magnetic fence/featherboard *LINK*
Clay C in Miami
>The Enco reference below reminded me ...
A member of the local guild brought in a featherboard he had made, which included two switchable Enco magnets (link below). It looked like a pretty clever idea, I've just now ordered 4 of the magnets from Enco, to try both the featherboard and a fence.
Anyway, it strikes me that these could be very useful for a lot of purposes. It'd be great to not mess with clamping a fence at the bandsaw, drill press, etc. - I always seem to need to clamp it right at the spot where there's a rib under the table, and then I always, always need to move it just a hair, requiring reclamping everything. This would allow one to put the fence where you want it, flip on the magnets and go. Moving it a hair is just as easy. The magnets are very powerful, and the switch makes them practical for this use. I may even try to make a fence with the featherboard part as a separate 'insert,' so I could use the same item as a fence or featherboard, as needed.
Anyway, I thought that y'all would like to see the featherboard linked below, and like to know about these switchable magnets. (Naturally, these are listed on the Enco site, not in their extensive 'magnets' section, but among 'measuring instruments.')
Finally, has anyone else done this, or have any suggestions about the design of a magnetic fence? I'm thinking it might be nice to have one that's longer/taller and one shorter height/shorter length. But, I may make them both the same dimensions except for length, so that other jigs built to mount over these would fit on both.
Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated, and I'll post pics of the results.
To give credit where due, the local guild member who built the below featherboard is Bob Eighmie. I don't know if it is original to him, but he gets the credit in my book!
TIA,
Clay
Magnetic Featherboard