Attaching Woodpecker Slab Mill to MFTs?

[squall_line]

As the subject suggests...

I ordered a Slab Mill Pro 4 days ago and was given a 10-week shipping estimate.  I got an email today with a shipping notice, so now I feel like I'm partially scrambling, as I was planning on having at least a month or two to figure all of this out.

Not that I can't take two months to figure it out, but once I have this in hand, I have so many (50+) slabs that I want to start getting to work on.  I think I need to order a bit, too, now that I think of it...

All of my slabs are between 7'6" and 9' long, most right around 8' (I'd have to find my list...). Most are 20-24 inches wide, some are up to 30 at their widest.  All either 4/4 or 8/4 white ash or soft maple.  Most are live edge, but I have a lot of square-edged ash in the shed.

I have three MFT/3s.  I wasn't sure how plausible it would be to connect my MFTs along the short edge to make a 90-ish or 135-ish inch-long work surface, and then attach the rails of the Slab Flattening Mill to the rails of the MFTs, instead of building a plywood frame and/or finding some salvage slab doors as a base for the mill.  I know the 30" wide pieces won't work, as they'll hang over the rails.

One MFT lives in the basement and can come up to the garage if absolutely necessary, but it's a horizontal surface in the corner of a basement, so to move it takes deliberate action such as decluttering the thing.  It would still be necessary if I didn't shorten some of the slabs before milling.

I don't have the space to store full sheets of plywood very easily, especially not if they also have a torsion frame attached to the base.  I have a place to store the mill rails unassembled between pieces as needed, although they aren't exactly short.

Anyone have any suggestions for incorporating MFTs into this workflow?  In my head, I have a flat enough garage floor that it shouldn't be too terrible to get everything flat and level with the MFT-to-MFT connectors, but maybe I'm just setting myself up for disappointment and failure?

I have enough slabs that I've already got in mind that at least one or two will end up as my practice pieces while I figure all of this out.  It wasn't free wood, but it was pretty cheap all things considered (storm damage that I had milled and kiln-dried).

Any experience or suggestions, even to call me crazy and talk me down a sane path, are welcome!

 

[thudchkr]

I have multiple MFT's as well and instead of using the MFT connectors, I purchased some aluminum angle to attach the two MFT's to each other.  I picked up some weld nuts,https://www.fastenal.com/product/Fasteners/Nuts/Weld%20Nuts?categoryId=600123, that fit the slot on the MFT rails and the appropriate bolts to fit the weld nuts.  I just drilled holes through my aluminum angle so that there were at least two fasteners in each MFT/aluminum angle connection.  The MFT's can be placed in either the short length or long length orientation.  You can use longer pieces of the aluminum angle to space your MFT's however far apart you wish. The aluminum securely holds the MFTs at a fixed distance from each other that would allow setting up the slab flattening mill on the MFT's top surface.

Food for thought. 

 

[WillettBarrel]

I made my own slab flattening jig using 2040 aluminum extrusion. I mount it to my MFT-style bench using Quad Fence Dogs from Bench Dogs UK. They work great and make it easy to disassemble and store the slab jig.

I'm thinking about upgrading to the WP jig; I can't see a reason why the Fence Dogs wouldn't work. A different sized t-nut may be required depending on the WP extrusion. But that seems an easy change.

The downside, of course, is the rails sit at the first row of dog holes on either side of the MFT, so you lose width capacity. If you need to save the full width, you might try a mending plate with t-nuts and thumb screws to connect the jig rail to the MFT extrusion.

 

[alltracman78]

I don't have any MFTs, but I do have a slab mill that I don't have space to leave up all the time.
Here are a few suggestions base off my personal preferences.

The first one you're not going to want to hear; I cancelled my order for the Woodpeckers mill. I'm not knocking them, I have literally thousands of dollars of their tools prior to ordering their mill. But their mill doesn't have a threaded rod.
I went with a true trac threaded mill instead.https://www.truetracsaw.com/products/48-x-96-threaded-index-slab-mill

The threaded rod makes such a difference. Much less force required to control the sled and you have very close to CNC accuracy cutting a straight line and/or even cuts.
The true trac doesn't have as much height adjustability in the sled as the Woodpeckers, but this is outweighed by the threaded rod IMO.

I cut outside so I don't use dust collection. Didn't even include it in my order. Woodpeckers MAY be better there, if that matters to you.

As far as a table for the mill, since you already have it the MFT may work fantastic, I don't know. What I did was build a frame from 1 1/2" plywood (laminated 2 3/4 sheets) for stability. 2 Long outside rails with multiple shorter crossbeams. The rails unbolt from each other so I can take it down and store in a small space. It also gives the the ability to have pretty much any length/wide combination I want as the rails and crossbeams can be any size and interchangeable.
This is set on several 2x4s on sawhorses, leveled with shims and clamped to the sawhorses.
I also just use clamps to hold the mill to the frame.

Get the largest bit you can. It takes a lot of time to cover the whole slab. 1/4" Adds up when you're covering so much area.
I got a cheap 3" Chinese bit to do most of the work and an Amana for finishing cuts. I wouldn't call the Chinese one as good as the Amana, but it does a fantastic job by itself.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQHKZCD3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I hope you have a BIG router. I have a 3 1/2 HP Milwaukee I use. Works fantastic. I never even tried anything smaller. It would be like trying to tow a full size trailer with a mid sized pickup IMO.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I'm just beginning to think down this road. I have recently acquired two 8' pieces of very heavy aluminum extrusion, perfect for something like this. It might be more of a wintertime project though, just trying to stay in the loop. Looking for ideas.

 

[alltracman78]

You want a threaded rod. And a 3 inch bit.
I'm pretty sure true trac sells just the rod section. Or make your own.

 

[festal]

another option ishttps://tracktubes.com/products/lgd-premium-router-sled-gantry-kit?variant=40147841843255

I use their tracktubes and their custom mft top for my mft bench. 

 

[squall_line]

The True Trac mill is not in the cards, since a) the WP mill arrived 2 days after I posted my original message, b) the dust collection is extra, c) the sizes aren't what I need, and d) the height adjustability isn't as robust as the WP mill.  I will give True Trac kudos for encouraging users to mill with the grain instead of cross grain like most mills and videos show.  The threaded rod looks handy, for sure.

My current tack is to pick up some 2"x3" aluminum angle, .190 (3/16-ish) thick, drill some holes (or maybe have the shop where I'm buying it drill the holes) and mount the 3" leg to either side of the pair of MFTs with T-bolts and star knobs, then attach the mill to the flat top of the 2" leg with similar bolts and knobs.

The 2"x3" .190 aluminum angle from the local metal shop is cheaper than the 2"x2" .125 angle from any of the box stores around here, and seems to be a better size than 2x2 because it can sit at table height.  Without any drilling, I should be under $85 out the door if I get 2 pieces at 8' each.

My thought is to get full lengths instead of just "connector" pieces, even though the pieces would store easier, since a full length 2"x3" .190 angle is much more likely to start and remain flat and never bow compared to having to bring a bunch of pieces coplanar (another advantage of .190 vs .125).  I'll figure out the exact length I should need before I go get it cut (they keep 20' in stock).

It seems a little bit over the top, and potentially still not going to get me where I need to be, since some of the setup relies on holes drilled in a straight line (thus possibly having the shop do it).

Thoughts are welcomed, for sure.

 

[guybo]

Hi, lots of good ideas from the king of 80/20 herehttps://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-jigs-tool-enhancements/more-fun-with-8020/ btw i used my stm1800

 

[squall_line]

I considered 8020, including a 5/16 rod to "lock" it in place, but

a) I have no local dealer for 8020 profiles

b) it's not cheap even if I didn't have to worry about shipping

c) I can't say that I trust a friction fit of two profiles that aren't specifically engineered to lock together to hold an expensive and heavy router in an expensive slab mill over a slab that, in theory, could be more expensive than either of the other two items hovering above it. (of course, if I was milling $1k slabs, I probably wouldn't be Rube Goldberging all of this stuff together in my garage, but the final product could certainly be worth that or more).