

[Mike Chalmers]

What is that drawer-type thing in the upper right of the pic? Is it a homemade air cleaner?


Looks like a down draft table.

[Ole Anderson]

What is that drawer-type thing in the upper right of the pic? Is it a homemade air cleaner?

Yes, a downdraft table.

[julian abram]

I have the Jessem guides. I like them but seems like I'm always needing to move them out of the way when ripping small stuff and using a push stick.

[Wes Ramsey]

I have several sets of the yellow and green wheels that came with my used saw, but don't have any of the dovetail mounting brackets. I never gave them much thought since they weren't complete, but I may have to dig them out and make some brackets now that y'all got me thinking about them again.

[Don Sundberg]

I've used mine on rips down to at least 3/4" wide and used just one ahead of the blade on 1/16" wide rips. Mine are mounted on ~2" blocks above my fence so they will pitch down close to the fence. I use them for most all rips that I can. They are a bit of a pain in the butt when doing narrow rips as you have to thread you push stick around them but they do work good keeping the stock pressed against the fence.

[Ole Anderson]

Hey, I ended up using it to rip and dado 1 1/2" rails for my pool table project. Gave me more confidence keeping the work against the fence.