Thread: Power Feeder Advice

Originally Posted by ian

Hi Don

maybe "jam" was the wrong verb.
unless the power feeder has rollers both sides of the material being fed, the rollers have to push against something, otherwise the wood will just skid out from under the feeder.
on a shaper for example, the wood will be lying flat on the shaper table, and the feeder will "squeeze" the wood between the rollers and the table to push it along the table past the cutter.
With a band saw and the wood on edge, the same action would be to squeeze the wood between the feeder's rollers and the fence.
The band saw feeder shown by Vann has two sets of rollers that "pinch" the wood between them to feed it through the blade

OK Ian,
So where do you see a real problem?
This feeder any way, has the ability for almost unlimited articulation, so whether the feeder is horizontal (traditional tablesaw or shaper work) or vertical (possible for any cutting) the potential to force the the work of course through improper placement exists.
I can over power my fences

hopefully the attached diagrams explain what I mean

1. I had my profile fixed.

2. My friend Paul Leminske uses a King variable speed feeder regularly. He can only dial it down to 7 FPM. He did comment to me that he would like to go a bit slower. Follow the link to his Instagram site and view some power resawing.
Canadian Woodworks (@canadianwoodworks) • Instagram photos and videos

I understand the basics of power feeding, in fact the Univer literature recommends angling the rollers slightly to force the work against the fence for the 3 primary applications - sawing, shaping and surfacing.


When manually feeding for resaw, I have to use a fence that is secured to the table. Swapping human feeder (me) for a mechanical feeder requires the same secure fence. I would be running the feeder on it's side. Having minimal friction on the fence surface would be as critical.
I have found feed rate to be a huge variable as the width of material increases. More width, more cutting time, more tendency to try and rush the cutting. I have never measured my human ft/minute, but do know that it is quite easy to over feed the cut to the point of forcing a serious tracking error, also without significant support, the fence will move.
We all get tired and impatient.
My feeder, at 9 ft/min may to aggressive, but Vann's Preston resaw attachment has a low speed of 18 ft/min., so maybe I need to just try it.
Overall, my biggest concern is the weight of the entire unit. I can barely lift the motor and feeder. There is a lot more frame probably puts it close to 100 lbs. The table is large, but it is not a heavy casting, being supported on a narrow trunnion right at the blade opening.

I will have it back from the motor shop next week. I will set it up and see what happens.

Thanks for all of your input and advice.

Regards,

Don