Want to see a small tool do a big job?

[john lawson]

I recently bought a small (1/4 hp) Delta 36-850 power feeder. My intent was to use it on my shaper and router table. I bought the smaller model because it weighs about 75 pounds and I can set it up and take it down by myself, fairly quickly. ( I really wanted a 1 hp, but they weigh about 150 lbs.)

Last week I received a commission to build a large kitchen table made of hard maple. The table is 100" x 42" x 3" thick!!! The individual boards weigh 60 to 80 lbs each. When I started to mill the rough lumber, with a helper, he suggested we try the power feeder. I reluctantly agreed thinking it would not work. Well, it did work, better than I ever imagined. My fingers never got close to the cutter head. Edge jointing was difficult, I could not use the power feeder for that because the boards were too wide and there was not enough height adjustment as the boards were between 7" to 9". But jointing the edge was easier much than the initial pass.

I did use the power feeder for ripping the other edge, but it did not work quite as well as face jointing ( I had trouble starting the boards straight against the fence). Other than the weight, planing the boards to thickness was easy.

I thought I would share this experience because it is much safer, and I was really surprised how well the little Delta did the job.

thanks

john lawson
birmingham, al

[Vaughn McMillan]

Thanks for the pics, John. Man, that's some seriosly large maple. The table's gonna be a heavy son of a gun, huh? Got a crane? ;)