[Sleeper]

I broke down and bought a Tandem Feather Board, but I’m confused by the hardware. The manual sucks, but I guess it includes bolts for 1/4” wide t-slot which is probably for my router table fence and 3/4” wide miter bars for both my router table & table saw. There is also 5/8” miter bars, but I don’t have anything that size that I know of.

I’m not real happy about the bolts and ‘S’ knobs because they don’t screw on to each other. I tried to get one started by holding the bolt with pliers and screwing on the knob, but like screwing SAE onto Metric, it don’t fit.

Before I pull out my tap & die set, is there something I’m missing? I don’t get it.

 

[Skiptooth]

What did you end up doing with it? I hate dealing with things that are crap right out of the box, so probably would have just sent it back for exchange. I do have that same feather board though and noticed that the red "S" knobs on mine only have thin captive Tinnerman's nuts as opposed to actual hex nuts, so not sure how well the tap will work on them. The main reason I bought this kit was for those small 5/8" miter bars, which are the only ones that will work with the non-standard miter slots on my older Makita 2703 table saw.

 

[Sleeper]

Well, first I decided to check the thread size to see if it were Metric or SAE by screwing it into my Die set and found it was 1/4x20 SAE which was a good thing because I don’t have any metric stuff.

I then grabbed a 1/4x20 tap and tried to run it thru the knob, but it was stuck. After playing with it for a while it finally went through. It turned out that the threads were good, but the plastic had spilled into the hole during the molding process. I think just running a sharp ¼” bit in the hole might have cleared it because as soon as I broke through the plastic it worked fine.

So far I’m happy with it because it can be used as a double thick feather board which I wanted, but also could be separated into two thin feather boards for table and fence.

The only thing I don’t like is there are small screws that attach the pieces together to make it double thick. I can live with that, but I just have to take extra steps to not lose the screws and it does take a little extra time to assemble.

So since I have more feather boards, I will probably just leave it double thick and not worry about losing screws.

 

[jschaben]

Hi Johnny - when I read your first post I suspected that was the problem, I bought my first set of those about 3 years ago and have 3 sets now. No issues at all with them, although, I not crazy about the convoluted track it runs on. I would have preferred the things be square with straight slots, similar to the Rockler. The Milescraft do have a fraction of an inch more reach than the Rockler though. I don't bother with the screws, just make sure they are aligned when you tighten them down.:yes:

 

[Sleeper]

..... No issues at all with them, although, I not crazy about the convoluted track it runs on. I would have preferred the things be square with straight slots, similar to the Rockler. ...

I'm still trying to figure that out and the only thing I can think of is to fit it into a smaller box. :shifty:

 

[jschaben]

I'm still trying to figure that out and the only thing I can think of is to fit it into a smaller box. :shifty:

That sounds like as good reason as any I could come up with.:blink:
Forgot to mention, the reason I have 3 of those kits is I just leave one assembled as a stack and the other two kits preset up as singles for fence and table. Just saved the aggravation of taking the things apart and putting them back together. :smile: