Door and drawer class, Lebanon, IN, April 2011
Here’s what we covered, faux raised panel doors, flat panel “Shaker style” doors, cope and stick doors with raised panel and drawer boxes. To date none of the classes have gotten to drawer fronts. We probably would have had the time but we elected to spend time checking out some of the new tools like the Carvex, Kapex stand, CXS, Shinex and some other things.
We also talked about calculating for full, half and inset doors, measuring rails, stiles and panels for cope and stick doors, also drawer boxes. Everything was made in pairs so each person in the two man teams could work on and complete each “project”. Each team had their own work area with a MFT/3, Kapex, WCR workcenter, CT vac and full complement of power tools.
I don’t remember the exact order we did things but here’s what I recall.
Day one, like all classes we started off with introductions and went over the agenda for the class. This was fairly short and we went right into workspace and got started. Most of the guys in our class were experienced and Festool trainer Brian Sedgeley didnt need to offer much input for us to get going. We needed to glue up a couple of panels to raise later on day two. First thing we did was use the TS55 and MFT/3 to make a jointing pass to make the pieces ready for glue up. For those of you not familiar with the process, take two boards butt the edges together and run the saw down the joint. This makes perfect edges for glue up. Our pieces meet with a few Bessey clamps later and we moved on to faux raised panel doors.
The faux raised panel is not my favorite type of door. I think the only reason to cover this type of door is for the students to get some hands on time with the MFS router template system. Brian talked about sizing for full overlay doors and we made two panels out of MDF core melamine with our trusty MFT/TS55 combo. Again, everyone had seen the MFS before in our class so we didn’t spend much time going over how to use, Brian talked about what dimensions to make the faux panel, handed us our plunge bits and we got to work with the layout. We were left to our own devices to figure out how to calculate the size and clamp everything down. Brian was making the rounds to make sure everyone was on the right track. I believe we used the OF1400 router. Both of our doors turned out perfectly.
Next for our faux raised panel doors we used the LR32 system to drill for the 35mm hinge cups. Brian went over how to setup the LR32 for this process and then we tried our hand at it. We used the OF1010 for this task.
The next thing for this door was profiling the edges. It was a two step process, first beveling the inside of the door with a chamfer bit then we used the 30 degree round over bit (with the angled bearing part # 491135) to rout the top side of the edges. These two profiles made a finger pull style profile. I wouldn’t use this two step process for this profile, I’d use another brand bit that could make the profile in a single pass. It was nice to get to try it out though.
With the faux raised panel doors completed we moved on to the flat panel doors. The idea was to have a very simple way to make this style door. Brian talked about the concept and how to size these doors to be inset. We started by making the rails and stiles. Then we used the MFK700 with edge guide to rout a 6mm groove in the edge of each piece to receive the 6mm ply for the flat panel. We ran the groove all the way through the stiles, this means the the groove would show through the top and bottom of the door when assembled. Brian had a solution for that and I’ll get to it shortly. We then used the Domino to join the rails and stiles; the TS55 to cut our panels and then we glued the doors up. This wrapped up day one.
Day two started with the last steps for our flat panel doors. As I mentioned we had a the grooves exposed on the top and bottom of ours doors and Brian had a trick to take care of this, cut a Domino mortise and plug the mortise with a Domino tenon, then cut it flush. We used the Sipo tenons to contrast our pine rails and stiles. A little finish sanding with the RO90 and the doors were done. Check out the illustration below.
[attachthumb=#]
I can’t see a cabinet shop doing it this but for the novice or jobsite carpenter this could work out nicely. I like the idea of being able to hand a lesser skilled guy a cut list and put him to work with this technique for field expedient doors. I might use a table saw to cut the groove instead of a router, that way you’d only need a table saw and Domino.
A good part of day two was spent on cope and stick doors with raised panels. We were all excited to get to check out the CMS. Brian spent some time going over the CMS and answering all our questions. Then we milled our cope and stick profiles with the CMS with the OF1400 installed. Then we raised the panels with CMS with OF2200. I think it would be an understatement to say we were all impressed with the CMS. The dust collection was great and the sliding table was awesome.
The last thing we covered was drawer boxes. Brian talked about sizing the box and little bit about hardware, and then we were turned loose. Brian had made ½” drawer stock for us so we just needed to cut it to the right lengths, cut plywood bottoms and Domino everything together. For one box we used the 4mm tenons to make a regular drawer box. The second box had 5mm through tenons.
Throughout the class we got to use a wide array of Festool tools and accessories. Seeing the Festool system at work for real world applications is something most guys can learn something from but I think novice wood workers, onsite carpenters and anyone with limited shop space might get the most out this class. Another great thing about these classes is the ability of the trainer(s) to adapt each class to meet the skills of the participants. Also the trainers are willing to make changes to accommodate (within reason) what the students want to see. Like I said in the beginning we asked to spent time checking out stuff outside the scope of the class. We played around with the RO150, Shinex and the Festool polishes on a piece of solid surface, got to use the turbo suction brush, CXS, the new C12 and C15 drills. Brian demoed the Kapex stand and planer in its stand, we played with the Carvex jigsaws for a while. At the end of each class Festool asks for feedback on how they might improve the classes.
A few other things to look forward to if you go out to the headquarters in Lebanon are a tour of the facility and meeting the Festool staff. In both the Henderson and Lebanon locations lunch is provided both days and dinner on the night of day one. Depending on availability, you might get a free tee shirt and/or safety glasses. It’s hard to beat that for 150 clams.
