Making holes in bench top using LR 32 system

[Woodwork Wizard]

Can anyone explain how to make a bench top like an MFT/3 please? I can see how using the LR 32 system I can make a single row of holes exactly the same as the MFT/3 bench top, but how do I get the second row in exactly the right place?

Also is the Festool hole cutter (491072) a good choice to make the holes?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice.

Ian

 

[roblg3]

Ill be doing this operation today!  if you have parallel guides it's a simple way to locate for the second and subsequent rows.

 

[tbellemare]

There are a number of ways to get the layout very accurate.

One way is to make a row and make a column down one end of the row that is carefully laid out to be perpendicular. Then, use that column as a reference for the subsequent rows.

When you have a reference hole, you can plunge the bit into that hole to index the guide rail accurately. (The same can be done if you have a rare situation where you don't have a long enough LR 32 rail and you need to "leap frog" the shorter rail.)

This would be a great place to use a Talmeter to easily know that both ends of the guide rail are equidistant from the reference edge. Plunge the router (on the sled/guide rail) into a column hole and use the Talmeter to fine tune it to be exactly parallel to the reference edge. Any adjustable story stick would work...

Tom

 

[BigCountry73]

Can anyone explain how to make a bench top like an MFT/3 please? I can see how using the LR 32 system I can make a single row of holes exactly the same as the MFT/3 bench top, but how do I get the second row in exactly the right place?

Also is the Festool hole cutter (491072) a good choice to make the holes?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice.

Ian

I am going to follow this thread. I am curious on how to do this, too!

Keith

 

[BigCountry73]

Ill be doing this operation today!  if you have parallel guides it's a simple way to locate for the second and subsequent rows.

Please keep us posted on how the top turns out with using the parallel guides and the LR32 system! I want to make my own top and have the LR32 and parallel guides.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[rst]

I made dogs that have the same diameter holes in the center that the edge guide pins are to ensure that the holes align parallel.  As long as you are careful to start out with perfectly 90 degree corner to start it works like a charm.  I needed an over size clamping table  so I took two 48" X 96" sheets of MDF, cut them at 65", used four 8020 15 series 1.5" X 3" extrusions for support, and clamped them with a 2" space between where I used another MDF sacrificial piece for cutting.  I now have a 65" by 102" clamping table.

 

[bertv]

When you have a reference hole, you can plunge the bit into that hole to index the guide rail accurately. (The same can be done if you have a rare situation where you don't have a long enough LR 32 rail and you need to "leap frog" the shorter rail.)
Tom

This is where things went wrong when I tried my hand at building a ’European’ version of the Paulk Workbench… In one of the last rows I had to make I pushed the bit a bit too far when positioning the rail and that row was off my two millimeters. Might have been a matter of bad concentration, because I had to plungecut a lot of holes (over two hundred).

 

[dltflt]

Here is another link on how to use the LR32.  Make a MFT