Kids project - builder boards

[awdriven]

This looked like a great project to build for my kids - they are basically like flat plywood 'lincoln logs'.

A Playhouse Kids Build Themselves
Builder Boards

They estimate there is 35 hours of work in making a set - I look at these and think they're a project almost perfectly suited to the Festool system. Does anyone have ideas on how Festools could be used to produce these?

Off the top of my head, I was thinking-

TS55 and parallel guides to quickly rip strips of correct width.
MFT/3 to cross-cut the strips to the correct lengths.
I could buy a couple extra flags for the MFT fence to speed up setting the cross-cut width correctly.
The slots could be cut quickly by stacking same-length boards on end, clamping them together and using a dado bit on my rail-guided OF1400.

Is there a good way to speed up the process of clipping the corners of the boards?

I think that just leaves rounding over the edges, sanding and finishing. Dust collection would save cleanup time, but I'm not sure that there is much more to do. If you really wanted to cut down on time, I imagine you could use pre-finished plywood and just finish the edges. They shouldn't require much cleanup.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Looks like a fun project.  BTW, Frank beat you to this project, he made a version out of a recycled fence I believe.

 

[awdriven]

Ah, maybe I did see that here! I've only been a member since 2009.

Ok, I thought about the corner cutoffs some more - I could use some qwas dogs to quickly align the board to a 45 degree angle to the crosscut rail on the MFT. If I moved the fence to the right edge of the table, I could use it as a stop to make sure that I was cutting a consistent amount off each corner.

The short ones would be a pain compared to the longer ones, though. (Get lost under the guide rail, etc.)

Edit - I found Frank's thread. I'm going to give it a read later - looks like there is a lot to digest!

 

[Wood_Junkie]

The write up outlines the tools needed, and mentions a tablesaw as the primary tool.  I’d guess they were doing dado-blade cuts on a couple of boards at a time.  And then apparently using a template to route the notches.

Festool system = Far superior method.
Three words for you:   Gang cut everything

As you mentioned, don't think about cutting the boards flat.  Take flat, squared boards and clamp them all together, on edge.  Depending on your workbench capacity, and assuming the use of a 55” rail, you could do about 60 boards at once of a given length.  If you wanted to get all hog wild you could use a FS/5000 rail and do 250 boards at once!!!  

Keep them ganged together and setup a rail for router use.  Use a dado bit and cut that notch in all of them at once.  Move rail, cut other notch.  Flip, rinse, repeat.
The parallel guides would excel for the notch cutting to get consistent spacing from each end.

Lay a rail over the mess of them (you’ll need something to support the outside end of the rail), and set your saw for a bevel cut.  Run saw and cut them all at once.  Rotate stack and make the additional beveled cuts.

To do a gang-setup of boards as pictured on the site you linked, that’d be 10 cuts total per length of boards.

Cut the notches first.  If you do the bevels first, you won’t have anything to register your measurements off of for the notches.

The rips would depend on what you use:
Plywood:  parallel guides superior, IMO
Commonly available 1x material (e.g. cedar):  tablesaw would be a lot faster.  Otherwise just use the boards as they come from the lumberyard (e.g. 0.75" x 5.25")

 

[awdriven]

One of my favorite parts of the Festool system is figuring out ways it can do things faster than the 'old' way.

I'll have to draw one of these boards in sketchup - I wonder if the TS55 has enough depth to gang cut those bevels?

Edit - Checking in in Sketchup. Right at the verge. Looks like 49.2mm would be the length of the bevel and I think you need to subtract 5mm from the 55mm depth of cut capacity, due to the thickness of the rail.