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Interior passage doors are customarily 1 3/8" thick, and entry doors are usually 1 3/4" thick. Lotsa sanding. I suppose that if all I ever did was cabinet doors I would be quite happy.
In doing so, I discovered that the included hand nuts would not clear the hold down when it is raised enough to clear the 1 3/8" panel, so I replaced the factory nuts with common 1/4-20 hex nuts and flat washers. With a little more thinking and engineering this would rate 4 1/2 stars, with a slight subtraction for horrid visability. It is now usable, but the hold down runner is narrow enough that it marks poplar.
I thought that this would be a great item for routing panels for frame and panel doors. The thickest material that will slide under the 40-025 is approx 1 1/8", so I had to get out the Dremel and elongate the adjustment slots. You have to trust that everything is going OK because you can't see anything.
Since I am building a bunch of interior passage doors, I am less than pleased. I have the Bench Dog cast iron table saw extension type router table with the Bench Dog fence.
The screw that attaches the toe occasionally works loose and the toe won't go into the guide slot on the table. Works great. Just a minor annoyance. These hold downs are a must for any serious woodworker. Keeps stock feeding snug against the cutter and prevents any kickback.
Highly recommend this accessory for anyone concerned with great results and safety. The Bench Dog 40-025 hold down accessory worked as advertised and took the worry of a hand slipping into the router bit.Milled several raised panels in multiple passes with perfect results.The Bench Dog Holddown held the panel to the fence and provided a guard for hand safety.
Additionally, the 2 inch offset of the pressure point provides a measure of safety, ensuring that your valuable fingers don't get near the business end of the router. This usually could not be achieved using feather boards alone. When cutting a panel with a large router bit, it is critical that the work piece is held firmly to to the table. I also found that if the panel has a slight bow along the grain, the device will apply enough pressure to overcome it and create an even cut. If you plan on fabricating raised panel doors, or creating anything with a large panel width, then you may find this product very useful. Otherwise, the end result can be an inconsistent cut and possibly a ruined piece. This device was designed to apply even pressure along the full length of the piece.
You cannot see the base of the fence to ensure that material is tight against the fence. It would be 5 stars except for one problem. I had to mount the Panel-Loc to a 2x4 fence because the fence on my table saw is too tall to allow the Panel-Loc to hold down thin plywood. It works much better than a featherboard for ripping plywood.
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