Anyone use a power feed on tablesaw?

[Adam9453]

Just wondering as I've looked at buying the jess em guides and thought it may be better to buy a second hand power feed of eBay and use it like you would on a spindle moulder.
Anyone else done it?

 

[Peter Sefton]

I have used the power feed on the table saw in the past but only on large and heavy production jobs, it worked well but just ensure your rip fence is strong enough or you back it up with a fixed block.

Cheers Peter

 

[PAC1]

HSE actually recommend the use of a power feed. I have never used one as I have not had a a large enough project to justify the set up.

 

[shed9]

I have the Jessem guides and they are superb. I would have thought a power drive on a TS would be quite cumbersome myself.

 

[Beau]

Yes once or twice and second what Peter said.

It's it lot of faffing around when a pair of push sticks and some common sense can keep your digits safe and sound.

 

[Adam9453]

Yes once or twice and second what Peter said.

It's it lot of faffing around when a pair of push sticks and some common sense can keep your digits safe and sound.

It wasn't the safety aspect that I'm thinking about, it's quality and consistency of cut but I know what you mean.
The comment about the fence is critical though as I don't think mine is solid enough not to deflect when being pushed by a power feed. Think I'm just gonna have to upgrade the saw when money permits

 

[Beau]

Thing is when using a spindle a perfect cut can be the difference between loads of sanding or not. On a cut from a saw a few shavings from a plane and it's perfect and the finish from a sharp blade on a quality saw still leaves marks from each tooth anyway. The times I have used it is when handling heavy timber on my own and making repeated cuts at the same setting.

 

[Adam9453]

The issue is I cut a fair volume of veneered mdf and mfc boards, obviously with these materials you just want to cut and immediately start joinery. I've found that despite my best efforts I'm still not getting satisfactory cuts. I've tried brand new main blade and scoring blade which helped but didn't make the cuts chip free (despite being rather expensive). I've tried magnetic feather boards to maintain pressure against the fence but still getting the odd slight kink in the cut (the kinks are typically very minor but I'm striving for an absolutely straight chip free cut).
I've ended up going back to the track saw as that gives me very straight, virtually chip free cuts. However using the tracksaw is slow when processing a number of sheets.
My options are either stick with the tracksaw and accept it's just slow!! OR save up for a better saw/combination machine from hammer/felder.
What I really need is a beam saw but that's never gonna be an option in either space or money

 

[murdoch]

What make and model saw are you using?

 

[Adam9453]

Startrite 300ps

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Putting a feed head on won't make your cuts any more true if you can't obtain them by hand feeding.

 

[Ttrees]

How true is your fence .....
Have you checked with a dial indicator or other methods?

 

[Peter Sefton]

I haven't used a Startrite saw for many years but from memory it was great for small ripping cuts, the sliding table was a bit basic on ours. The fence on my Hammer is set with a sight towing away from the blade when ripping 0.3mm over 600mm. This should leave the cut edge showing only down cuts from the front of the saw blade, if up cuts from the back of the saw are seen then you are rubbing the back of the blade. If you set the fence with too much lead out then the MDF sheet will be dragged away from the fence by the riving knife.

If you can get a good cut with trial pieces by hand then either the JessEm Clear Stock Guides or a power feed will make it more consistent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lekm3hWZgg

Cheers Peter

 

[RobinBHM]

You could check the blade / fence for parallel.

Also do you have enough infeed and outfeed support?

Is the table saw bed perfectly clean, smooth and waxed?

Are the outrigger table bearings and running rails clean?

Is riving knife perfectly set? -any out of alignment can cause work to bind or drift away from the fence.

Cutting long boards really needs 2 people for support

The best saw for cutting sheets is a 3.2M panel saw, they are around for reasonable money 2nd hand, but you need a huge space for them! -even with a panel saw getting perfect cuts is not that easy, a but of dust between fence and board can cause drift

 

[skipdiver]

Those Americans eh. Go to all that trouble with stock holders but seem to consider a riving knife and guard surplus to requirements.

 

[Adam9453]

Thanks for the advice Peter and robin, frustratingly I hadn't considered the riving knife could be pushing the stock in an undesirable direction. For clarity the cuts are 'not bad' by any means but I'm striving for better.
I work on my own so 2 people isn't an option unfortunately, hence looking at power feeds and other options to improve the consistency of the cutting.
To rip on my tablesaw doesn't use the slider as the slider travel makes it really only suitable for cross cutting or short rips. The typical length I need to rip is 2440mm.
Yeah I would love a big 3.2m slider but it just won't fit and actually allow me any space to work.
I've recently starting working at a commercial joinery shop (day job) which shows how easy and quick the work is to do with the right machinery, unfortunately I can't fit a £200000 beam saw as it's the size of my entire garden, plus the small matter of paying for it!!
I could pay to cut stuff at work but I prefer to do everything myself for my homework so just trying to find the optimum solution that fits my needs and wallet.
I'm strongly leaning towards a hammer c3 31 combination machine as you can spec it with a 2500mm slider which I could just about squeeze in and retain working space. The combination machine would need to be on castors so I can pull it out to use the planer Thicknesser side but that would work well given I do relatively minimal amounts of planing/thicknessing.
My main goal is accuracy over speed but the tracksaw is just that bit too slow

 

[MikeJhn]

Strange as it may seem I found that a zero clearance insert on my table saw gave me far more consistency in length and width and obviously less chipped cuts, I can only assume the reduction in space on either side of the blade holds the work better by cutting cleaner.

Mike