MFK 700 on a guide rail?

[NAS]

Can you mount the mfk700 on a guide rail?

 

[Brice Burrell]

Jerry Work wrote a nice article on the MFK. There you'll find how he made a guide rail attachment. I've made my own version and it works well. The only downside is there's no micro adjustment.

Using the Festool MFK700 Router for
Making Fine Furniture

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

If you're not too far from the edge of the material, there is an edge guide for the MFK with micro-adjust.

 

[nclemmons]

Microfence makes MFK adapters for the guide rail.  A bit more expensive than Jerry's hand made unit, but they do offer micro-adjust.  They also offer circle jigs with micro-adjust.

www.microfence.com - suggest you call them to get the details on Monday.  They are very helpful and know Festool products well.

neil

 

[CharlesWilson]

Can you mount the mfk700 on a guide rail?

I use the method described by Jerry Work all the time.

Charles

 

[tbellemare]

You can also take the micro-adjuster off the MFK Edge Guide and use it as the micro-adjuster on your homemade guide stop. Just pull the rod, the adjuster pops out the top, and then there are 2 screws holding the saddle.

Tom

 

[Roachmill]

I know this thread is a bit long-in-the-tooth, but figured I'd add this bit of info in for reference purposes. Having just picked up a MFK 700 I went through the various guide rail adaptors I have and landed on the Makita one being a perfect fit. It's this one (model number 194579-2):

[attachimg=1]

The smaller section comes with a foot so there's the option to use that should the need ever arise. The larger section is what goes on the rail, but, unfortunately, the rods don't pass through it and neither do the ends going into the MFK meaning cutting down some rods. If I didn't have other beefier routers that run on rails already, I'd be tempted to drill through the adaptor to allow just that. But, and it only just came to me now, I didn't check whether there's clearance for the rods to go all the way through the adaptor and clear the high spots of a rail beneath. And, yes, there's no micro-adjust either.

The rod spacing is for their RT0700 palm router which may well be the exact same spacing as other near identical palm routers from other manufacturers? A quick Google for "palm router guide rail adaptor" didn't turn up much besides the Makita one and one for Bosch rails though.

 

[DynaGlide]

[member=53696]Roachmill[/member] Something I've been curious to try but don't wish to spend the $$$ on is the https://www.toolnut.com/bosch-fsnofa-track-adapter-for-routers.html?utm_source=google_shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw36DpBRAYEiwAmVVDMLjvhOL-IZucPWTm2UdIzF3RcXMc9AzNxn42LZOxsLzQHp_xnPhLqRoCnFgQAvD_BwE

I read somewhere it will fit a Festool guide rail.

 

[Roachmill]

@DynaGlide Noticed that in Google results but ignored it as I though Bosch rails were Mafell in disguise... so not compatible. It's a bit of a punt price wise as you say.

In other news I've just completed the 1.5 degree base surgery to take longer cutters. It was remarkably easy thanks to Paul's guide and a cheapo Bahco hacksaw and coping saw got it done easy as pie

 

[PaulMarcel]

That first cut, though... feels like you're cutting a stack of dollar bills...  [unsure]  Also, I did it on my 0º base not the 1.5º but it could be useful there, too, if you use wider banding.

In other news I've just completed the 1.5 degree base surgery to take longer cutters. It was remarkably easy thanks to Paul's guide and a cheapo Bahco hacksaw and coping saw got it done easy as pie

 

[Roachmill]

That first cut, though... feels like you're cutting a stack of dollar bills...  [unsure]  Also, I did it on my 0º base not the 1.5º but it could be useful there, too, if you use wider banding.

In other news I've just completed the 1.5 degree base surgery to take longer cutters. It was remarkably easy thanks to Paul's guide and a cheapo Bahco hacksaw and coping saw got it done easy as pie

Ha, yeah, it did feel a bit scary for the first few strokes. I bought a 3rd party bit designed for the MFK but it was just a hair too long and would contact the base if only just. So there wasn't much option but to have at it.

The set, at least here in the UK, only comes with the angled base. I can see me picking up the 0 degree one once the wallet has recovered as thicker lippings are way more my thing than edge banding. For now it'll do. Thanks for the guide by the way. Most helpful (and the army of other videos too. My feet are resting on our coffee table made using wide domzilla mortices I learned for you

 

[grbmds]

[member=1146]Brice Burrell[/member] The link you provided doesn't seem to go anywhere. Doing a search on the internet and YouTube specifically I couldn't find anything by Jerry Work. Where was the article or video online?

 

[junk731]

Jerry Works website
http://www.jerrywork.com/

Go to the how to section and look around. I also posted this in another thread a few days ago.

 

[grbmds]

[member=4907]kcufstoidi[/member] Thanks for the reference. Must just be the connection I have where I am right now. I'll look when I get home. I was able to bring it up on my phone which wasn't connected to wifi; just not on the laptop I was on at the time.

 

[Euclid]

I’d been looking at various adaptations for the MFK recently - I began a thread asking how useful the MFK might be as a small general-purpose router (thanks again, everybody, for the thoughts and advice; I probably would benefit from a less specialized machine for the time being).

That Makita rail device is interesting, though we’d need to know the clearance beneath the rods.

A home-made device still seems quite do-able. For simple tasks I’d imagined just making a rectangular base to run along a straight edge. But that Bosch adapter (linked by DynaGlide) shows that making something non-adjustable to use the non-splinterguard side of a rail would be straightforward (just various layers of acrylic bonded together with an appropriate channel lined with something low-friction??).

On another MFK matter:
in an Instagram clip by ‘Sedge’, he says aperture in the upright base is threaded, and he screws a guide-bush directly to it. The MFK I looked at recently (late 2018 manufacture) didn’t have that thread… I wonder if that’s a recent change? That would have added another level of versatility to that machine.

 

[Roachmill]

The MFK really isn't a general purpose router IMO. The 1010 is very versatile and easy to use and the 1400, while a bit bigger, has the grunt if you want to tackle bigger things. I'd keep clear of the MFK as a first router for sure.

 

[Euclid]

Yes, thanks Roachmill. I'd started off looking at some of the other brands' 'palm routers', but weighing up price/quality/versatility/future use, the OF1010 does look like a sensible choice for me. I'm beginning to understand why some folks have such a large arsenal of routers!

(My impending router purchase has been deferred briefly by a recent splurge on hand tools...)