MFK 700 Lipping a shelf

[mpretka]

I needed to put a hardwood lipping on an 1-1/2" think MDF Shelf.

If found the MFK 700 with the Festool cutter has a max material thickness of about 3/8".
I have 3/4" thick maple to work with and do not feel safe cutting it down to 3/8" on my table saw.

My solution was as follows
- I cut my 3" x 3/4 maple down to 1-3/4" to leave me 1/8 on either face of the 1-1/2" shelf and glue it to the shelf.
- Trim the maple (attached to the shelf) down to 3/8. This leaves a 3/8 falling board to be used on the next shelf.
- Use the MFK 700 to flush trim the lipping.

This seems a long way around to lip a shelf.
I am happy with the result and found the router easy to use and setup.
Any input on a better method?

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

If I understand what you are doing there are a few better ways but it also depends upon what sort of saws you have available to cut the facing...

It seems the issue in your process is the cutting of the wood and not any limitation of the MFK 700...again if I am understanding you correctly.
Perhaps a sketch or photo would be helpful if you wish to go into this further.

Best,
Todd

 

[Dave Ronyak]

mpretka,

I also don't fully understand your description.  Are you saying the MFK 700 cannot swing a bit of great enough diameter to cut the top surface of the 3/4 inch thick liip flush with the panel?  If so, that appears correct because the FestoolUSA 2008/2009 catalogue (issued Spring of 2008) specifications list the maximum bit diameter at 1 inch.  That corresponds to a radius of 1/2 inch which would be the maximum thickness of edging that could be trimmined flush with the top when the bit axis is perpendicular to the top, e.g. the flat (vertical).

But you could fit either of the horizontal bases offered for use with the MFK 700 and fit a straight bit long enough to trim the top surface of your edging flush with the top of the panel.  The length of the bit would determine the thickness of edging that you could trim.

I commonly apply solid wood edging to plywood panels, and if they are to be used for shelving, a lip that extends beyond the lower surface of the panel is needed to keep the panel from sagging under load.  I usually don't need to trim such applied edging, except by a little scraping and sanding.

Do you have a Domino machine?

As my first test of my Domino I put a 1" x 2" lip on a 5ft long melamine (PB core) shelf.  The Domino tenons, all eleven of them using the narrowest setting on the Domino and pencil marks for indexing the mortice locations came out near perfect, both left to right and elevation.  All that was needed to make the top of the lip flush with the top of the melamine was a little sanding, which I did with an LS 130 sander.

Is the shelf removable?  If it is, you could remove the shelf, apply the edging without taking care about lining up the top surfaces flush, then trim the top surfaces flush using a bottom bearing "flush trim bit" in which the bearing diameter closely matches the cutting diameter.  Most bit manufacturers actually set the cutting diameter slightly less than the bearing diameter so there is a slight amount of your edging that will have to be scraped/sanded away.  If you have a router table, you can pass the edged shelf vertically through to trim it.  Use a tall fence to avoid gouging your workpiece by inadvertently tilting it during the pass by the router bit.  A table with a horizontally mounted router is ideal for trimming such edging.  Jerry Work has posted at least two versions of such an arrangement that can be attached to a side rail of a Festool MFT table.  A couple of years ago, he posted how to do so using a 1010 router and the old style MFT in is MFT user's manual.  Earler in 2008 he posted how to mount an MFK 700 horizontally to a side rail of the new MFT/3.

Dave R.