I just picked up a used single speed 1/4hp 3 wheel stock feeder shown below. Looking for some advice how folks have positioned these on their saws for cutting strips.

I use 3/16" strips without bead/cove. My current strip cutting setup is a 7 1/4" thin rip circular saw blade, a zero clearance insert and splitter, a magnetic feather board to push the stock against the fence, and an auxiliary high fence with feather board to keep the stock from rising up. It works well on short boards but with 8-10' boards I find it very tiring. Any slight side to side movement while pushing the board through is exaggerated near the blade, causing either the blade or fence or both to flex, and resulting in strips that are either too thin or too thick. This also leaves the cutoff edge of the board no longer straight so the next strip is impossible to cut straight.

I'm hoping that a stock feeder will pull, rather than push the stock, and keep the board tight to the fence with uniform pressure better than I can hand feed.

The woodworker I bought the feeder off of had a very large professional shop with some very large shapers and European combination machines. He had 4 and 5 wheel stock feeders on nearly every machine. He's recommended that I position the shaper directly over the blade. There's already a sacrificial slot in the center wheel. I'd have to position the feeder with the wheels facing left as shown below, so that the splitter can fit between two of the wheels.

He recommended creating a low L-shaped fence extension out of 1/2" MDF, similar to a Delta unifence, so that the feeder would rest on the stock and float over the fence extension. Wondering if I can use a piece of aluminum L-bracket for this? Anyone have a source for 1/2" aluminum extrusions that are L-shape that would work better than an L-bracket? Otherwise I might look for a scrap of Mellamine that I can rip down to 1/2" so that there's a smooth edge on the auxiliary fence.

I'd previously seen recommendations when cutting thin strips to use an L-shaped extension and have the extension end just after the last teeth are finished engaging the workpiece. That was the thin strip is allowed to float in the air gap between the splitter and factory fence, to avoid binding and burning.

Finally, I'm trying to decide where to mount the feeder base. The two best locations are in the upper left or upper right in the extension wings. The left would make it easier to access to remove. The right would make it easier to rotate out of the way without completely unbolting.

I've seen on other forums where some folks recommend drill and tap. Others recommend through bolts with large washers to help distribute the load. The latter would definitely be easier on the left side.

Any advice from others that use stock feeders would be greatly appreciated. Especially pictures if you have them.