Entertainment Center

[Dick Mahany]

This was my first project after downsizing my shop and selling my tablesaw.  I am absolutely amazed at what can be done with a TS55 REQ, MFT3 and Domino 500.  The cabinets are 12 feet wide and 8 feet tall and are made from maple and maple veneer ply.  Doors are frame and panel stile/rail construction and made with a router table.  Drawers were made with pre-finished Baltic Birch ply.  All wiring for the LED puck lights and bookshelf speakers are concealed in the framework.  I needed to match the finish on my kitchen cabinets in an adjacent room and used water borne stain, sealer and 10% sheen topcoats from Renner coatings and used a Fuji MM3 HVLP.

One thing that really helped to uniformly rip all of the 75mm face strips was the Seneca parallel guide set, which I modified with adjustable lever handles and brass tipped set screws which prevented them from creeping better than the stock knobs and nylon set screws.

Although I do miss my table saw, I won't buy another after seeing what the tracksaw and MFT3 combination can do. Sheet goods were broken down to cutlist dimensions in mere minutes with great accuracy. I just wish the tracksaw could plow dadoes.

[attachimg=3]

 

[HMR]

Nice work!

 

[sancho57]

nicely done mate.

 

[butzla]

Fantastic!

 

[Cheese]

Nice stuff.  [thumbs up]

I assume the chop saw cuts were replaced with the TS 55 & MFT combo?

 

[Dick Mahany]

Nice stuff.  [thumbs up]

I assume the chop saw cuts were replaced with the TS 55 & MFT combo?

The only chop saw cuts were the base molding and the crown molding which I did with my Bosch SCMS.  The TS55 was used for everything else and was a delight to use, and yes the MFT3 was fantastic for the end cuts which were perfectly square (after I squared it up as it was off by about a millimeter, front to rear, from the factory).

 

[Flatsawn]

Nice job.
I was glad to read your fix for the Seneca parallel guide. I used mine to cut 3 equal plywood sides, they slip easily, I don't trust them. I'll try your idea and hope for the best because it could be an improvement over cutting on the saw for a final cut. What a waste of time and effort.

Mark

 

[Billedis]

Beautiful job.  Thank you for sharing.  Bill

 

[mwildt]

Nice work, looks great.

I have the Seneca guides as well would you mind posting a few pictures of the mods ?

 

[Dick Mahany]

For those who wanted pics of the Seneca mods, hope this helps. 

I got the parts from McMaster Carr ( P/N 6271K67) for just a few dollars each. The brass tipped set screws or nylock set screws for the underside also came from them. The levers are indexable by simply lifting up on the handles and rotating to a new position.  I have arthritis in my left hand, so the levers make a huge difference in my ability to tighten the guides.

After those simple mods, the guides worked as I had hoped originally and I'm happy with them now,

[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]

 

[JimD]

Looks great!  I'm sure you are glad to have such a large project successfully completed.  That is a bigger project than any I've done with my track saw and I like the ability to use a table saw too.  I have an old Ryobi BT3100 that is about the size of a portable saw and works great now that I don't have to cut up sheets of plywood on it.  I wouldn't really want to try and get by without a table saw but I could get by fine with a small portable unit hung off my Paulk inspired workbench. 

I use a DeWalt track saw and have made dados with the track, the DeWalt router attachment, and one of my PC690 routers.  Worked very nicely.  I believe Festool also has a router attachment for their track.  I also use a RAS for small dados in long pieces and would use the table saw for particularly deep dados in smallish pieces but for long dados, especially if not terribly deep, a router and track saw track is now my favorite method.  My setup could do deep dados but not in one pass (router is the limitation).  What I did was my normal "locating" dado about 1/8 deep and 3/4 wide in some plywood.  I like to do this to ease assembly.  I don't think it adds a whole lot of strength but it makes assembly go better and my casework is more accurate.  3/4 leaves about 1/32 clearance for normal "3/4" plywood but that is about right for me during assembly. 

 

[Dick Mahany]

I believe Festool also has a router attachment for their track. 

They do.  I Have used the LR32 router guide which fits my Bosch 1617 router nicely. I found undersize router bits from Whiteside which fit the thinner than nominal plywood perfectly for dadoes.  I wouldn't have bought the LR32 because of cost, but I just moved to a new place and needed to make a ton of cabinets for the garage, so the LR32 guide does double duty for me

 

[KRKWW]

This is beautiful work Dick! And I'm especially encouraged by the fact that you used your TS exclusively. I grew up using a table saw, I own one and love it. I also recently purchased a TS so seeing what you've done with it is inspiring to me.

How did you deal with the edge jointing for the stiles and rails and trim?

Thanks for sharing!
Kevin

 

[Dick Mahany]

This is beautiful work Dick! And I'm especially encouraged by the fact that you used your TS exclusively. I grew up using a table saw, I own one and love it. I also recently purchased a TS so seeing what you've done with it is inspiring to me.

How did you deal with the edge jointing for the stiles and rails and trim?

Thanks for sharing!
Kevin

I had a Unisaw for many years with a Biesemeyer fence and outfeed table, but had to sell it due to limited space in my new "shop"  The track saw is not a total replacement for a tablesaw and I would prefer ripping narrow widths on a table saw, but have  been pretty impressed at how well the tracksaw handled it, albeit not nearly as convenient.  As far as the edge jointing, I also no longer have a jointer, but the track saw gave me edges that were square enough and smooth enough to use as cut.  I did use a combination of pocket screws and dominoes to pull the joints tight, and couldn't believe how well they fit without jointing.  I did get a little burning on some edges in the maple, however minimal sanding removed them without affecting fit.  I think the key is verifying the squareness of the TS blade to the saw base and adjusting if needed.