How to enlarge MFT holes

[NERemodeling]

Hey all,

i figured this would have been covered before but i couldn't seem to find anything, if anyone knows of an old topic please let me know.

the holes in my MFT800 are quite tight and its a pain to get things like the element clamps to fit in them, also trying to remove/reinstall the fence is quite difficult

i measured the holes a few weeks ago but dont remember exactly, i want to say they are around 19.7mm  i could be a little off but i know they were under 20mm for sure

i would like to pick up a few sets of various dogs but dont think i would be able to get them in or out.

any ways to slightly but accurately expand the holes ?     

 

[J.Patching]

A 20mm hand reamer will do it.
http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Straight-Flutes-Cutting-Reamer/dp/B00BX4UBVA

 

[Corwin]

Sounds like your MFT800 is an older one with the original top.  A replacement top will have the larger holes you're after.  Does your top need replacing? 

 

[fletchtool]

Hey all,

i figured this would have been covered before but i couldn't seem to find anything, if anyone knows of an old topic please let me know.

the holes in my MFT800 are quite tight and its a pain to get things like the element clamps to fit in them, also trying to remove/reinstall the fence is quite difficult

i measured the holes a few weeks ago but dont remember exactly, i want to say they are around 19.7mm   i could be a little off but i know they were under 20mm for sure

i would like to pick up a few sets of various dogs but dont think i would be able to get them in or out.

any ways to slightly but accurately expand the holes ?      

You may want to look at the Lee valley Veritas® MFT Clamping Kit . It is designed to take into account older MFT's and the smaller sized holes. Lee Valley MFT Clamping Kit
There is also quite the lengthly post here on the FOG New Product - Veritas MFT Clamping Kit

Fletchtool

 

[NERemodeling]

A 20mm hand reamer will do it.
http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Straight-Flutes-Cutting-Reamer/dp/B00BX4UBVA

do you think this will start into the hole easily? im thinking if i try to plunge it into the hole with the bit spinning, it might walk a bit because it is a bit larger than the holes    i could try to tap it into the hole then start spinning it

it does seem like it would do the trick perfectly if it would fit

would this chuck into a regular 1/2" drill also, 15mm is closer to 9/16 i think,  or would you spin it by hand

thanks

 

[NERemodeling]

Sounds like your MFT800 is an older one with the original top.  A replacement top will have the larger holes you're after.  Does your top need replacing?   

Im sure it is the old style top.  when i got it, the top wasn't that bad but i noticed the bottom was brand new so i flipped it and its good as new now

Im trying to stay away from spending the 90 ish bucks for a new one if i can 

 

[NERemodeling]

Hey all,

i figured this would have been covered before but i couldn't seem to find anything, if anyone knows of an old topic please let me know.

the holes in my MFT800 are quite tight and its a pain to get things like the element clamps to fit in them, also trying to remove/reinstall the fence is quite difficult

i measured the holes a few weeks ago but dont remember exactly, i want to say they are around 19.7mm   i could be a little off but i know they were under 20mm for sure

i would like to pick up a few sets of various dogs but dont think i would be able to get them in or out.

any ways to slightly but accurately expand the holes ?      

You may want to look at the Lee valley Veritas® MFT Clamping Kit . It is designed to take into account older MFT's and the smaller sized holes. Lee Valley MFT Clamping Kit
There is also quite the lengthly post here on the FOG New Product - Veritas MFT Clamping Kit

Fletchtool

great thought, but as beautiful as that kit is id like to get the table to work with any accessory    mainly the clamping elements i already own

 

[NERemodeling]

here were a few things that came to me in my sleep last night [huh]   

buy a cheap step drill bit and grind off all the sizes larger and 20mm    drill that through each hole

try to find a flap sanding wheel about 1" in diameter and 1" long for a rotary tool    jam it in the hole and spin it for a few seconds each

glue a layer of sandpaper to a 3/4" dowel and spin it between my palms to try to ream them out (or come up with a way to chuck it into the drill)

would a 51/64 drill bit work if i could find one?

i do have the lr32 system.. could buy the 20mm festool forestner bit and try to plumge them all but i feel like that leaves a lot of room for error/ misalignment

feel free to be a critical of these ideas as you want

 

[rrmccabe]

do you think this will start into the hole easily? im thinking if i try to plunge it into the hole with the bit spinning, it might walk a bit because it is a bit larger than the holes     i could try to tap it into the hole then start spinning it

That is a hand reamer.  I think you will make a big mess if you use a router

 

[mouppe]

Unless you need the full grid of holes, why not just cut a new piece of mdf to size and drill some 20mm holes in it? The layout may not be as accurate as the original but it will fit your clamps.

 

[gnlman]

I did much the same thing on a table I have that had ¾ inch holes. I thought of a reamer but wanted to keep the holes nice and crisp. I had some advice on using a plunge bit (20mm) with a bottom bearing (3/4) to keep it aligned, but could not find such a bit…..

I ended up building a small jig (sled) that I could bolt my router too. I had a machinist make me a dog out of plastic that was 20mm on the top, and ¾ on the bottom. I plunged a 20mm hole thru the jig and then I inserted the dog in the hole and then mounted the sled over the 20mm top of the dog (for alignment) and clamped the jig to the table. I then removed the dog and plunged with a 20mm Freud bit. It was a long process, but the holes turned out great and retained the accuracy of the grid. I went to all this trouble as I use the holes for more than just the clamping elements (qwas and tool Improvement products) I would think if you are not using the grid holes for anything but the clamping elements, a flapper disc in a drill motor would work well too, as you are not really removing much material. I found this size of flapper disc a bit hard to find in that size at my local tool place, ended up finding them at an automotive parts store.
Greg

 

[NERemodeling]

well guys and gals, i did it.. i got each and every hole so the clamping elements would pop right in with the slightest tap but they still have no slop from side to side!   just what i was looking for!

when i got to the jobsite this morning i started looking around at what i had to make this work and this is what i came up with

my initial thought was to go simple/cheap so i decided to try to figure out something similar to the 3/4 dowel/sandpaper idea i posted before so i started hunting and found a chunk of 1/2" electrical emt conduit which measured out to 18mm almost exactly..   i knew i would have to glue my sandpaper to this so i wanted something that would last for all the holes so i pulled out my belt sander, turns out that twice the thickness of a diablo 80grit belt it around 1.7mm   add in the layer of 2p10 and we are mighty close to 20mm
- another thing i liked about this method was that it allowed you to fine tune the holed depending on how long you spent sanding each hole and was very hard to mess anything up

[attachimg=#]

sorry for the quality of this shot but the one with sandpaper on both ends was a bit of an experiment   i had a used 120g and 36g belt that i didnt mind cutting up so much but they proved to be too small and too large (the hole that ended up a little to big i coated the inside of the hole with a few thin layers of wood glue, let it harden up and then sanded/bored it out again with the right size sander doo-hicky "ream")

if you look closely in the shot above you can see a shadow cast by the element clamp, thats becase they really wouldn't fit all the way into the hole without considerable force   to get them out was even worse.. i could lift the table by the inserted dog (without the screw knob under it)

[attachimg=#]

in this shot you can see the clamps seated nicely   ;D   and also a little detail about the ream tool. i cut the length of sandpaper short to insure there would be no overlap of the paper which would have made the sanding end egg shaped instead of round

to stick the belt to the conduit i spread a thin layer of 2p10 (man i love that stuff) to the belt and sprayed the conduit, with nice square end cuts on the belt, i lined up the belt to the end of the conduit and rolled the conduit over it in a nice smooth motion    any glue squeeze out at the seam i quickly blotted it off

to get it started in the holes i twisted the ream while pushing down, once it went through i would twist and pull up.   a few times of this followed by a some up and down strokes while rotating proved to do the job quite nicely    it produced a consistent pile of dust around the entire perimeter of the mft hole so id like to think that it was quite effective at removing material evenly around the hole

here she is all finished up    total time was about 1.5-2 hrs including making the tool so really not that bad   and if i was able to read this before i did it it would have taken less than an hour    

[attachimg=#]

hope this helps someone out
John

 

[NERemodeling]

I did much the same thing on a table I have that had ¾ inch holes. I thought of a reamer but wanted to keep the holes nice and crisp. I had some advice on using a plunge bit (20mm) with a bottom bearing (3/4) to keep it aligned, but could not find such a bit…..

I ended up building a small jig (sled) that I could bolt my router too. I had a machinist make me a dog out of plastic that was 20mm on the top, and ¾ on the bottom. I plunged a 20mm hole thru the jig and then I inserted the dog in the hole and then mounted the sled over the 20mm top of the dog (for alignment) and clamped the jig to the table. I then removed the dog and plunged with a 20mm Freud bit. It was a long process, but the holes turned out great and retained the accuracy of the grid. I went to all this trouble as I use the holes for more than just the clamping elements (qwas and tool Improvement products) I would think if you are not using the grid holes for anything but the clamping elements, a flapper disc in a drill motor would work well too, as you are not really removing much material. I found this size of flapper disc a bit hard to find in that size at my local tool place, ended up finding them at an automotive parts store.
Greg

you get the prize for most legit way to bore out your mft top [thumbs up]  im sure your time was well spent and you know have some perfect mft holes    few questions for you, what does it cost to have a machine shop make up a small single piece like that?  also where did you find that freud bit?  i saw it online but couldnt find anyone who sold it, what did you pay for the bit if you dont mind me asking

Thanks

 

[gnlman]

Hi. Thanks, it was worth it and I had lots of help from folks on this forum and others which helped me decided how to do this!!
I was mistaken, it was not a Freud bit, it was a Dimar (107RL8-20m) One thing to note on this bit is it's not a straight plunge bit. It requires you already have a hole drilled fairly close (which 3/4 is close) and was the best option I could find. You will see in the pics that I also tried the Festool plunge 20mm bit.(491072) It works great too, but the holes are slightly larger than 20mm (I'm being very picky here) and as I wanted to make sure my Qwas and Tool Improvement accessories remained very accurate I chose to use the Dimar for this application.
The Dog I had made was by a friend of mine, so no idea on the charges, but it took him about 10 minutes.
As you can see, I put the dog in the hole ( the table in the picture is what I was modifying) put the sled over the top of the dog, clamped it down, removed the dog and plunged. It turned out to be very accurate.
Hope this helps.
Greg