A Fresh Start With Festool?

The LR32 is a rig at best. It works but is ripe for failure (holes that don't align) especially if you are not a regular user of it. Others will contest this, but for the cost there are better solutions. I've tried them all short of buying a stationary machine and the Mafell DD40 is the only one that can be picked up and used without looking a manual to figure out which way to flip the rail because if you mix it up your holes will be screwed up. It does the work of a Domino with the additional of a spacing template spot on shelf pin holes.

Whatever you end up buying don't shoehorn yourself into one brand (or color). Go with best tool for the job and not tools that all have the same color.

BTW the old Craftsman tools are awesome and they will last for generations so long as the owner after you maintains them properly. No company will ever make stationary tools like those again.
 
As usual Gregor's post is well thought out and thorough and I second his suggestions.

Though some specific tools from other manufacturers may exceed some specs or be a better value than the Festool version I highly recommend sticking with the Festool system. The most mundane example; a Festool vac can support a tall stack of Systainers and tuck into a corner of your shop while metal working is in progress. The MFT can be folded away.

Don't give in to the temptation to use the MFT as an ordinary table while metal working is going on. MWing detritus is really incompatible with WWing tools, material, and process so protect the Festool. (Says a guy who spent the last week cutting nothing but aluminum on an MFT. Using the Longitudinal Stop I was able to get close to 0.1 mm accuracy on cutoffs used as spacers.
 
Scorpion said:
When I bought the above tools to build the first vanity, I felt a little stupid after totaling it all up.  Coulda bought a darn nice vanity.  What I hadn't prepared for was how easily it ended up being making the cabinets, how nice the cabinets turned out, the benefits of the custom features I could add by building the cabinets myself, and how much my wife loved them.  All of those epiphanies launched me into building built-ins and cabinets for nearly every room in the house and now I'm spanning out into furniture.  Now the tooling investment seems trivial and as a result, the wife actually supports the tool capability expansion as I see fit (it was so much harder to convince her to buy metal fab tools!!).
Click to expand...

[member=27782]Scorpion[/member] - I am still reading through your wonderful thread on GJ ( think I am up to page 80, after 3 weeks) and if you hadn't used a Festool (and therefore had a link from one of the threads here) I would have missed out on your amazing journey, photos, and inspiration as documented there. The thing that strikes me most is your desire to learn lessons each step of the way, and not be put off too much by setbacks, but add them all to improve upon next time. Thanks for the thread!
 
eddomak said:
Scorpion said:
When I bought the above tools to build the first vanity, I felt a little stupid after totaling it all up.  Coulda bought a darn nice vanity.  What I hadn't prepared for was how easily it ended up being making the cabinets, how nice the cabinets turned out, the benefits of the custom features I could add by building the cabinets myself, and how much my wife loved them.  All of those epiphanies launched me into building built-ins and cabinets for nearly every room in the house and now I'm spanning out into furniture.  Now the tooling investment seems trivial and as a result, the wife actually supports the tool capability expansion as I see fit (it was so much harder to convince her to buy metal fab tools!!).
Click to expand...

[member=27782]Scorpion[/member] - I am still reading through your wonderful thread on GJ ( think I am up to page 80, after 3 weeks) and if you hadn't used a Festool (and therefore had a link from one of the threads here) I would have missed out on your amazing journey, photos, and inspiration as documented there. The thing that strikes me most is your desire to learn lessons each step of the way, and not be put off too much by setbacks, but add them all to improve upon next time. Thanks for the thread!
Click to expand...

Ok. Who's gotta link?
 
eddomak said:
SPOILER: It purports to be about a garage upgrade, but soon you will be sucked into reading about kitchens, bedrooms and everything else.  [tongue]
Click to expand...

Nuh-uh, according to the author it's about tooling organization...

Note:  somewhere between the start of his thread and now the author got into wood working so

"It's about a fabricators journey to garage and tool(ing) organization and how his real world fabrication experiences alter his approach to organization".

Look, I'm about to reel it back in guys. Many won't get it but this summer I'm going to pull down many of the cabinets in the shop and redo them to better align to how I'm using my tools now and to become even more efficient. 

Ryan, what kind of built-ins are you thinking of building - face frames or frameless?  Building doors and/or drawers?  There's some seriously talented and experienced peeps here who can help you dial in on tooling selection should they know the processes you may be headed towards.
 
I love this.  It reminds me of an entry in the official record of a long term project I was involved in when I was in the USAF - the conversion of a fighter wing from F-4s to F-15s.  A major milestone of some sort had been reached; maybe the organizational stationary letterhead had been changed to reflect a new name, or something. (that wasn't it, but it was something fairly routine and not particularly significant.)

The entry, in the official record, went something very much like:

"These events tended to restore some of the confusion that had recently begun to subside."

One of the highlights of my otherwise not particularly distinguished, although ostensibly successful, military career.

FOR THE DIRECTOR
Lt Col Gary E Carpenter, USAF (ret)
 
Cool, welcome, I recently moved into a new house and your site helped me epoxy my garage floor.

 
Scorpion said:
eddomak said:
SPOILER: It purports to be about a garage upgrade, but soon you will be sucked into reading about kitchens, bedrooms and everything else.  [tongue]
Click to expand...

Nuh-uh, according to the author it's about tooling organization...

Note:  somewhere between the start of his thread and now the author got into wood working so

"It's about a fabricators journey to garage and tool(ing) organization and how his real world fabrication experiences alter his approach to organization".
Click to expand...
Hah hah, how can I possibly argue with the author? In any case I am grateful for whatever drove the thread to what it is. :)

Look, I'm about to reel it back in guys. Many won't get it but this summer I'm going to pull down many of the cabinets in the shop and redo them to better align to how I'm using my tools now and to become even more efficient. 
Click to expand...
Fantastic! I reckon everyone who follows the thread will be secretly grateful that there will be now even more to read.  [wink]

I don'
 
Shane Holland said:
AtomicRyan said:
And so it begins...
Click to expand...

[thumbs up]
Click to expand...

See this dude's avatar? See how he has that great big smile on his face? That's cuz he's my dealer... And I just emptied my wallet to him!

Seriously though. Shane, thanks for all the help and guidance man.
 
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