How do you use the MFK700 to remove edge banding in corners?

[hdv]

Hi all,

Today I used my MFK700 for the first time. I had some phenolic ply with 10 mm thick maple edge banding on all 4 sides. The edge banding sticks out about 2 to 3 mm above and under the ply. Routing the maple flush with the ply goes really well in the middle of the sides. Nice flush and straight.

However when I get close to a corner the (horizontal) base will not slide over the edge banding on the side perpendicular to the one I am trimming. It just bumps up against it and I have to lift the base to get all the way to the end of the corner. No matter what I did I could not get smooth corners because of that. In the end I just grabbed a block plane and trimmed the edges in the corners with that. As you probably can imagine it requires a lot of attention to do it like this, if you don't want to leave marks on the phenolic coating. Exactly the reason why one buys a machine like the MFK700 in the first place: to not have to do it like this.

I just cannot believe Festool has not thought of this type of situation, which doesn't seem so uncommon to me. So, I presume I must be missing something here.

What do you people do in a similar situation? Did you round the sides of the base plate? Or is there maybe some technique I am overlooking?

Your insights would be much appreciated.

Grx HdV

 

[hdv]

OK, I found an old post that explained why the base has a V-shaped elevation. See post #5 in this thread with thanks to Brice Burell. It should help in getting the base around corners. However it seems it is meant for thin edge banding only. Not for 10 mm thick edges. It still gets stuck in my case, even when planed to less than about 1 mm above the ply..

Maybe I will try Paul Marcel's trick for increasing the capacity of the base of this router, so it can accept longer bits. I was planning to anyway. It might increase the capacity to get around corners without bumping against the edge banding as well.

Did anyone try this? What was your experience?

 

[joemodern]

I just got mine a week ago and have had a chance to try it out. It seems like anything thicker than about 6 mm will cause problems in the corners. Pity really, while it works nicely on edging that thin it would indeed be nice to be able to get into corners with a little wider edge banding. Will try another week before deciding to return it. I was hoping it would really cut back on the tedious sanding to get it flat but may not make that much of a difference. If not I'd rather get the 1010 router to go with my 1400- might be a lot more flexible.

 

[broseiden]

The Paul Marcel mod works well for increasing cut capacity, but I cant recall if it makes corners easier as I'm often only applying edging to one side. I got the Vortex bit that he suggested and I'm happy with it. Since then I also picked up the newer style base with the bearing brake, and the Festool planer bit, but unfortunately haven't had the chance to use them enough side by side to be comfortable comparing them.

 

[hdv]

It still is on my list of things to do. I'll report the results back after I have tried this.