Help on Building Jumbo MFT

[nsecrist]

After seeing all the homemade and Jumbo MFT tables posted here - I am planning to build one for my next shop enhancement. 

My approximate size would be about 40 x 70. 

Here is a picture – I would like to build something similar – this is a custom MFT that was posted on the Adjest-A-Bench Site.
http://adjustabench.com/gallery_beckerink_m.asp

I am trying to get a rough estimate of the overall cost.

I know that I will need a pair of the long 79" rails that Festool sells -  However, I talked to Bob Marino today - and he mentioned that the long rail sets were no longer available from Festool.

So how would I make the "long" side of the table?

What are my options? 
a - I have seen others talk about the 82/20 track - would that work?  I don't have the TS55 or 75 or any of the Festool routers, but I will buy them, so I want to design the table so it can accomodate the saw or the routers using the guide rails.

b - Connect 2 shorter rails together to make the 70" front and back?

Parts List
2 side rails – at least 40 inches
Front and Back Rails – at least 70 inches
4 corners

Guide Rail – at least 40 inches (I assume I can buy one of the longer Guide Rail Kits)?

I would probably buy 1 top and then use this as a template for cutting the 20mm holes for the larger top

Anything else I would need?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nate

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

So how would I make the "long" side of the table?

Yes, you could get the profiles which are available and join two with an MFT connector spline. Tapping them and connecting with a bolt would probably be better than just relying on the set screws. Just an idea...

Would be interested in seeing your final project as I'm sure other forum members would as well.

 

[Pete Pedisich]

Nate,

I'd recommend the Festool MFT extrusions over the 8020, as they are designed for clamping on their vertical faces (sides) and the 8020 are designed with 2 degree decline in the face of the extrusion towards each slot, and has been problematic for me in the things I've built with 8020.
It will certainly work, but the purpose built Festool extrusions, precisely and securely joined are a better choice IMO.

Good Luck,

Pete

 

[ccarrolladams]

Although I have been a vocal proponent of the Festool System since I purchased my first TS55, with clamps and rails, and CT22 in January 2006, I did not see how the then current MFT would help me building cabinets in my condo.

I had started working with wood in 1938 assisting my beloved Grandpa, who wanted to make furniture as it was done in 1838 without any power equipment. Grandpa had purchased a new furniture maker's bench with wood vices a couple of years before. All of his many hand tools had been used in New England by his relatives long before his birth. Somehow Grandpa became expert sharpening plane irons and similar cutters.

What impressed me about that work bench were the bench dogs. It was practical to hold anything anywhere with ease.

So when I was a teenager in 1946 with 4x8 sheets of 19mm plywood available, and my first B&D electric drill in hand, I started using a sacrificial sheet of plywood was my work table, supported by saw horses. If I needed to hold something in place, I either drilled a hole to use dogs or I used double-headed nails to position battens. By then I was familiar with classic scenic flat construction, which used a similar work table with battens carefully placed on two sides at a precise 90 degree angle.

Since my 2006 Festool guide rails made good use of Festool clamps, my next purchase was an OF 1010, with a 20mm bit. Although I never tried to place those holes in exact locations, my 4x10 work tables had the 90 degree battens. The same clamping elements used with the MFT worked fine for me. In my condo I had space for only two work tables each of which needed to safely support a full sheet being reduced.

Earlier this year I purchased a 12,500 square foot industrial building for use as my new custom cabinet shop. Although I love using my Festools I needed to save time without compromising quality. I purchased and installed both a 14' pressure beam saw (think of a guide rail upside down, on steroids and controlled by a computer) I also purchased a 5x12 foot  CNC nested router. One of the first programs I wrote for the CNC router was to place 20mm through holes on precise 96mm centers, all indexed from exact 90 degree corners created on 4x10 foot 19mm shop birch using the beam saw. Festool gladly sold me the long extrusions from the current MFT/3 Those are attached under one end of one of my work tables to hold a guide rail for 48" cross grain cuts.

During the lunch break of my first day of class in Henderson, NV in November, I phoned my dealer to buy a full-blown MFT/3  Having the advantage of Steve Bace and Brian Segley teaching us how to make those MFT's sing convinced me that even in a sophisticated show with beam and sliding table saws there sill is a place for using guide rails and plunge saws (TS55 and TS75) as well as routers. Sometimes it is faster and equally precise to just make the part instead of writing a program to tell a computer how to instruct some tools.

Not all of my large work tables need the MFT extrusions, but they all have a full set of 20mm holes on 96mm centers.

 

[John Stevens]

Hi, Nate.  Why do you want extrusion all the way around your table?  I own an MFT800 and have made three jumbo MFTs.  By the time I got to the last one, I decided I only needed a one-foot piece of extrusion on each side to hold the things that the guide rail mounts to.  The next MFT I build won't have any extrusion around the edges, and the guide rail won't mount to it.

Regards,

John