Guide rail length on MFT

Tom Ryan

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2007
Messages
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I have a very small shop, so I'd like to use as short a rail as practical on my MFT.  I have a TS 55 EQ saw, and will use the shorter dimension of the MFT 1080 (or the longer dimension of the MFT 800).

On the  smaller table, the MFT 800, the table is about 23" deep, and you can crosscut up to 20".  The guide rail is 32" long.

On the larger table, the MFT 1080, the table is about 28" deep, and you can crosscut up to 24".  The guide rail is 42" long.

You'd think, since the larger table is 4 or 5 inches deeper than the smaller table, the guide rail would only need to be 4 or 5 inches longer.  But it's actually 10 inches longer.  But before I chop 5" off my guide rail, I should do two things:  one is to do some figuring, and the other is to ask the advice of this forum.

Here's the figuring:  Suppose I'm crosscutting a 24" board.  If I want to be able to fully plunge before I start the cut, the back of the saw will be about 9.5" behind the board.  If I want the blade to clear the board at the end of the cut, the front of the saw will be about 8.3" beyond the board.  To have the saw fully on the guide rail all the way, add up 9.5 + 24 + 8.3.  You get 41.8 -- almost the full 42". 

My tentative conclusion:  chop off about 3".  Fully support the saw at the end of the cut, which affects every crosscut, but cheat a little at the beginning when crosscutting wide panels.

What do you all think?  Most of you know a lot more than I do.  Would I risk kickback at the beginning of a cut when crosscutting wide panels?
 
Given that, for the most part, the rail is up and out of the way, I'd use it at the full length for a while and see if those 3 inches are really going to get you anything.

If you find the rail falling down, someone here had a novel use for cabinet latches to hold it up, and I've used an elastic strap.
 
Since the 3 inch piece chopped off isn't good for anything that I can think of, what I would do is  --

Get a longer rail, long enough that when you cut it to the exact size for your MFT you will have a useful length from the removed section.

Loren
 
Tom,
The three extra are accounted for. About an inch for the hose deflector on the front and a couple of extra inches for the rail to be mounted on the hinge bracket on the rear of the MFT.
 
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