Finger Joint jig recommendations for CSC SYS 50 Table Saw?

[Kwvogel]

I'm surprised that my searching on this topic has has not been more successful!

I've seen several home-brew solutions (none CSC SYS 50 specific) that look reasonable, each with their own apparent plusses and minuses in terms of simplicity and flexibility. Wondering if anyone else has gone through the process of figuring out what worked well for themselves on this specific saw and if the sliding table provides any advantages (or caveats) for one design vs another.

I've seen several designs that depend on a "pin" that is the width of the saw blade kerf, which is 1.8 mm on this saw. 1.8 mm drill bits are readily available for that purpose, and I'd be curious if anyone has taken that route.

Thanks in advance!

 

[luvmytoolz]

I don't know that finger jointing on the SYS 50 would be anything but an exercise in frustration?

1.8mm fingers is awfully narrow, and would be very time consuming to achieve anything worth while?

 

[Kwvogel]

I don't know that finger jointing on the SYS 50 would be anything but an exercise in frustration?

1.8mm fingers is awfully narrow, and would be very time consuming to achieve anything worth while?

Sorry I wasn't clear-- The jig design I was referring to (linked below) used a "pin" the size of the kerf to help define the right and left sides of the fingers that were being cut. The jig could cut whatever sized fingers you wanted.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Ok, I get it now. Still wouldn't want to do it on the SYS 50 though. Just too narrow. A router table would be far more suitable.

 

[MacBoy]

Peter Millard did it with the CSC SYS 50

(14 min video)

 

[luvmytoolz]

Peter Millard did it with the CSC SYS 50

(14 min video)

I see he's using a 6mm grooving blade to do that and the results were pretty good. Definitely less painful than using the stock blade.

 

[MacBoy]

he's using a 6mm grooving blade

I’ve tried to get that CMT blade in the and not finding anyone selling it.

Thought about asking Peter to order one for me for our London vacation. However, I did not wanna give a surprise to Customs and Security with a saw blade in my carry-on luggage.

The CSC SYS 50 will remain idle while the Router Table will be my tool for that job!

 

[luvmytoolz]

I’ve tried to get that CMT blade in the and not finding anyone selling it.

Thought about asking Peter to order one for me for our London vacation. However, I did not wanna give a surprise to Customs and Security with a saw blade in my carry-on luggage.

The CSC SYS 50 will remain idle while the Router Table will be my tool for that job!

It was available to us in Oz so I used up my Honey Gold points and bought it. Says it will take almost a month to arrive.

It'll be interesting to use it, 6mm isn't too bad a finger joint size for small boxes. I didn't think it would take such a thick blade given the plastic covers around the blade.

 

[peter halle]

I’ve tried to get that CMT blade in the and not finding anyone selling it.

Thought about asking Peter to order one for me for our London vacation. However, I did not wanna give a surprise to Customs and Security with a saw blade in my carry-on luggage.

The CSC SYS 50 will remain idle while the Router Table will be my tool for that job!

I found it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/CMT-Orange-T...=cmt+orange+tools+240.060.06+m,aps,124&sr=8-6

Peter

 

[MacBoy]

found it on Amazon

Thank you so much!

 

[Michael Kellough]

I found it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/CMT-Orange-Tools-240-050-06-Ribbon-Circular/dp/B00JBJHJB4/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3HRTFWNTQKFKE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.NjQ-489V27u5DVH5H8r39RnC9EtDe9aghJlMjpOvM8FmS2zZQEYuSm4KiqWsRBP0AZub2d1olRgyYz9TNiw9I9-NwZUekqwsTJt4_Y3Hzl9PefuhYbEf-G-Gr_MDIj23_HQymspY4drGi9N7MZ89ddDgMb190P5paKAcLRA-UhVB7PR4lrkyfJFD39rxtXm501kpixNIk8wXEJBKHwld40eWi5RZDIgXmli09EXr4p0ik42K9dbCVpksubjc1cmgDfEWLbwfHGLBCCCyemJAhMnseZRGEN-qPl-NVXH9xdo.dJ4WrIyrRK4wOX9ga9Tm2lpTZ3NLil_fPjxRZHCgNSQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=CMT+Orange+Tools+240.060.06+M&qid=1773482468&sprefix=cmt+orange+tools+240.060.06+m,aps,124&sr=8-6

Peter

That has a 30mm arbor. Is there an adapter included?

 

[peter halle]

That has a 30mm arbor. Is there an adapter included?

OOPS. I just copied the description from Peter's Link on Youtube from the Amazon U.K. site to the USA Amazon site and didn't check the bore size. The description does not mention it, but 30mm to 20mm adapters are readily available on Amazon and eBay I see.

Peter

 

[djcook50]

Would using this non-standard blade void the Festool warranty?

 

[MacBoy]

That has a 30mm arbor

Peter Millard used an adaptor.

Would using this non-standard blade void the Festool warranty?

I am assuming “Yes”.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Would using this non-standard blade void the Festool warranty?

Only if you tell them maybe!

 

[Kwvogel]

Ok, I went ahead and made a version of the jig shown in the video I referenced above (the "Woodfathers Jig"). I bought a copy of the plans (~$6 US) which were worth it, though you could figure it all out from the video. I figured $6 was worth avoiding any mistakes I would inevitably make (and I still made a few anyway )

Initial impressions are that it is pretty nice and works well once you get things dialed in and get the hang of it. I bought a couple of 1.8 mm metal rods off of Amazon. My calipers measured these as a little under 1.8 mm, and my saw blade as a bit more than 1.8 mm. So since I needed to wrap the pin with a piece of tape I could have just used a spare drill bit for this part instead.

Pictures are of my draft jig and the 1st box attempt (after many many test pieces to dial things in!). Next version of the jig will have some modifications to help with clamping of the piece being cut to the secondary fence and to fix a couple of other goof-ups. In an earlier version I tried to use hold-down clamps that were attached to the secondary fence itself, but the clamping would distort the secondary fence which needs to be dead-flat against the fixed fence.

I've since seen another design that is attractive in that the "back and forth" that defines the width of the cut between the fingers is dialed in using a couple of screws, and not a pin that slides along between blocks representing fingers and spacers (here). I may look at that one some more. I'll keep tweaking this one but I'm not convinced that the "pin" sliding between spacers as in the Woodfathers jig does not have the chance to introduce some errors... maybe some franken-jig version to combine the ideas...

As for whether its too much of a pain to cut box joints on the CSC SYS 50 with its 1.8 mm blade-- not really. My interest is in doing small boxes and I'd imagine larger boards could be more of a hassle. Cutting 2 pieces at a time is easy. Cutting 4 at once is do-able but seemed to introduce some slop-- might work well with improved clamping.