Is this a bad idea?

[bkharman]

I wanted to leverage my sliding table a little bit more on my CMS-VL and had a spare protractor and mini fence and thought to wedge a workpiece between the two. I am mainly looking to route the edge down (or for our non-NA brothers and sisters, you could crosscut).  If the workpiece is in there tight and clamped to the slider, I can't imagine it would be "unsafe".

Any thoughts/advice?

Cheers. Bryan.

 

[jmbfestool]

Its more than safe. 

You don't really require the work piece to be trapped like that.  One fence would do the job.

I would be more worried about keeping the workpiece down.

You would be better of using one fence and attach a clamp  to clamp the piece down.

 

[Kev]

As long as both fences are perfectly aligned and the piece of material is perfectly parallel on both sides ... no bad, but otherwise one fence could push the other out of alignment. Normally you'd just clamp your material to the fence to achieve the objective you're after.

So generally, not something I'd do personally - but it's not a terrible thing.

If you do clamp stuff to the fence, remember it's relatively soft aluminium.

 

[jmbfestool]

Oh when I said worried not because of safety but you are more likely to accidentally lift/tip the workpiece as you are passing and then end up messing up the workpiece or having to do another pass to remove the material you missed. Hence why you are better clamping the work piece.

Saying that I don't always clamp my workpiece down when using my spindle moulder.  I just use my rear fence on the sliding table

 

[charley1968]

Yes i think it' s more dangerous. You do have a riving knife, but that doesn't totally exclude kickback. I would not do it like this.
Sorry, i should read the WHOLE post before i reply..
I was assuming you were going to rip, not crosscutting/routing..
No, this ought to be safe

 

[jmbfestool]

Yes i think it' s more dangerous. You do have riving knive, but that doesn't totally exclude kickback. I would not do it line this.

Ummm explain why its dangerous?

No danger at all.  As long as the timber doesn't get pushed or pulled when cutting nothing will happen. 

I wouldn't even bother clamping if I was cutting through just a single fence but if he feels happier with two fences trapping the timber together that's totally fine.

I would however like I mentioned above using a clamp  for when trenching or routering to ensure you get accurate cuts but again not because of safety.

 

[peter halle]

just for clarity I believe that the OP is asking about a routing situation - not using this with a TS module in his CMS-VL.

Peter

 

[charley1968]

See above [wink]

 

[jmbfestool]

See above [wink]

I see you edited the post.

[tongue]

 

[charley1968]

Correct [huh]

 

[jmbfestool]

Correct [huh]

Lol I replied to your "see above" post.  Thinking you was being sarcastic because you had given your reason why.

Then I noticed you edited it and I understood why you said see above . Lol

So I deleted my  post.

 

[tbellemare]

Bryan:

Is there an advantage to trapping the piece between the fences? I'm not seeing the advantage relative to just holding or clamping to one or the other fence?

It would seem to me that the possibility of one fence being a slightly different angle than the other would potentially cause wiggling of the end and bad routing?

Tom

 

[charley1968]

..and i thought i could get away with the nonsense i wrote, before anyone noticed..
Sorry for kidnapping the thread