Safety Question

[Byron Trantham]

I need to rip a 45 degree edge on a 6' long 1" thick oak board(s). I will use a magnetic feather board on the infeed side. Can I use one on the outfeed side to help keep the board up against the fence or will the 1" 45 degree cut off get tangled up with the feather board? :confused:

[Steve Clardy]

I wouldn't, as the featherboard will be pushing the cutoff into the blade side.

[Keith Hooks]

I don't think you'd ever want to use a featherboard behind the blade. You'd be pushing the cutoff piece into the blade and be looking at a potential kickback. You'd probably be well served to put both featherboards in front of the blade. That should keep the board nice and snug up to the fence.

[Don Frambach]

You never want to push behind the blade. Doing so will close the kerf and lead to kickback!!! That is why there are splitters to prevent kerf closure and reduce the chance of kickback.

[Dev Emch]

Boy this is a good question as I have not done something like this in a long time. From the sounds of it, your cutting narrow boards? We know they are 6 feet long and are 1 inch thick. But how wide are they?

Also, as you push through, your going to get points where you stop and go and stop and go as you get a new grip on the infeed stock. This and other possible lateral motion of the stock will lead to circular burn marks every so often if your not careful. How clean do wish to have these edges?

If your obligated to using a table saw, then this is one way to do this cut esp. if the boards are relatively wide. If these things are like 1 by 2 boards and your trying to bevel edge them, good luck!

When you go through life with a hammer, then its funny that every problem in life looks like a nail. For me, my hammer is my shaper. This type of cut can be done with speed and perfection on a shaper or even a router table with a bevel bit. A power feeder will help out greatly. But, I must also say that putting a power feeder on the table saw will provide the same result as the shaper.

The power feeder wheels are not flat. They are actually tapered a bit and this action actually pushes the stock against the table and *ALSO* pushes the stock into the fence thereby maintaining very solid registration during the cutting process. Feeders can also be articulated to allow them to run thin stock such as a 1 by 1 strip with ease. I use a feeder to run almost all my long moulding like cuts because its fast and produces almost a perfect cut every time.

But it sounds like you have been thinking about how to best excute this cut and that is a good thing. I keep thinking about what to do with the two offcuts that feed off the blade once the cut is done. Should they get into the way, you can wind up with a kick back. On a router or shaper, one of these cuts will be turned into bedding material for the horse so it no longer presents a danger.

[Sam Blasco]

If you've got a decent bandsaw, you could avoid the need for either a tilting shaper, or shaper with appropriate bevel cutter... or router table and 3 or 4 passes... Tilt your table to the 45, rip the bevel, clean it up on a jointer and be done with it. I've never achieved a bevel cut like that on a table saw that didn't require a bunch of work after the cut to get rid of saw burn marks and inconsistencies.

[Dev Emch]

Sam...
You have a good point. Waste the bulk on a bansaur and then finish up with a jointer. Esp. if you tilt your jointer fence to the exact angle. And the jointer leaves a perfect surface as well.

[Seth Poorman]

Hey Byron
I think if it were me I would just make the first pass on the tablesaw a little wide
Like maybe 1/16 to 1/8" and make the final pass with a good CMT blade , you should come out pretty clean providing you have it supported well (extension table), a pass or two with a hand block sander and you should be good to GO!:D
Seth..............
Oh ya!! You dont need a feather board behind the blade!!!

[Chris Giles]

Byron,

I have heard several references to a rough cut on the table saw, then finish cut on the shaper, jointer or router. This is certainly the way to perform this operation safely. The name of the game here is safety, make no mistake. If the board is narrow, save it for another project and use a wider piece you can hold without getting fingers close to the blade. If you're inexperienced, the router method is desirable because you move the router over the stock, not the other way around. Start with a piece 1 1/4" thick, so you have a quarter inch to run the bearing on, then plane it down to a knife edge at 1". This router bit is quite large, so use a broad auxillary base, and dial down the router speed a bit so it won't burn or fly away.
I personally would use a shaper with feeder, because I am set up for that, and it will give me the best results. I have a little trouble with ther jointer at 45* unless the board is perfectly flat. With practice, I'm sure this works well too.

[Lee Schierer]

I need to rip a 45 degree edge on a 6' long 1" thick oak board(s). I will use a magnetic feather board on the infeed side. Can I use one on the outfeed side to help keep the board up against the fence or will the 1" 45 degree cut off get tangled up with the feather board? :confused:

The best answer I can give you is that it depends!. I have used my magnetic feather boards behind the blade on several occassions to hold the piece against the fence. My fether boards have a roller that is biased to pull the stock toward the fence when the feather board is mounted on the face of the fence as in the attched photo.http://home.earthlink.net/~us71na/lsfence1.jpg

The setup in the photo was to cut a rabbet in the side of the piece of wood. I had several to make and the piece shown was a scrap piece for set up purposes. When I made the actual cuts, I had no problems. As you can see, the cut off will not be touched by the feather boards.

You have to make sure you only apply pressure to the piece against the fence, and that no pressure is applied to the cut off piece. If you push on the cut off at all you will push it into the blade and cause it to pinch the blade producing burning or kickback.

If you can locate your featherboards so you apply pressure only to the piece against the fence use them in front of or behind the blade, other wise do not. Anything you can do to maintain control of the wood while cutting it makes the cut safer and keeps your fingers away from the blade.

[Byron Trantham]

I can't thank you guys enough for your responses. First of all I must have been smoking one of those funny cigarettes when I thought about using a feather board behind the blade - no thank you! :eek: BTW, the boards are 4 1/2" wide.

These cuts don't have to be pretty as the bevel is part of a joint and all would be buried in the glue joint, however, keeping it consistent is important. The joint is an edge that is "in your face" in the finished project. I need that seam pretty darned straight.

You guys came up with ideas I just never thought of and have the ability to do, well sort of. I did think about the router but I don't have a chamfer bit big enough. My band saw would do a great job but I think the stock is a little big for me to handle without making a fairly big jig. The idea of making a "close cut on the table saw" and finishing it up on the jointer sounds like the way I will go. I never think of my jointer except in terms of 90 degree cuts.

Also, by making a preliminary pass with the table saw, I will get to see just how well it does. I have a brand new Forrest 30 tooth mounted and I did a couple test pieces yesterday and the cuts were clean as a whistle but the test pieces were short. :rolleyes:

Thanks again for the input.