Put a Power Feeder on my Router Table (w/pics)

[David Eisan]

Evening All,

I have a ton of doors to make and I didn't like the idea of hand feeding all that material over my router table. I have been meaning to make a new better router table, but I have just not got around to it, so I brought home a power feeder from work and just bolted to my existing somewhat down and out router table.

The router table is the only piece of woodworking machinery that has ever bitten me and I am leery of hand feeding boards over it. I must say that pushing the board into the first wheel, and grabbing it from the third wheel was much easier on the sphincter muscle than hand feeding. Not only that, but running at 14 ft/min gave excellent quality of cut with a set of CMT cutters, no burning and no discernible milling marks. Not like when I was hand feeding, little burn marks when I was moving my hands, or jiggles in the profile. I am sold on this and wish I had bought one a long time ago.

The Delta 36-850 1/4 HP power feeder parts out of the box,



The power feeder mounted to my router table,



A bunch of rough cut rails,



The rails all milled,



Runing the rails through the router table with the power feeder,



All the rails milled,



These are all rough length and some multiple length, I will cut all the rails and stiles from this stock tomorrow.

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

[John Miliunas]

That's pretty sweet, David! The burning question is: Where in the heck DO you work, that you can "bring home" one of these babies?! I can really see a use for it there and for me, I'd love to have one on the jointer, as well. Also, maybe you can answer something else for me; I've looked at them on and off for some time and note that, even from the 1/2hp or so, they all seem to be listed at 220VAC. Now, I just KNOW that you can hit 1-1/2 hp easily on 120VAC. Any idea why these guys need to run on 220? Regardless, nice score and it does appear to be doing a great job for you and safely, at that!

[John Weber]

David,

Very sweet setup, a power feed is a great help.

John,

I believe the power feeders use 220v to give them additonal speeds, by wiring the motor for use with a multi speed switch, you can get 2 forward/2 reverse plus all the additional speeds from gear changes. A 110v feeder is only forward or reverse. I'm not exactly sure how it's done, but seems to make sense.

John

[Scott Parks]

That's a great idea! It never occurred to me that you could get much better results from a machine feed. It makes sense, though, to achieve a smooth, consistant cut. Hmmm, I'm envisioning power feed on my table saw...

Jeez, I wish I could "bring something home from work".

[David Eisan]

That's pretty sweet, David! The burning question is: Where in the heck DO you work, that you can "bring home" one of these babies?! I can really see a use for it there and for me, I'd love to have one on the jointer, as well. Also, maybe you can answer something else for me; I've looked at them on and off for some time and note that, even from the 1/2hp or so, they all seem to be listed at 220VAC. Now, I just KNOW that you can hit 1-1/2 hp easily on 120VAC. Any idea why these guys need to run on 220? Regardless, nice score and it does appear to be doing a great job for you and safely, at that!

I am sales manager for a very large power tool retailer here in Canada, I get to play with all the cool toys!

[Dino Makropoulos]

I can really see a use for it there and for me, I'd love to have one on the jointer, as well.
nice score and it does appear to be doing a great job for you and safely, at that!

The best investment at your shop. Not only for safety but the quality of the work is much better. Running the jointer -shaper-and even your tablesaw in some cases without a power feeder is asking for your last manicure.
Happy new year to all.
YCf Dino