Mount Board Buddies upside down ?

I had the same problem with the stock unifence, so I decided to get an
aftermarket unifence...I think...it's called...mighty t track...yes I
found it. http://www.ttrackusa.com/index.html. I personally think this
was a good buy. Much less flexible than the standard unifence and it
accepts board buddies. Unfortunately, for most of my work the board
buddies get in the way. I use a push stick most of the time. The
standard unifence has some deflection and this always bothered me so I
liberated it.

Don

You know...it doesn't, and it did with the unifence, but that's not why
I got the new fence. It was because of the side to side flex. You got
me. It probably should still flex up and down. If I remember correctly,
I lightened up on the downward pressure that the board buddies put on
the said wood. I think there was a post in the past regarding this
issue and that was the suggestion someone made. Sorry, I haven't used
the board buddies in a while. I don't think the downward pressure needs
to be huge. The purpose of these devices isn't to smash the wood on the
table, only to prevent kick back. It also has the added benifit of
keeping the wood against the fence. I'm not a safety expert, but, from
the little experience I've had with kick-back, you get in trouble when
the wood gets on top of the blade.

On the new fence there is a t track on top. The board buddies attach to
a (uhw?) plastic that fits in the track and then is tightened down with
a bolt and a knob. The track runs the length of the fence, so I can
place both board buddies anywhere along the fence, before and after the
blade is perferable, I suppose.

I'm talking out of my butt a little because of my limited experience
with safety issues, but maybe someone can add to the discussion. I may
be way off base on backing off on the tension, but it worked for me. I
certainly do not want to work unsafe. I like my ten fingers.

Don
Folklore wrote
> Doesn't your fence still lift up? How is it held down on the outfeed
> end of the fence?
>
> Thanks,

maybe make yourself some fairly long reaching dogs and sink a series of
threaded inserts into the melamine to anchor them?

Can you just drill a hole or cut a notch in the outfeed table large
enough to put a clamp through? The fence on my saw locks at both ends,
When I want to keep a board close & tight to the work surface I
usually clamp a block to the fence so that the board just slides under
it, or use a featherboard clamped to the fence vertically.


--

Larry Wasserman Baltimore, Maryland
[email protected]

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:38:56 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm,
Folklore <[email protected]> quickly quoth:

>I'm trying to figure out a good method for holding work down when
>cutting long dado's on my tablesaw. I can't mount board buddies or
>featherboards on my unifence because it will lift up (and I can't
>clamp the opposite end because I stupidly attached my outfeed table
>there without any t-track.) One thought I had was to build something
>that will span across my saw that I can then use for downward
>pressure.
>
>Any thoughts?

Route the outfeed table at a point suitable for holding down the
unifence and mount a section of t-track in it. Duck soup.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
* Scattered Showers My Ass! * Insightful Advertising Copy
* --Noah * http://www.diversify.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Bridger. If my outfeed was appleply like it should be I think
a tslot would work, but it's 3/4" melamine particle board so I have
concerns about getting a slot deep enough that it won't blow out the
top, but shallow enough not to weaken the board too much...

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:38:56 -0500, Folklore <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm trying to figure out a good method for holding work down when
>cutting long dado's on my tablesaw. I can't mount board buddies or
>featherboards on my unifence because it will lift up (and I can't
>clamp the opposite end because I stupidly attached my outfeed table
>there without any t-track.) One thought I had was to build something
>that will span across my saw that I can then use for downward
>pressure.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Thanks,
>


first, get a roller support for the infeed side of things. this will
keep the stock from dropping below the table and lifting out of the
cut.

then rout a Tslot into your outfeed so's you can use a hold down on
the end of the fence and a featherboard or springboard to control the
stock. this won't work for really wide boards where the dado is away
from the fence, but it will help for narrow ones.

keep a slab of mdf around for use as a weight for non-through cuts of
flexible materials.

Doesn't your fence still lift up? How is it held down on the outfeed
end of the fence?

Thanks,