Magswitch Universal Featherboard Review

A featherboard does one job: hold the stock against the fence so the cut stays consistent and the board cannot drift off line or lift. Most of them mount in the mitre slot, which means they can only sit where the slot is, and the slot is rarely where the pressure needs to be.

Magswitch replaced the mounting method rather than the featherboard. The base contains switchable rare-earth magnets: rotate the lever and the magnetic circuit closes onto the table, rotate it back and the base lifts off freely. There is no clamping, no slot fitting, and no tools.

The practical effect is that you stop thinking about where the featherboard can go and start thinking about where it should go. Pressure just in front of the blade for a rip. On the fence face pushing down for a cove cut. Two of them on a router table, one either side of the bit. All positions a slot-mounted featherboard cannot occupy.

The hard limit

The magnet needs iron or steel. A cast-iron table saw or band saw table is ideal. An aluminium extruded router table top, a phenolic top, or the alloy deck on many portable jobsite saws gives the magnet nothing to grip, and the tool simply does not work.

That is not a defect, but it is the first thing to check, because it is not obvious from the listing and it is not recoverable.

Price, and how many

These cost several times what a plastic featherboard costs, and most jobs that benefit from one benefit more from two. That is the real budget. The counter-argument is that the Magswitch base outlives everything around it and moves to the next machine, and the seconds saved per reposition are the reason it actually gets used rather than staying on the shelf.