# Featherboard tension question



## Drummer (May 27, 2012)

Howdy, I recently spent a lot of manhours making molding for an oak picture frame. I ripped all the pieces and they were in 4' lengths. I purchased a couple expensive multi-profile router bits to use.
After all that work and mitering the pieces, the profiles don't line up.
I had featherboards top and side for all the cuts on the table. I also had them pretty tight, making the workpiece difficult to push through.
I made light cuts but still got a lot of burn marks. I scraped all the marks out but not to the point where I changed the profiles doing that.


OK, How much pressure should the featherboard apply to the workpiece?


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## Bonka (Aug 28, 2010)

What are the picture frame(s) dimentions? How far off are the profiles? Are the 45* miters dead on?
Any profile I have used has deen dead on after I 45 the pieces. I have never even used feather boards just a push stick.


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## Jerry Bowen (Jun 25, 2011)

Hi Jerry,

First of all, I do not know what feather boards you are using, I use the magnetic boards and put just enough oressure on the board being ripped to insure that it stays down. All I want is to be certain that the board stays down on the table so that it won't raise up and allow the blade to catch it and kick back, the same with the side pressure, in other words I guess that I am suggesting just a moderate amount of pressure what ever that means. Also, can I assume that the workpieces were milled flat on both a jointer and a planer so that they could have been edge jointed, certainly you were not going to edge joint them but they should be milled, in my opion anyway, that close before you routed the profile. Also, I must assume that the 45s were indeed dead on and hopefully you used a strapping type clamp to clamp them up dry and what I would expect from my experince that the profiles would be at least pretty close, probably not perfect but very close so that a little sanding would be all that is needed to get them right. I use biscuits in the joints and if the clamp up when dry is as you want it to be, try glueing one corner to start with paying careful attention to keep the profiles matched up. This is done with all four corners in the stapping clamp with three of the corners still being dry. After the glue in that first corner sets, do the corner that will hold the remaining two parts together so that when the glue sets in that one, you have two halfs. Go ahead and glue the last two corners at the same time being careful to keep the profiles matching as it is so easy for them to slip just a scooch even with biscuits in the joints. You still might need to do just a little sanding, but hopefully it will be minimal. Making perfect or near perfect large picture frames can be a challenge and certainly the proceedure to do so is very unforgiving. I hope that you will keep us informed about how the frame turns out and what you had to do to get it the way you want it. Oh yes, the four parts of the frame should be run on edge through the planer to insure that the the width of the four parts are exactly the same or as close to being exact as a planer can get them.

Jerry 
Colorado City, TX


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Drummer said:


> Howdy, I recently spent a lot of manhours making molding for an oak picture frame. I ripped all the pieces and they were in 4' lengths. I purchased a couple expensive multi-profile router bits to use.
> After all that work and mitering the pieces, the profiles don't line up.
> I had featherboards top and side for all the cuts on the table. I also had them pretty tight, making the workpiece difficult to push through.
> I made light cuts but still got a lot of burn marks. I scraped all the marks out but not to the point where I changed the profiles doing that.
> ...


Miters matter. If a miter is off from one piece to another, yes the piece/profile will seem larger than the other... even on store bought materials. Now if the zero is off on your miter saw... 

Simple test- 
Miter 2 separate pieces at 90 degrees. Check with a square. If not at 90--> reset 90 degrees on your miter saw. If it is, mate them up to each other and check the profile. If still off, its your routing job. 

Now do the same at 45 degrees. Check with a combo square. If they are not at 45... adjust the saw. If it is true and when you mate, the profile is off...

A corner of 44 degrees and 46 degrees is still a 90 degree corner, but the profiles will not match up by about 1/16".

How important is checking the square on a miter saw? I check mine at least once a job on finsh work. On the miter saw I use for GP and framing, I check it every morning. It takes 20 seconds to check.

Now if you are cutting compound miters, unless you like doing things the hard way... The easiest way to do that is use a crown moulding jig or to use methods similar to cutting crown moulding. Explanation- cut it at the angle you want while it's laying in the position you want it to be- in a measurable controlled manner.

Featherboards? Depends "_what_" you are using as a featherboard and what you are using for a fences... or in the case creating moulding (which a picture frame is a form of) "fences."

Normally a feather board is thought to be wood or plastic with cuts every 1/8 inch. To blow that all to get out, other forms of feather boards are the end of a board or the straight edge of a board-- rather anything to give support to and to help keep work in place > helping it keep against a fence or to stay on a table.

Some will say a solid board used as a featherboard is really an auxcillery fence- but I feel it's what you are using it for/as that matters. I've used pieces of banding material as springs and giving support and directional guidance (like a pawl) attached to boards. Hard for someone to label that...

How much force? Enough to keep a piece of work stable vertically and horizontally without impeding it's movement.

I could only guess what might be going on without being there to see. Post pictures. Maybe someone could see from those, eh?


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## malb (Sep 15, 2008)

Others have addressed the profiles not matching issue by discussing mitre accuracy and featherboards and pressure.

How large are the multiprofile bits, particularly at the sections that you are using?
There are tables around online that relate router RPM, to bit diameter, but typically 24000RPM is ok to about 1inch bit diameter, then speed should drop in proportion
to about 10000RPM at 3 inch.

Burning is frequently related to slow feed rate, the carbide cuts the material on the first pass over it, but then continues to rub and char it because the work does not move on fast enough to avoid this. Overly firm featherboards could limit access to move the work smoothly, and slow the feed rate contributing to burning


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## Jerry Bowen (Jun 25, 2011)

This thread has just introduced a new concept to me that I had never thought of before. While I understand the concept and need for feather boards wihen ripping material on the table saw, I had not ever thought about the need for them on the router table. It sort of makes sense to be able to keep constant downward pressure on the work piece as it passes over the bit when cutting a profil in a workpiece such as a picture frame. Are you guys saying that using a feather board for this purpose is sort of SOP. If so, please elaborate on it a little more for my sake as well as other beginners like myself.

Jerry


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## Chris Curl (Feb 13, 2012)

MAFoElffen said:


> I check mine at least once a job on finsh work. On the miter saw I use for GP and framing, I check it every morning. It takes 20 seconds to check.


How do YOU check it? Like this, or some other method?


MAFoElffen said:


> Simple test-
> Miter 2 separate pieces at 90 degrees. Check with a square. If not at 90--> reset 90 degrees on your miter saw.


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## GulfcoastGuy (Feb 27, 2012)

Jerry Bowen said:


> This thread has just introduced a new concept to me that I had never thought of before. While I understand the concept and need for feather boards wihen ripping material on the table saw, I had not ever thought about the need for them on the router table. It sort of makes sense to be able to keep constant downward pressure on the work piece as it passes over the bit when cutting a profil in a workpiece such as a picture frame. Are you guys saying that using a feather board for this purpose is sort of SOP. If so, please elaborate on it a little more for my sake as well as other beginners like myself.
> 
> Jerry


I put the t-track's in my router table and in my fence design with feather boards and stops in mind. Making a set of four is on the project list. Two for lateral and down pressure on the in feed and two more for the out feed.

GCG


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Chris Curl said:


> How do YOU check it? Like this, or some other method?


Chris--

Usually I carry a speed square in each of my two tool bags and a combo square in my finishing apron. Each has 45 degrees and 90 degrees on them. I set the rotating table at 0 degrees and the tilt at 0 degrees <> and make sure the blade is at 90 degrees to the fence and the blade is 90 from the table. I tilt 45 degrees and check. Back up to 0, then check each of the table directions at 45 degrees. On the blade to fence being off -- adjust the fence. On the blade to table, there's 2 tilt stops. If you adjusted either, re-zero the indicators.

Then cut a piece of scrap in half. Mark a cut side of one end. With the other piece, cut it on the other end with piece on the other side of the blade. Flip over that last piece you cut. Put those ends together with the edge against the fence. If a bevel gap from front to rear, the fence is off. If a bevel up/down, the tilt adjustment.


Jerry--

Featherboards aren't required for "everything"... But boy, they sure are handy aren't they? With moulding... and I may get slam by someone on symantics, but I feel classical picture frames are a form of moulding and when you create them, you should use featherboards. Think of your stock moving off of a bit, moulding cutter or shaper cutter (whatever you're using). If ends up either thicker (inconsistent thickness) or wavy. 

Either one, it will make things entertaining when you cut your miters and fit them together. You could recheck your miters. If they're good... then then stock is off. And a fix for that? If it's not too bad, hold off the miter one direction or another. Matching than may take lifting one side up to match the edge of the profile. Then match it with a knife or chisel. Sand with a sanding sponge to blend it in. 

The miter is #1 and the eye is drawn to that first. The profile "face" the next the eyes catches, so is #2. The back is not "visual" and can be matched with sanding a lot easier than the front. If it's too far off, you could always run the piece through the bit or cutter again. 

If the miter is off, sometimes you can get away with shaving a little off each side back towards a compromise to get it closer (44.75, 45.25), then blend it in. 

Jerry, like I said before... Theres another part of this with picture frames. Picture frames are not usually "flat." (although I like them) Classical picture frame moulding is cut with a compound miter. For instance a 45 degree miter with 15 degrees, might put a picture frame of 1.75" with the inside edge against a wall, the miter is 45 degree's for a 90 degree corner and the outside edge is off the wall by 3/4" (just an example, didn't calc that)... Picture frames are cut that way to add depth and to draw the eye to the picture. So if you cut it like crown mould, you set it against your fence with the outside edge lifted against the fence at the finished height and marked, with the table marked where it would keep the angle. 

There's also a billion jigs out there for cutting crown moulding to make that easier. I have 4 of them that I made. Just makes that easier so you don't feel like an octopus trying to hold everything in place while cutting.

So back to featherboards-- and questions you asked elsewhere on tongue and groove, reversible bits (glue joints, locking rabbet, etc.) that if the work isn't held down to the table and against the fence, you don't get a tight joint or no joint at all...

Sidenote-- You know when I was in high school and college, I never thought I'd use any of that math... Until I became a carpenter and started using it all again!!!


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## Drummer (May 27, 2012)

Miters are dead on. Frame is square. All 4 pieces are the same width, 2 3/4". The outsides and insides of the pieces all meet. The pieces are profiled entirely across their faces and all cut at the same time with same settings.
Featherboards are plastic and bolt into the miter track and t track on the fence. I did have them very tight. Let's just move on.


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## Drummer (May 27, 2012)

Looks like MalB answered my question. Thank you Mal.
How can I edit my posts or delete them? Thanks


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

Drummer said:


> Miters are dead on. Frame is square. All 4 pieces are the same width, 2 3/4". The outsides and insides of the pieces all meet. The pieces are profiled entirely across their faces and all cut at the same time with same settings.
> Featherboards are plastic and bolt into the miter track and t track on the fence. I did have them very tight. Let's just move on.


John- I had answered Chris and Jerry.

On you, good to hear that. But your concern as I read in your first post was that your wood burned. You didn't say how much you were going taking off at a time...

General rule for soft woods is 1/4" a pass using a consistent feed rate to the wood. Harder woods less.

Moulding bits are sort of like saw blades- Too much of the cutting surface (or number of teeth) across the work and it builds up heat. With a bit, adjust for it by taking off less at a time and slow down your feed rate. For moulding, I usually plan a different strategy for the last 1/16"- Then I take 2 more passes at 1/32" each to bring it to finish size. 1/32" is usually a good cleanup kind of pass and I don't usually have any problem burning wood with that.

If at 1/8" to 1/16" a pass and I'm still burning (oak or maple), then I slow down the rpm's and see if that helps.

Take's what you were commenting on right?


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