Festool should supply an extra pair of hands for the CMS. [mad]
I am frantically trying to get some of my Christmas shopping finished TODAY. Ran into a situation where i needed to move the hold-down fence away from the main fence about 1/4". Loosened the knob to perform the simple operation, which i have done in trial setups already. Just a twist of the knob and everthing becomes movable, right?
Wrong! IN CAPITAL LETTERS along with some very basic words which could get me expelled from the FOG website were I to spell them out. I kept twisting the knob, even tho it was becoming quite lose. I did not want everything to come apart so i began to investigate. At the far end of the shaft is a nut that, when the knob is turned, should become lose and allow the hold down to come slide out to its hoped for position. However, the shaft had frozen to the nut.
I could not get a wrench to slide down over the nut as the nut is buried in plastic. Sooo I did the undesired total unscrewing of the knob and put plyers to the screw part of the shaft and managed to turn the shaft lose from the nut. Great! I'm in business!
Wrong again. that herring bone piece of plastic that envelpes the nut and wedges against the sides of the aluminum extrusion to prevent sliding out of place was totally wedged to point where the more i tried to move it, the tighter it became wedged. I finally got a scrap of wood from the scrap heap and together with a light hammer, some choice words and more patience than I thought i ever had, i finally extricated the entire apparatus.
Only now, i had a whole lot of loose parts twirling around on the shaft. After playing with the pile for what semed like at least a half hout, i finally looked at my watch and decided it was lunch time. I will need to go out sanding driveways (prep sanding so i won't have to plow driveways on Christmas day.) now that I have had lunch. The pile is still sitting on my work bench where it will remain for the rest of the afternoon. I am not sure how I will get the thing back together as I do not have more than two hands. Probably set up my portable vice.
I did find out, (much too late) there was a very simple solution to the problem. For anyone else who might find the same situation f the herringbone thingie, or the end nut, or both, jamming, the long screw that the whole works rides on has a slot on the knob end. I think I see how to pull the knob apart, but don't know if it will carry on with obstinacity and fail to return to duty. I also don't know if the herringbone jammer piece will get jammed again. I had thought, with my original inspection of how things went together/apart that it was rather ingeneous how Festool figered the locking system. Now, i am not so sure.
Of course, the family is very much used to getting IOU's for Christmas presents. I had them already printed up, so no big problem there. It is looking like a busy show plowing and sanding week coming up, starting with Christmas day. Soooo >>>> at least i will be able to afford he lumber to cover the IOU's. :
Tinker
