I've just purchased my first Festool.

[aficionado64]

Hey everyone!
I've just purchased the T77, 1080 MFT, CT22 and the 150/3 sander. The reason is that I have a small garage shop and my neighbors where complaining about noise and dust.
So far, so good. But now I am worried about productivity.
I spent good part of yesterday making two simple MDF boxes with some 45 degree angles. Most of the time I spent was squaring the table back and forth from 45 to 90 degrees and get accurate every time.
At some point I've got desperate and decided to use my old reliable table saw.
Is there a good, accurate fast way to change angles? or did I just waste a load of money? :-\

 

[Brice Burrell]

  Welcome to the slope, more tools will follow you home shortly. I never change the angle on my MFT, once I get if perfectly square, I leave it alone. When I want to make an angled cut I make the work piece with the angle and align the stock (on the angle) clamp and cut. Move the stock only, not the fence.

 

[Dan Lyke]

I've take a reasonable amount of time to accurately set up my fence at 45 and 90 degrees, and then I marked the table surface. Makes changes extremely fast, and the error over the length of the table is very small.

I might, however, bolt in some stops for the lock that locks the fence to the table, just to be super accurate.

 

[Eli]

Welcome. Check your wallet near the door with the man in the Festool polo shirt. ;D

 

[Qwas]

At first it takes some time to set up the accurately. But with some practice, it will only take seconds. The bevel edges on the guide makes it hard to use a thin steel square (a framing square). I like to use a piece of thick plastic as my "square". You could even cut a 45 angle on the same piece of plastic. You could use plywood instead of the plastic.

I do like many others and set the fence accurately to 90 degrees and keep it there. For the locking piece on the outer frame, install a nut and bolt right behind it so you can easily bring it right back to the 90 degree position if you ever move it. When I need to cut 45 degree angles, I put a speed square against the fence or just mark the 45 degree angle on the board and align the mark with the guide and cut.

You've got a nice selection of tools. As you start to use them you will be glad you have them. Something as simple as the vacuum impresses my neighbors when they see it automatically start and stop with my tools. I have the 150/5 sander and I think you will be impressed with yours and how long the sand paper lasts and little sawdust to clean up or destroy your lungs.

If you don't have the clamps for the table, get some. That is where the table really shines!

 

[aficionado64]

Thank you guys for your tips, I noticed the cool engineer's square Jerry Work shows in his tutorial "Getting the most......", any ideas where to find something like that?

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Ah... the sweet smell of new Festools!  Just wait till you crank up that sander _ should be no dust at all!

I use the MFT every day - I was clamping up a small project this p.m. and actually got eight clamps on the sucker through the holes in the MFT - awesome.

Having said all that, I still use the table saw most every day too.  There's some things it just does better.