Traditionally, Felder owners have been using a technique known as "the five-sided cut," or various derivations of it, to set their crosscut fence as close to perpendicular to the blade as possible. Although this technique will ultimately result in a very low margin of error (usually measured in a few thousandths of an inch over as much as an eight foot piece of stock) most practitioners of this method are frustrated by the trial-and-error approach to aligning the crosscut fence by this iterative technique. "You can sure go through a lot of wood during the five-sided cut" was a comment that was recently posted on the Felder Owner’s Group forum. The crux of the problem lies in the fact that there is currently no way to move the crosscut fence in very precise, small increments.

Friis Precision Toolsworks (the partnership of Erik S. Friis and Andrew Perrella) has solved this problem with a line of micro-adjusters and related accessories for the complete line of Felder and Hammer machines. Our micro-adjusters and optional accessories offer a combination of elegant simplicity as well as meticulous engineering and execution. All of the units that make up our product line are constructed of some of the highest quality components available in order to complement the high-quality standards already set by Felder. Our micro-adjusters are extremely robust and incorporate a modular design that provides an easy upgrade path to more "advanced" designs and adaptability to several other key locations on your Felder machine.

At the heart of our micro-adjust system is the fine-pitch adjustment screw and universal head:

The fine-pitch adjustment screw constructed of 304 stainless-steel and has been precision cut to a 1.00 mm. thread pitch. This means that one rotation of the screw will result in one millimeter of linear motion. This thread pitch offers a degree of precision that is very close to that which is provided by a micrometer head. The handle is covered with a cushion-grip polymer and an index has been engraved in the end for reference purposes. Additionally, the nose of the screw has been radius cut to provide a single point of contact.

The head that houses the fine-pitch screw is milled from a block of solid aluminum and is clear anodized to match the finish on Felder’s sliding table. A unique clamping system allows you to easily and positively lock-in your fine-pitch adjustment screw setting.

A precision machined and anodized aluminum multifunction T-nut is used to mount the micro-adjuster’s universal head to the various T-tracks on your Felder. We offer a series of different T-nuts to fit your machine:

Like the universal head, all of our T-nuts are precision machined from a block of solid aluminum and fully anodized. Each T-nut is roughly equivalent in size to a corresponding Felder T-nut. Our T-nuts, however, offer the following advantages over the stock T-nuts:

1. Our T-nuts are constructed of aluminum and won’t scratch or wear the aluminum T-tracks the way the stock steel T-nuts will.
2. We machine our T-nuts to much tighter track tolerances than the steel T-nuts for a snug fit with virtually no play in the T-track.
3. All our bases have a central ridge to keep them co-linear in the T-track.
4. The anodized surface of our T-nuts will not corrode or rust like the steel T-nuts will.
5. The fore and aft faces of our T-nuts are precision machined to a high degree of flatness unlike the steel T-nut faces that are cut with a band saw. The flat surfaces (especially on the faces of our T-nuts) provide additional precision when fine-tuning your crosscut fence.

Several Felder owners have already expressed an interest in replacing their existing steel T-nuts with our precision "Felder-friendly" anodized aluminum T-nuts.

Once the appropriate T-nut has been selected as a base, the universal head is easily attached with two M5 hex-socket screws, producing a complete micro-adjuster:

Installation is easy – the micro-adjuster simply replaces the existing steel T-nut:

It even uses the same setscrews as the stock T-nut (though we supply you with a new set). Micro-precise movement of the crosscut fence is now possible simply by turning the stainless-steel 1.00mm adjustment screw. The fine thread pitch of this screw makes it easy to dial in a fraction of a thousandth of an inch (or as little as 10 microns)!

The radius-cut nose of the adjustment screw impinges upon the solid metal block that is attached to the crosscut fence. Once the adjustment screw is set and locked (via the hex socket screw on top of the micro-adjuster) the single point of contact offers excellent repeatability when the fence is moved and returned to its original setting. Of course the micro-adjuster can also be used to fine-tune an angle other than 90 degrees. In addition, the adjustment screw can be backed out or removed and the base itself can be slid into place and locked down to act as a detent in the same fashion that a stock T-nut would.

Scalability is incorporated into our all of our designs. A prefix attachment can be used in conjunction with the standard micro-adjuster by simply placing it in front of the standard unit.

The universal head already has the required hole to guide the brass rail that directs the movement of the prefix attachment. In addition, prefix attachment has the appropriate blind-hole milled to accept the radius-cut nose of the adjustment screw.

Here’s what it looks like installed:

This enhanced design offers several advantages:

1. The prefix attachment registers directly and exclusively against the T-nut that is installed under the crosscut fence (in this picture the stock steel T-nut is shown). The face-to-face contact between the T-nut and the prefix attachment remains constant regardless of which angle the crosscut fence is set. This results in increased accuracy and repeatability.
2. Alternate crosscut fence configurations have knobs or other items that may interfere with the adjustment screw. The prefix attachment circumvents this potential problem.
3. Once the crosscut fence has been positioned and the setscrew at the fore of the prefix attachment has been tightened, the micro-adjust unit may be removed for use elsewhere. In fact, after the micro-adjuster has been removed, the brass rail on the prefix attachment can be unthreaded for space-saving and aesthetic reasons.

On this unit an optional Z-offset has been added between the base and the head – the ability to augment our units with a number of optional accessories demonstrates the high degree of modularity and interchangeability of our components. The head can also be offset to either side of the base! The offset attachment also provides the benefit of having clear access to the setscrews in the base without having to move the adjustment screw.

Since the head on the above unit has been positioned at the aft of the base, the longer adjustment screw has been installed. The screw can also be threaded from the other direction in which case the fine-adjuster can be installed with the head in the forward position. The configurations are many and dependent on your specific crosscut fence setup.

For those interested in an even finer degree of precision and elegance:

We offer an optional head that will allow you to mount one of several types of micrometer heads (which we also supply). This micro-adjuster is shown equipped with a Starrett 263L micrometer head. This particular micrometer head features a non-glare satin chrome finish, friction thimble, and graduations in thousandths of an inch. When supplemented with a Vernier or digital caliper, setting your crosscut fence with a super-high degree of accuracy becomes quick and second nature.

Another optional accessory allows the mounting of the upright base post, rod, and associated hardware, for attaching a dial indicator, to the T-track on your Felder machine:

Shown here is a Starrett upright base post, ¼" diameter rod, and necessary hardware to attach a Peacock metric dial indicator. We also supply both of these products. Like the micrometer head equipped micro-adjuster, a standard micro-adjuster combined with this accessory makes quick work of setting the crosscut fence with an extremely high degree of precision. It can also be used to check the accuracy of your sliding table, rip fence, shaper fence, arbor run-out, saw blade flatness, and the list goes on…

We think you’ll agree that our micro-adjusters and accessories are designed and built to the highest quality standards and that they will be a great asset for improving the precision of your woodworking with your Felder machine. We have several other exciting new accessories for Felder/Hammer line of woodworking machines in the works, so stay tuned!