CMS-GE feather board?

[justinmcf]

i realize the cms is not available in the u.s. yet. but i think this is a common problem for anyone using a table saw.

i was using the cms ts-75 table saw yesterday to rip facia board.
i had to rip 15mm off one edge. there was another carpenter helping me, but it was difficult to keep the timber tight against the fence.
a feather board would have been great.
is there a festool feather board available?
can anybody recommend an after market brand?

bearing in mind that the table saw is made from aluminium. so a magnetic feather board will not work.

thanks in advance, justin.

[Peter Halle]

Justin,

It doesn't have a miter slot?  Is the table surface flat or ribbed?

Peter

[Eli]

This is a problem I've had as well. No, it doesn't have a miter slot, the baseplate of the saw is flush against the bottom of the mounting plate, and you wouldn't want to give up the add'l 15-20 mils cutting capacity for the depth of the slot. With the LA-50 fence, you could mount a set of board buddies using the top slot. That's about the best solution. I haven't yet worked out away yet to mount a set of Benchdog featherboards I got a year ago. i guess the only way would be a slot and hole drilled in the mounting plate, but that would be pretty ghetto.

[Forrest Anderson]

i realize the cms is not available in the u.s. yet. but i think this is a common problem for anyone using a table saw.

i was using the cms ts-75 table saw yesterday to rip facia board.
i had to rip 15mm off one edge. there was another carpenter helping me, but it was difficult to keep the timber tight against the fence.
a feather board would have been great.
is there a festool feather board available?
can anybody recommend an after market brand?

bearing in mind that the table saw is made from aluminium. so a magnetic feather board will not work.

How about a Progrip featherboard kit?

Progrip clamps (and other guideclamps) are usually made from a flat wide aluminium extrusion with a sliding jaw on the underside and a fixed clamping jaw and lever at the end. The clamp is laid on top of a board, and when the jaws are in contact with the far and near edges of the board, the clamp lever is engaged. The guideclamp is held firnly in position on the board and can be used as a fence to guide a router or circular saw.



Because the extrusion usually has slots along its length, there are various accessories that you can attach to it, and one of them is a featherboard:

and

This would get round the problem of no mitre slot and a non-magnetic surface on your CMS insert, but you need to make sure that the front and rear edges of the table saw are able to accept the jaws without them slipping off.

I don't know of a supplier of the Progrip featherboard kit in Australia, but they are available from Axminster in the UK who seem to have a good overseas shipping service. Cost is about 5 GBP for one featherboard, and 14 GBP to 22 GBP for the clamp itself, depending on length. If you are using the rear extension table VL on your CMS, then you will have to take into account the additional length, but the far end of the guideclamp should fit it OK, perhaps with a spacing block to account for the lip.

Forrest

[justinmcf]

thanks eli for your comments and forrest for the photos.
btw forrest, congrats, i see you are now a moderator.

i agree with eli that you would not want to sacrifice the extra 15-20mm as the insert plate is small to begin with.
measured from the right side of the blade, you have 160mm.
measured from the left side of the blade, you have 235mm.
the facia i was ripping was 190mm. that leaves only 45mm to try and fit a clamp and featherboard. so in this case forrest, your idea would not work for me.

solution!
festool need to make an accessory that can be fitted to the v-groove which does not take up too much precious table space.

i am very happy with this saw, the original fence which comes standard can also be used for angle cuts and works beautifully. model no 488 451.
it is not designed for ripping 5 metre lengths of facia and skirting boards, but i have found it works great, there is a little bit of movement when the timber is not being pushed dead straight into the saw which a featherboard could compensate for.
i am surprised festool has not designed their own featherboard as this would be the most common accessory you would buy for this table saw.
i imagine it would be great to have a festool designed featherboard for the router inserts also.

there is a more substantial rip fence, model no 492 095. this would be better for ripping these long lengths of facia, but it would not solve the problem of the timber straying 1-2mm from the fence.

i thought festool gave their products to master tradesmen in germany to try out?
surely eli and i are not the only people in the whole world who have this problem?

[WarnerConstCo.]

solution!
festool need to make an accessory that can be fitted to the v-groove which does not take up too much precious table space.

They do, the crown stops for the kapex fit in that v-grove.  Sit flush with the table and you can put a clamp in the t-slot on the crown stops.

http://www.bobmarinosbesttools.com/product_detail.html?sid=440daaa39377ce5de89268906dc276c0&pid=494369

[richard.selwyn]

Are you sure the crown stops fit in the V groove.  I've got the crown stops, but nothing with a V groove to check(old MFTs and Basis table)
Richard

[jvsteenb]

i imagine it would be great to have a festool designed featherboard for the router inserts also.

Well, they do - sort of.....

If you take a look at the pictures of the router insert, you'll notice a kind of black trapezium shaped piece. It's adjustable up/down, and the bottom is slit in a kind of "Z-pattern" so it acts as a pessure piece, putting the workpiece down. The old Basis 5A insert had one just like it for the horizontal pressure, but that got traded in for a couple of pressure lips on the bottom of the transparant shield. ( I have the Basis 5A and bought the new parts so now I can do both ) They don't restrict backwards movement like a featherboard, but both pieces deliver enough pressure on the workpiece to keep it into the cutter under most circumstances.


Regards,

Job

[Forrest Anderson]

solution!
festool need to make an accessory that can be fitted to the v-groove which does not take up too much precious table space.

They do, the crown stops for the kapex fit in that v-grove.  Sit flush with the table and you can put a clamp in the t-slot on the crown stops.

Yes, that's an excellent idea!

Are you sure the crown stops fit in the V groove.  I've got the crown stops, but nothing with a V groove to check(old MFTs and Basis table)
Richard

I don't have a CMS, but here is a photo of my CS50 Precisio with two Kapex table wideners attached to the V-groove and a couple of FSZ100 clamps in the T-slots.



You could either clamp the featherboard down onto the table wideners, or use some t-bolts.

If you wanted your featherboards nearer the blade, then you could perhaps mount an Angle Stop WA to the V-groove and then attach its fence flat on the table in the manner shown. This gives you a T-slot, to which featherboards could be attached in some manner, and their distance from the blade could easily be adjusted by moving the Angle Stop.



(Note: the CMS and TS75 module (which is the combination really under discussion in this thread) doesn't have a T-slot running parallel to the blade like this CS50).

Forrest

[WarnerConstCo.]

Thanks Forrest, even I have some good ideas, every now and then!!

[Eli]

So yeah, the crown stops do fit. I've been puzzling over fitting a feather board to the angle stop as well, but never really came up with anything. I like the crown stops mit clamp und fedderboart idea.

[Acrobat]

I note this question was posted years ago, is there any updates by Festool regarding a feather board for the cms saw table?
From what I understand there is no specific feather board designed for it, which is a pain as I was ripping some stock and seeing the stock move a mm or so away from the fence since there is not feather board that comes with it, nor any mitre slot in the table top. I am hoping that since the table has been out in the ROW for some time Festool may have made one for it by now?
How do others get around this problem?

[Alex]

I note this question was posted years ago, is there any updates by Festool regarding a feather board for the cms saw table?

Nope. Nada. Nothing.

How do others get around this problem?

I'm not from middle earth, but I heard there they clamp an orc to the table who then pushes the wood against the fence. And if he loses a couple of fingers, you just take another orc. They're disposable and easily replaced.

[Acrobat]

But they cost heaps to keep fed!
 

[bkharman]

I use JessEm clear stock guides. They work very well. I keep them on my Incra fence but they do work with the CMS fence as well.

[pierreblonde]

I use these
the one on the table has a feather board that replaces the wheel, one just screws off and the other on .I use the wheel with a crown cutter ,
Sometimes i use both sets together (above and side) but most of the time just the two wheel one, it cams into the fence so it pulls the work in as you feed it

[Acrobat]

Cool.
It never fails to amaze me the great inventions and skill people have in coming up with ways to enhance products.

[Grasshopper]

Forrest,

I realize that this is an old thread, but I was trying to attach a feather board to the t-slot in Angle stop fence. The t-slot is smaller than the t slot in the CMS fence.

Any suggestions for the best way to connect a feather board to the t-slot in the CMS' angle stop?

solution!
festool need to make an accessory that can be fitted to the v-groove which does not take up too much precious table space.

They do, the crown stops for the kapex fit in that v-grove.  Sit flush with the table and you can put a clamp in the t-slot on the crown stops.

Yes, that's an excellent idea!

Are you sure the crown stops fit in the V groove.  I've got the crown stops, but nothing with a V groove to check(old MFTs and Basis table)
Richard

I don't have a CMS, but here is a photo of my CS50 Precisio with two Kapex table wideners attached to the V-groove and a couple of FSZ100 clamps in the T-slots.



You could either clamp the featherboard down onto the table wideners, or use some t-bolts.

If you wanted your featherboards nearer the blade, then you could perhaps mount an Angle Stop WA to the V-groove and then attach its fence flat on the table in the manner shown. This gives you a T-slot, to which featherboards could be attached in some manner, and their distance from the blade could easily be adjusted by moving the Angle Stop.



(Note: the CMS and TS75 module (which is the combination really under discussion in this thread) doesn't have a T-slot running parallel to the blade like this CS50).

Forrest

[neeleman]

Besides a Clear Cut Stock Guides for a router table, Jessem also has a model for a table saw.
It's called Clear Cut TS Stock Guides.
Looks good to me, only the price is holding me back at €289.
Look at this page for some videos: http://www.fine-tools.com/jessem-clear-cut-ts-review.html

[Birdhunter]

I have the Jessem guides on my router table and my Sawstop. The work better than advertised.

The guides mount to the slots on the router table fence.

I didn't want to drill holes in my Sawstop fence so mounted the Jessem guide to a strip of oak just a tad narrower than the inside measurement of the fence. I inset an off-on magnetic super magnet at each end of the oak strip.

To use the Jessem guides, I lay the strip with the guides on top of the fence and turn on the super magnets. I sacrifice about 1/2" of vertical travel due to mounting the guide on the oak strip. So far, not a problem.

[Peter Parfitt]

If you have the angle stop from your MFT3 then you can make up one of these to go with your CMS. I used a short length of regular Incra "T" track, a similarly short piece of square section wood, two screws and a £1 plastic featherboard. Once made it can be inserted or removed from the angle stop in the normal way (by turning the knob).



Peter

[Birdhunter]

No blade guard? Scary!

[neeleman]

When sawing narrow stock the blade guard gets in the way and has to be removed.
At the looks of the picture Peter is only making some grooves with the blade knife down also.
For this kind of work the blade guard also has the be removed.
The saw blade doesn't get high enough to get hurt, only at the back of the wood you have to watch out for the blade.

[Peter Parfitt]

No blade guard? Scary!

I am doing a rebate - I do give all the usual health warnings when I show this sort of thing in my videos.

The CMS-TS is a beautiful little setup and is the best small table saw that I have every used for rebate work. The reason that it is so good is that despite removing the riving knife extension (and blade guard) the saw still has a riving knife and so it is a lot safer than many other setups.

Peter

[Birdhunter]

Understand now what you are doing. I use a different type of push stick when doing this type of cut. The stick has a long rubberized surface that contacts the wood and a spring loaded block that engages the back end of the wood. The handle is about 3" over the surface of the wood. I don't have to use my fingers to hold down the leading edge of the wood.

[Peter Parfitt]

Understand now what you are doing. I use a different type of push stick when doing this type of cut. The stick has a long rubberized surface that contacts the wood and a spring loaded block that engages the back end of the wood. The handle is about 3" over the surface of the wood. I don't have to use my fingers to hold down the leading edge of the wood.

This push stick can apply force both from above and from the rear. Once the piece of wood is setup against the fence (the process when the photo was taken) there is no longer any need to have the hands on the wood. The feather board is keeping the wood against the fence and the push stick keeps it pressed down and moving along.

Peter

[Grasshopper]

That looks pretty slick.

Are there other T tracks that are a common size that would fit there?  If not, I can order the incra...just hoping I can pick up what I need from a box store locally if possible.

If you have the angle stop from your MFT3 then you can make up one of these to go with your CMS. I used a short length of regular Incra "T" track, a similarly short piece of square section wood, two screws and a £1 plastic featherboard. Once made it can be inserted or removed from the angle stop in the normal way (by turning the knob).

(Attachment Link)

Peter

[Peter Parfitt]

Hi Grasshopper

I am sure there must be other sources for the "T" track but here in the UK the Incra one is the only one that I have found that allows the Festool clamps and is the right size for the angle unit.

Peter

[Grasshopper]

Thanks.  I will look around.

Hi Grasshopper

I am sure there must be other sources for the "T" track but here in the UK the Incra one is the only one that I have found that allows the Festool clamps and is the right size for the angle unit.

Peter

[NL-mikkla]

Good solutions, thanks Peter