Cross cutting small pieces with CMS and TS insert

[cliffp]

Reiska, Actually my choice of tools has been influenced a fair bit by your acquisitions! You always research everything so thoroughly. I think you should be part of the working group to define the 'Optimal Set' .

 

[fritter63]

I recently had a problem making square cuts to a 43cm x 14cm drawer front (cutting at right angles to the long side) using the sliding table. I was getting an error of around 0.5 mm over the 14cm cut. I had previously had satisfactory results with this set up and bigger pieces. I am confident that the mitre gauge was set correctly. With such a small piece, very little of it is able to ride on the sliding table and to make matters worse, I was only trimming the piece so that only one side of the blade was doing any cutting. I suspect that the blade was pushing the piece to one side (if the blade was cutting on both sides the forces on each side would be balanced) and not anticipating this, I was not holding the piece firmly enough against the mitre fence (and it couldn't be clamped to the table) and it shifted during the cut. I am wondering how to avoid this problem in future and am considering making a cross cut sled that registers along the rip fence (I have the good, so-called LA stopper). I would be interested if anyone has any suggestion as to whether this would be any good or whether there are any better solutions (I don't have a Kapex). I know people don't generally use the rip fence when cross cutting but that is because in such cases people are usually registering the piece to be cut against the fence which is dangerous - in my case, it would only be the sled that made contact.

I have the Delta sliding table on my unisaw. The fence can be slid over as close to the blade as want (and closer if you're not careful). On the top of the fence is a t slot which accepts a positive flip down "flag" stop, designed to keep the piece from being pushed away from the blade as you describe.

So I should make an auxiliary wood fence to register/attach to the sliding table, and put a flag stop on that to register the end of the piece against (opposite the end which is being cut).

This should solve the problem

 

[cliffp]

Fritter63, thanks for that. The CMS sliding table already has the fence that can be slid as close to the blade as desired. I will look into the possibility of adding a flag stop as you describe. Prior to your suggestion I had imagined that I would have to clamp the workpiece down onto a table extension but your suggestion (if I understand it correctly) would be a lot easier as it would involve adding something only to the side of the workpiece. I'll have a look to see if the fence has a suitable slot for a sliding flag stop - in the worst case I could quite easily clamp a stop to the front of the fence using a small clamp.

 

[GarryMartin]

This post shows the Incra Stop being used.

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-how-to/incra-stop-on-cms-miter-gauge/

Shane also noted that the Flag Stop from the MFT/3 can be used in the same way.

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/consolidated-qa-for-cms-router-table/msg219973/#msg219973

 

[cliffp]

Garry, I'll look into those flag stop alternatives. Its a pity the Incra one is so expensive (£53 plus p&p on Ebay or £160 as part of a mitre fence package from Rutlands).

 

[GarryMartin]

I have a load a Incra Track and Metric Racks along with a couple of Metric Shop Stops to be used as fences on the KAPEX workbench, MFT/3 and on my drill press etc.

Best deal was from Dieter Schmid's Fine Tools in Germany (awesome site by the way) where they are 33.95EURO or just a little over £28.

http://www.fine-tools.com/incra-accessories.html

I warn you in advance, and in my defence; you may spend a lot of money once you start working through that site...  [embarassed]

Fantastic place to get Incra stuff from, but I also grabbed some Famag Bormax forstner bits, some BMI tape measures and some wooden hand screws.

 

[cliffp]

I'll look into the postage on the Incra shop stop. I could perhaps add one to my order of a Woodpecker OTT square which should ship in a month or so. I hope the Incra addiction won't be worse than my Lie Nielsen and Veritas plane addiction!

 

[cliffp]

How does the Incra Shop Stop fit onto the mitre gauge fence? Does it run in a T track or just clamp onto the fence? If the latter is the case, I imagine most of the features relating to incremental adjustment are lost? The other question I had was whether the Flip Shop Stop would work and if so whether it would be any better.

 

[GarryMartin]

It just clamps to the fence.

There are two positions on the Shop Stop to allow you to use a secondary fence when you use it with Incra Track.

If the two photos, you'll see the standard position in the first, and the secondary position in the second. The two black thumbscrews tighten it in those positions.

The two white nylon screws tighten it to the fence.

In the secondary position, you may be able to use the incremental racks to give you accurate positioning too, but I'm not so sure about that. It would certainly require you to modify the racks.

When I get my CMS, perhaps we can have a "virtual look" via Skype or similar? Might help you decide on an approach and then we can feedback here.

[attachimg=#]

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[cliffp]

Garry, thanks. Having a virtual look would be good. I get the impression that to get the most out of the Shop Stop, an incra fence would be needed. Could an Incra fence be used in place of the Festool one I wonder?

 

[GarryMartin]

[big grin]

Funny you should ask that...

It *almost* works, but the fence is held slightly higher that you'd probably want.

However, if you change the orientation of the original fence, and attach the Incra Track to that fence, with an auxiliary fence on the Incra Track (following?  [wink]) it would work.

Something like this...

[attachimg=#]

 

[cliffp]

I think I follow... it looks (from your photo) as though with this method, you have to use the short wooden auxiliary fence as the actual stop?

 

[GarryMartin]

I think I follow... it looks (from your photo) as though with this method, you have to use the short wooden auxiliary fence as the actual stop?

No, the stop is still the Incra Shop Stop and so you'd get the millimetre accuracy via the metric racks on the Incra Track; I just didn't have a long, thin piece of MDF to hand to demonstrate so used a short one in the hope you'd get the idea!  [big grin]

 

[cliffp]

I get it now, thanks! I would be interested, when you have had a chance to play with it all, what you regard as the best arrangement - I can then place my order with Dieter Schmid .