Home made Sysports

dirtydeeds said:
altough i like the look of sketch up im sticking with autocad lt

The big advantage of SketchUp is the possibility of collaboration with more people.

I switched from Argon.  Nice tool, but a bit of overkill for most of what I do.

Ned
 
You can always make a PDF of the file because everyone can a PDF.  I am an engineer and use Solidedge everyday so I do all my drawings on it.  I tried Sketchup but could not get the hang of it.  I did'nt try to hard because I'm proficient in Solidedge which is a full blow solids modeling program.

I am impressed at what Sketchup can do.
 
Dave Ronyak said:
Nice bench, Frank!!

I think the key reason to have a traditional woodworking bench or some variation thereof is for use of handplanes, scrapers and carving tools.  The weight and resistance to racking, especially under the cyclical loading that handplaning causes are not present in an MFT.  For these reasons, although I have 3 MFTs, I am keeping a maple bench as well.  This traditional bench also works well with my Zyliss vice set (Switzerland) which quickly mounts to any edge of the bench top.  The Zyliss vice is very handy and versatile for quickly securing a wide range of workpieces.

I note this thread is entitled Home made Sysports.  Oh, well ... .

Dave R.

Off topic...but pursuant to the zyliss vise talk.  There's a brand new one for sale for $125 on Sawmill Creek:http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=79697
 
Thanks Mike,  I noticed that after I posted.  I also did a search on the creek for the zyliss and found many had bought this thing and never found a use for it.  Looks like I could use it for ski & bicycling tune ups if nothing else.  Off topic I know,  but it's hard to find a clamp that will hold the sidewalls of these new "shape" skis.
 
sToolman,
 
found many had bought this thing and never found a use for it
I think a lot of people got these for Christmas presents and didn't have a clue what they would use them for. So they sat in the garage for 30 years in original package. :o
  I use mine last weekend. Did some carving on a small piece of cedar. Vise worked very well ;D. I bet it would work great for your skis.
Mike
 
Thought I'd breath some life into this classic thread by posting some pictures of my completed systainer ports.  I made 3 for some growing room but right now, only have enough Festools to fill 2.  I used cheap Chinese made 3/4" birch plywood for the carcases (something I'd never do again).  I used dominoes and pocket screws for joinery.  The LR32 was handy for drilling drawer slide holes

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1/2" BB for the trays and tray fronts.  

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Lock miter router bit for tray joinery

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I used some cork for the tops with poplar frames.  Going against the Festool Rule that anything painted green "does something", I opted to color match the cork frames green too.

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Fun project but as an afterthought,  not sure if I'd do it again.  There's a lot of work in these and I have almost $500 in materials.  As someone else said before, time is money.  I see now the $575 for a genuine Festool port is well worth the money.
 
Just a footnote for color matched paint.  I used Sherwin Williams Duration paint color matched to the gray on systainer:

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I would have the clerk make it a shade lighter next time

The green was another SW Duration paint.  This time almost a dead match from a ready made swatch called "outrageous green"

 
Those look good Jim. 

I think you were wise to build more capacity than yuou can use right now.  I have never quite reached the stage where I have a proper home for all my systainers.
 
Stoolman said:
Fun project but as an afterthought,  not sure if I'd do it again.  There's a lot of work in these and I have almost $500 in materials.  As someone else said before, time is money.  I see now the $575 for a genuine Festool port is well worth the money.
Your Sysports look great!  I am surprised by the price though.  I made two a couple of years and while not as refined as yours, I believe the total for was just about $200.

My Sysports

I think I bought HD Canadian birch ply and 10 slides from D. Lawless (link in my DIY).  I cheaped out on the casters but I don't move mine much.

 
Here's my breakdown:
Quant Description                         Unit         Total
2       3/4" Chinese made plywood $30.00 $60.00
2       1/2" Baltic Birch plywood         $50.00  $100.00  (I sill have the better part of 1 sheet)
1       1/2" MDF                                 $20.00 $20.00
15       14"  Drawer slides                 $8.00    $120.00
6       3" Swivel casters                 $8.00 $48.00
6       3"  Locking swivel casters         $11.00 $66.00
1       Gal S. Williams Paint (gray) $38.00 $38.00
1       Qt S. Williams Paint (green) $18.00 $18.00
1       Roll of 5/32" Cork                 $14.00 $14.00
                                              Total:      $470.00
 
Jim,

As best I can remember.

3ea  3/4" maple ply    30    90
10pr  slides                7      70
8ea  2" casters          4      32
paint was on hand            10

So you spent a lot more on the paint and casters (and it shows  [smile] ).  I did everything in 3/4 ply and I'm pretty sure I only used 2.5 sheets.  It would have cost me about another 80 bucks to make a third Sysport so at my cost I'm happy with making another if I ever need one.  I'm also happy with not spending more on the casters as I hardly ever move them...usually only to clean around/under them.
 
Hi Billy,  I came this close to mounting them to the walls.  But it'll be nice to wheel over to the MFT to have dominoes an arms reach away and out of the way.  Plus it's nice to have a little mini-space on top for hand tools etc.  I hate the wheels I bought though.  Wish I spent a tad more and got the blue ones made out of soft rubber and encased bearings.  I still might. 
Thanks
J
 
Bill, where can you buy 3/4 inch maple plywood for only $30?  HD and Lowe's want more than that for Chinese ply.

Dave R.
 
Dave Ronyak said:
Bill, where can you buy 3/4 inch maple plywood for only $30?  HD and Lowe's want more than that for Chinese ply.

Dave R.
Dave,

I haven't bought or been shopping for any since them.  IIRC, HD had a bunch of the maple veneer ply, veneer is thin but adequate.  I think I bought 4 sheets and still have some left.  In retrospect I shudda bought 10 sheets :).

Then again I even have 3 sheets of 3/4 walnut plywood I paid 75 bucks for :)
 
Craigis,  That's a nice lookin setup.  I remember watching that vid in another thread.  There's no latch on my trays.  But they do "catch" when fully closed.  Not sure if I'd trust them to stay closed while I'm driving around on the back roads though.  
What about making a sort of lockable flap like Monju123 did here:

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Link to his thread
 
Brice Burrell said:
I'm going to make this one as part of LR32 users guide, its the same height as the MFT so it can be an extension.

MFT%20outfeed%20an.gif

Hey there... First things first, sorry the bad english, i'm from Denmark :-) Well I was wondering if you have any messurements on this MFT/Sysport clone?? It look cool but i can't figure out, if it give the same pleasure as if the sysport was taller and up against a wall....
I'm 2.0 meters tall so I don't want to bend down too much for my tools. But at the same time my shop i rather small so it might be practical to save space, with table and sysport in one..
 
mikael1982 said:
Hey there... First things first, sorry the bad english, i'm from Denmark :-) Well I was wondering if you have any messurements on this MFT/Sysport clone?? It look cool but i can't figure out, if it give the same pleasure as if the sysport was taller and up against a wall....
I'm 2.0 meters tall so I don't want to bend down too much for my tools. But at the same time my shop i rather small so it might be practical to save space, with table and sysport in one..

Hello mikael, welcome to the FOG. The image in the post was taken from a model I made in the Google SketchUp program. SketchUp is a free program so you may already be familiar with it. I can email you a copy of the SketchUp file if you like. 
 
Hi Mikael, welcome. I see a lot of people like storage solutions like this, but personally, I would never store my power tools under the dirtiest place in the shop.
 
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