James Watriss
Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2008
- Messages
- 277
I put this in Shane's monster thread, and got no responses. Given the size of that monster, I figured it got buried. I'm curious to see what people's responses are.
A recent job has really brought home my need for over-head routing. Plywood is getting less and less regular in thickness these days, and the ability to get it to fit into dados, or even just to have it at an accurate thickness after a router pass is just a hassle. The idea I have in mind is something similar to the router bridge for the MFS, but beefier, open on both ends, and more versatile. The primary component that Festool would need to make is the bridge, and the rail mounting brackets. The rest of the parts are in their product inventory. (MFT, MFS rails, and tools)
-Brackets to mount MFS rails to the sides of the MFT, such that one side edge is resting on the MDF panel. One rail on each side of the table.
-No-sag bridge that spans the whole table, resting on the MFS rails, above the table. Rolls/ slides easily across the width of the table, via plastic bushings or roller bearings. In addition, requires the ability to be fixed in place, and allow the mounted tool to slide along the length of the bridge. The router mounts to a bracket in the bridge, that can slide freely along the bridge, or be fixed in place anywhere along the bridge. Thus, we get a free-moving X-Y guiderail. (Fix the router in the bridge and slide the bridge to work in one direction, or fix the bridge and slide the router to work in the other direction.)
This would enable overhead routing of dadoes in either direction, (or freehand in both directions, depending on what's been fixed in place) or rabbeting of plywood edges to make cleaner joints when inserted into dadoes. I've had to run plywood on edge between a straight bit and router table fence to get edge rabbets leaving a fixed thickness behind, so an MFS mounted version of an overhead router would be much easier. Because of the open ended nature of the setup, I'm envisioning the ability to work on pieces longer than the table, cutting rabbets and grooves either in line, or perpendicular to the piece. Think of it as a full, x-y axis overhead guide rail, working on a higher plane.
The big deal:
-With some thought put into clamping elements, and a height-adjustable mounting attachment for the power planer, we could also now have an MFT-based thicknessing system. We've been bragging for years about how it's easier to slide the saw over plywood than to slide plywood over a saw. This isn't much different. Given the ability to move the tool (router, planer... belt sander?) at a fixed height above the table, I think it'll be easier to slide a power planer over the wood at a specific height, and make multiple passes across the width of the wood, than to lug a lunchbox planer to the site. AND this system would be width restricted only by the width of the MFT... and that's a pretty wide open restriction. For those of you shop guys who are trying to figure out how to plane down that plank that's 16" wide, and you only have a 15" planer, you're in luck. This thing should almost be able to surface tabletops if need be... a longer bridge spanning the length of the MFT would give even more capacity.
-Same deal with the belt sander. You now have a job site version or shop version of a time saver. Flattening out frame and panel doors anyone? Slab tables? Wide figured woods?
-Again, since it's my idea, and I'm in the states, if this isn't AINA, it really won't be fair. But we'd need to work more seriously to get the belt sander over here.
A recent job has really brought home my need for over-head routing. Plywood is getting less and less regular in thickness these days, and the ability to get it to fit into dados, or even just to have it at an accurate thickness after a router pass is just a hassle. The idea I have in mind is something similar to the router bridge for the MFS, but beefier, open on both ends, and more versatile. The primary component that Festool would need to make is the bridge, and the rail mounting brackets. The rest of the parts are in their product inventory. (MFT, MFS rails, and tools)
-Brackets to mount MFS rails to the sides of the MFT, such that one side edge is resting on the MDF panel. One rail on each side of the table.
-No-sag bridge that spans the whole table, resting on the MFS rails, above the table. Rolls/ slides easily across the width of the table, via plastic bushings or roller bearings. In addition, requires the ability to be fixed in place, and allow the mounted tool to slide along the length of the bridge. The router mounts to a bracket in the bridge, that can slide freely along the bridge, or be fixed in place anywhere along the bridge. Thus, we get a free-moving X-Y guiderail. (Fix the router in the bridge and slide the bridge to work in one direction, or fix the bridge and slide the router to work in the other direction.)
This would enable overhead routing of dadoes in either direction, (or freehand in both directions, depending on what's been fixed in place) or rabbeting of plywood edges to make cleaner joints when inserted into dadoes. I've had to run plywood on edge between a straight bit and router table fence to get edge rabbets leaving a fixed thickness behind, so an MFS mounted version of an overhead router would be much easier. Because of the open ended nature of the setup, I'm envisioning the ability to work on pieces longer than the table, cutting rabbets and grooves either in line, or perpendicular to the piece. Think of it as a full, x-y axis overhead guide rail, working on a higher plane.
The big deal:
-With some thought put into clamping elements, and a height-adjustable mounting attachment for the power planer, we could also now have an MFT-based thicknessing system. We've been bragging for years about how it's easier to slide the saw over plywood than to slide plywood over a saw. This isn't much different. Given the ability to move the tool (router, planer... belt sander?) at a fixed height above the table, I think it'll be easier to slide a power planer over the wood at a specific height, and make multiple passes across the width of the wood, than to lug a lunchbox planer to the site. AND this system would be width restricted only by the width of the MFT... and that's a pretty wide open restriction. For those of you shop guys who are trying to figure out how to plane down that plank that's 16" wide, and you only have a 15" planer, you're in luck. This thing should almost be able to surface tabletops if need be... a longer bridge spanning the length of the MFT would give even more capacity.
-Same deal with the belt sander. You now have a job site version or shop version of a time saver. Flattening out frame and panel doors anyone? Slab tables? Wide figured woods?
-Again, since it's my idea, and I'm in the states, if this isn't AINA, it really won't be fair. But we'd need to work more seriously to get the belt sander over here.
