Kreg True-FLEX Featherboard - Adjustable Featherboard - Router Table and Table Saw Safety Tool - PRS3020 - Pack of 2

Kickback happens when the blade catches the workpiece and violently throws it back to the front of the saw, towards the operator. It can be thrown very hard and can injure the operator. It is not uncommon for the object to have high enough velocity to become embedded in a wall or to cause other damage or injury. Never stand in a direct line between the blade and the fence when ripping narrow stock. A kickback can be fatal. Kickback happens when ripping if: The wood pinches the blade because of internal stresses. This is difficult to predict and can be impossible to control when using fingers to hold the wood down. Many times the board pinches the blade and is thrown back before the wood reaches a splitter. This type of kickback never happens when a board is not cut all the way through (dado). By starting a cut with a dado and then raising the blade to leave a splitter tab of uncut wood, this type of kickback can be avoided, but raising the blade during a cut cannot be done unless anti-kickback hold downs are used, so it is safe to raise the blade with a free hand. The wood is allowed to raise up or moved sideways during a cut, then pushed back down, taking too big a bite at the top of the blade. This can be prevented by using feeder wheels very close to the start of the blade and hold downs after the blade to control the wood all the way through the cut. The right feeder wheels are very effective for both dados in plywood and for rip cuts on boards as narrow as 1/8". Feeder wheels can be powered or unpowered, clamped or held magnetically, and replace fingers near the blade so a hand can be free to turn off the saw during a cut. The board is pinched between the rear of the blade and the fence. The fence should be parallel with the blade, for the best cut on both sides of the blade. The fence can be set with the rear farther from the fence for safety, but at the expense of upcut marks on the "waste" piece. Never allow the fence to be closer to the rear of the blade than the front. Kickback can also happen when crosscutting boards with internal stresses. A chop saw or circular saw is the best preference for cutting poor lumber.[citation needed] The risk of kickback is reduced by certain practices: The blade must be kept sharp and clean, something novice users may not recognize. The buildup of pitch on a blade greatly increases friction and increases the probability of kickback. It also decreases the quality of the cut, causing it to burn. The saw must be aligned, adjusted so that it is parallel to the miter grooves, with the rip fence should angled minutely. If the blade is parallel with the fence you will notice the marks made by the back of the blade on the wood. It is possible for the workpiece to be pinched between the blade and the rip fence, which will cause violent kickback if the fence is closer at the back of the blade. The correct relationship for the fence is minutely spread which means that the angle is different depending on the side of the blade the fence is set. The blade guard should be used whenever possible. Typical table saws incorporates a riving knife, a spreader which helps prevent the cut from closing on the back of the saw blade. Natural tension can exist in wood that causes the cut to close. Some blade guards have anti-kickback devices that allow only forward travel past the blade. Push the workpiece past the blade. Do not release a workpiece until it is past the blade and removed from the saw. Turn the saw off before removing small cut off pieces. Always maintain control. Do not execute a cut where you do not have complete control of the situation. Make sure there are no obstructions. Do not cut a workpiece that is too large to handle. Do not use the rip fence as a guide during crosscuts. If you need to make a series of equal length crosscuts, use a stop block in front of the blade so the workpiece is not in contact with the rip fence during the cut. It is easy for the workpiece to twist out of perpendicular at the end of the cut and thus get caught by the blade and thrown. Check for flaws in the wood. Cutting through a loose knot can be dangerous. Cutting a warped or twisted board along the rip fence is dangerous because it can get pinched between the fence and blade.

I bought the two-pack back in the beginning of 2016 as part of a upgrade project for my Delta 34-670 table saw which primarily consisted of building a router table onto the extended rails of the fence (an earlier upgrade). Well...the featherboards ended up on a shelf in the back of the shop until today when they were rediscovered. One now is mounted in the T-track on the router table, and other in the 3/4" slot in the saw table. I used the router table today and the featherboard exceeded expectations! It held the workpiece against the fence perfectly, and helped keep my hands away from the action. The cut was perfect. If anyone is interested in the details of the router table, a simple search of "woodsmith extension wing router table" will take you to the article on the table and fence. They both needed some customizing and I made some more significant modifications to the fence design in order to utilize the existing table saw fence. The whole configuration works great.

I think these will work for my next table saw, but unfortunately they don’t fit my Ryobi. This is my fault....the size is clearly indicated in the description.

Great quality and everything fits perfectly.

The feather board 2 pack arrived quickly and in perfect condition. However, there were instructions in just one of the two packages. Of course I opened the one without the instructions first. I didn't want to open the other package until I was sure I wanted to keep them, so I assumed there were no instructions. trying connecting the miter slide to the feather board correctly was not self-evident. Kreg customer service was excellent. After emailing them, the instructions were emailed back to me very quickly. Once the miter slide bolt was correctly placed the feather board worked perfectly! I tried a few cuts and found the feather board to work very well. Plenty of tension on the board when I wanted it and more gentle tension when less is more. So I opened the second package and what do you know, the instructions were right their behind the marketing card! I don't understand the complaint that the feather boards cannot produce enough tension. They work so well I couldn't push the board through the saw and had to back them off a little. So it seems Kreg's claim that variable tension is designed into the feather boards might actually be true. These feather boards are a joy to use, but a hassle to go from singe feather board to double. I will get a second set to save time and frustration.

Wonderful featherboards. I am using these on a Bosch RA1171 router table and the universal adapters fit perfectly in the t-track. They work great in both the horizontal and vertical t-tracks, and do not slip whatsoever. Update: These featherboards are so versatile! Turn the table top featherboard 180 degrees with the feathers towards the front, push it all the ways towards the fence and the side of the featherboards make GREAT stops, as they reach _almost_ all the way to the fence. I am now going to replace the Bosch featherboards that came with the router table with two more Kreg featherboards. Thanks, Kreg! UPDATE: 23Sep14 - I recently purchased a Bosch 4100-09 Table Saw and these featherboards work perfectly in the miter gauge slot and the t-track built into the rip fence.

In error, I ordered two of these, not realizing that they came in a two-pack. Thus, when they arrived, there were four featherboards. OK, you can never have too many of these things, so I kept them. That turned out to be a good thing. To change these things from a right-to-left feed into a left-to-right feed, you remove the bolts and washers and put them in from the other side. My router table uses right-to-left, and my table saw uses the equivalent of left-to-right, so I have two of them set up each way. Works great. Not that expensive, and if I had used them my entire woodworking career, I wouldn't have a messed up finger from a board kicking back at me. These are as well made as any I've seen.

I mounted these featherboards on my router table, one on the back panel and the other on the table top. For the first time ever, my routing of edges was even and clean. I didn't need to even sand the pieces. (When routing cross-grain, I still got cut-out on the end, but it's no fault of the featherboards or router. I should've used a backing piece.) I also used one of the featherboards on my table saw and was able to cleanly cut a board apart, reducing a 3-1/2" wide x 7/8" deep board into two 3/8" boards with a long cut across the 3-1/2" aspect. Was nearly perfect, and a lot safer, too. I'm amazed. These featherboards are more than just safety items, although they do serve an important safety function in helping reduce kickback. Take care to not put too much pressure against your boards. The instructions recommend no more than 1/16" of flex and that works well. Any more and the piece can be too tight to move. I ended up buying two pairs of these featherboards, for a total of four, to cover the infeed and outfeed sides of my router.