Let's Build the Ultimate Festool Shop

[Corwin]

Until recently, I had hoped that by this fall I could get my current shop to a state where I could host a shop tour to show how I use my Festools.  But we have taken a different path and it now looks as though we will go ahead and build a house and shop on our new 5 acre parcel.  So, I thought it might be fun to include all of you in the process of designing, building and setting up what I hope will be a nice Festool-based shop.

Well, what do you think?  Anyone want to join us in the project?

Corwin

 

[John Langevin]

Corwin,
I would be delighted to participate since I am in the middle of the same type of project. My shop is a 24'x26' Gable Roof barn I built about 4 years ago. The primary shop will occupy the 2nd floor while the garage downstairs will be "convertible" for specific uses as needed. The lower floor is insulated with 4" fiberglass in the walls and 6" in the ceiling. The entire roof structure upstairs has 2 3/4" lab grade styrofoam and 6" fiberglass bats. I am about 75% done with the wiring and 40% done with the white painted luan paneling (over 3/8"x11/2" furring). The space presents some unique challenges due to the wall/roof configuration and the fact that it will be essentially a Festool based shop. I was fortunate enough to salvage several used office cabinets, desks, chairs, drafting table, and (4) sheets of 5'x9' Clear Polycarbonate plastic; I intend to modify and/or repurpose these to suit my needs. I hope this will minimize building shop furniture from scratch, thus saving time and money.
I have a MFT-1080 and a home-made cutting table. I would like to make a larger MFT to integrate with the factory one to use as my primary bench. I think that three key considerations will be the configuration/versatility of the MFT combo, the optimization of the CT-22E/Boom Arm, and the best way to store the various tools (mostly Festool along with some other favorites) so that that lost motion is minimized and it is an efficient and pleasurable place to work. Any thoughts along these lines? Please fell free to e-mail me:colonelhogan@verizon.net.

 

[Corwin]

My current home is a daylight-basement rambler with the shop down stairs.  If I had a more accessable shop, I may have gone with more 'traditional' tools.  Glad things worked out as they did -- I love my Festool system.  So, in addition to working on house plans, I will be making decisions on the size, shape and construction of a new shop. 

The neighboring property (which I just missed buying) has a home and a 30'x40' shop.  My first thought was that I would probably want the shop at least 30'x44', such that the front half could be used for additional garage space with the shop behind.  Additionally, I was thinking of having a slab floor for the garage portion with a wood floor in the shop -- we'll see...  But, in determining a workable size for the shop I will need to consider the layout of the major work and storage areas.

My MFTs are as much the center piece of my current shop as a cabinet saw would be in many other shops.  The biggest change for my new shop will be to have more perminate setups so I will no longer have to tear down one setup to create another.  Currently I use one 1080 MFT as the main table -- my (Incra) fence is mounted to this table and each guide rail's hinged bracket is mounted to this MFT.  A second or second and third table are added to extend the cut line, if you will, such that I can swing a 75" or 118" guide rail with these additional setups and leave the fence intact.  You might picture this setup as a "T", with the fence along the top and the cut line as the horizontal part -- need to make a longer cut, just add another table to extend the cut line as required...

In the new shop I hope eliminate the teardown/setup between the different combinations.  With more space, I will want have these different table combinations set up side-by-side to utilize the same fence system with a separate stop calibrated for each station.  So, rather than a super-sized MFT, I will continue with the combo approach -- just won't be rearranging as much -- or at all.

Anyway, so much to do now...  Delayed meeting with architect last week due to recent events, but hope to meet with him next week so we can get started on our next journey. 

Corwin