Basic How-To Needed

[tbellemare]

Les:

If you or anyone else is ever in the Central Texas area, please look me up. I'll give you a demo of just about anything you want...

Tom

 

[PeterK]

Tom - another big THANK YOU for your MFT/3 setup guide. Very nicely done.

Pete

 

[extiger]

Les, I should add that the presenter of the demonstration was a Festool company representative. Little things about managing the equipment are difficult to express in print, or even to show in a video.

It's a big country. The lumber stores and tool dealers who carry the machinery may or may not be expert users. But Anderson Plywood in Culver City, Calif, ? where I went for the demo ? has a staff member specializiing in Festool gear. He is a very experienced cabinet and furniture maker. We are also lucky that, if a Californian wants to drive to Santa Barbara, there is a Festool repair station there with a dedicated demonstration room.

Gary Curtis

 

[extiger]

Peter K,

The remarkable things I learned about the MFT/3 table were the T slots on sides allowing vertical board clamping for procedures such as planing a board edge. And the literature didn't clarify the orientation of the guide rail. ie  - does the cutting take place on the right or the left side of the rail. (right side is correct)

And, pertaining to any guide rail setup, final board width is measured from the left up to the splinter guard. The offcut falls away to the right. One of the latecomers to the demo saw some street corner laborers at a jobsite in a toney area of Los Angeles ruin $20,000-worth of rare wood ply by measuring cuts from the right up to the splinter guard and then plowing away with the TS 55. Not a laughing matter. The owner just hired the guys and handed them a bunch of equipment.

Gary

 

[johnbro]

Welcome to the Slope!

The Festool system can be a bit intimidating, and Festool is one of the worst companies I've ever run into with regards to documenting their tools and how they are to be used. Tiny pictures in the catalog or website, unclear documentation (when there's any at all). No wonder a newb is confused.

My suggestion is to get thee to a store where people who know them sell them and ask for some demos. Go to a wood working show and hang out at the Festool booth.

John Lucas and Jerry Work both have excellent tutorials, although Jerry's tend to me a bituse larger pictures more advanced than John's. I just wish John would post larger picture links so I can see exactly everything that's going on.

[I will say that while it's possible to use the MFT as a replacement for a table saw it will be a heck of a lot more work and some stuff you just can't do (tenons, dados, coves, grooves). The parallel guides look like an importatnt improvement to the MFT/TS lash-up and get it somewhat closer to the goal of duplicating a TS but it's still not there.]

Me personally, I don't use the fence on my MFT (old style). The new MFT/3 looks like it solves the problems the old MFT had with the fence. I have a piece of Baltic Birch plywood about 1 sq foot that has 90 degree corners that have beede rail right n carefully checked. I use this to square the fence and guiderail to each other. Most of the time I use the MFT as a clamping, sanding, routing, etc station. When I want to cut with the TS-55 I measure and mark, lay the guide rail right on the mark, and cut away. Watch that the vac hose doesn't snag the guiderail and move it while you're cutting.

Use foam or an old door as a cutting station (lay them on the floor or sawhorses). WAtch your depth of cut--unfortunately the TS-55 depth stop doesn't take into consideration the 5 or 6mm thickness of the guiderail.