Today in the shop (first look at the Clear-cut stock guides)

[reible]

This is one of my shiny new tools and this is my first look at them up close and personal. Ever since they came out they have been calling my name. They were on this years tool list and so here they are.

They are called CLEAR-CUT (TM) Stock Guides and they are made by the JessEm tool company. They make nice things and these are no exception. List price is about $100 so they are not cheap. They also have set for table saws and they are on my list but way towards the bottom for now.

The unique ideas deal with having guide rollers that are angled so they steer the stock towards the fence. They are designed to rotate in only one directions. I will not bore you with other details as they can be found at their website or at places selling them.

There are two guide assemblies, one is for the infeed and the other for the outfeed.

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As you can see they are clearly labeled as to which is which and direction of feed.

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This next picture clearly shows the angle of the wheels.

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They mount in a t-slot on a router fence or if you have a do it yourself model then a pieces of t-track will need to be added if you didn't have it before. It works in slots that work with 1/4" nuts/bolts.

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Once mounted they look like this:

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As you can see the wheels are all the way down to the table so even thin stock can be held. The next couple of pictures show them with a 3/8" thick piece of plastic and then a piece of 3/4" stock and then with 1-1/2" tall stack.

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There is still about a 1/2" of space left at that point so with my fence I can go to about 2". I'd have to modify the guard at about that point but I don't really see this as an issue because you can always add height to a fence and things like 4 x 4's are not common projects for me.

I'll review it after I use them for a while.

Ed

[beeg]

So there fancy feather boards?

[jsburger]

How far above the table top is the 'T' track on your fence? I have been looking at these for a while and I wonder if they will adjust down to the table top with my fence. It is a Benchdog cast iron top and fence. It looks from the pictures to be pretty close.

[reible]

Table to center of the t-track is 2-3/4" on mine.

Ed

[reible]

I know how some of you look at the price and shy away well lets look at doing this same function with feather boards. Now I know some of you already have them but lets say you didn't and had to start off today.

As an example lets look at these from Kreg:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VR ... 1_1&sr=8-1

Current price is #31.83. To do the same job as the clear-cut stock guides you need 4 clamps, so $63.66 so that is not such a cheap route either. You should be able to find the clear-cut for under $90 on sale so buying the regular feather boards gets you 2/3 of the way to the clear-cut.

BTW I think you need both in your shop, sometime you feel like a feather board and sometimes you feel like a clear-cut.

Ed

[jsburger]

Table to center of the t-track is 2-3/4" on mine.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I will check but I think they will work.

[jsburger]

Table to center of the t-track is 2-3/4" on mine.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I will check but I think they will work.

OK I couldn't wait. I went to the shop and my distance it 3 1/8". Based on your measurements will the rollers drop down enough to touch the table with my Benchdog fence?

[reible]

I unhooked the fence and stuck a piece of 1/2" mdf under it which would now make it 3-1/4" and it still had more room so your 3-1/8 will work.

Ed

Table to center of the t-track is 2-3/4" on mine.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I will check but I think they will work.

OK I couldn't wait. I went to the shop and my distance it 3 1/8". Based on your measurements will the rollers drop down enough to touch the table with my Benchdog fence?

[jsburger]

[quote="reible"]I unhooked the fence and stuck a piece of 1/2" mdf under it which would now make it 3-1/4" and it still had more room so your 3-1/8 will work.

Ed



Thanks Ed. Now I just need to do a little searching to find a good price.

[reible]

Got to try these out the other day. Pretty slick! Only 49 groves but still at least I got to use them. Looking forward to having them see more action, they sure are simple to use. Since they stay on the fence when you change fence locations you don't have to adjust things like you do with feather boards, cool.

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Ed