MFK700 jig of sorts

[D. Wyatt]

I about to start building a backyard pergola and I'm going to be boxing out the 4x4 posts with some 1x and wanted to make it a little fancier that just flat faces.

I'm thinking that I'm going to route some half-round channels into the faces to give it a more interesting look.  As I just recently got an MFK700 and I thought I'd see how it would perform the task.

I want to transition the bit into the wood rather than just drop it straight down.  To do this I built a couple of little ramps to start the cut on and get the transition going.

As the base of the MFK doesn't have parallel sides it a little difficult to get the bit to start and stop cutting at the exact spots as I move from one line to the next ones over.  This won't be fine furniture but I want I don't want it to look sloppy.  I was thinking of just making an auxiliary base that had parallel side and using it for this specific task.

Anyway, I thought I share this and post a couple of pictures of my trial run on some scrap wood.  Any ideas for improving this are welcome.

Darrin

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[Michael Kellough]

Clamp a couple of sticks to the parallel guide stop?

If you get them parallel to one another and the work surface they should hit the ramps consistently. Might need to engage the support rods too to get enough stiffness.

The more I think about it your idea for "auxiliary base that had parallel side" is probably simplest and best.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Well, you are going to want a to make a copy of Jerry's guide rail adapter anyhow, so why not set a guide rail at an angle (ramped) to make the plunge cuts uniform.

 

[D. Wyatt]

Well, you are going to want a to make a copy of Jerry's guide rail adapter anyhow, so why not set a guide rail at an angle (ramped) to make the plunge cuts uniform.

Yeah I will definitely be making a copy of Jerry's guide rail adapter.  Looks like an A#1 enhancement to the MFK.   I just need to gather the materials and get to it.... and get the old drill press back from my Dad's shop/garage which is a 100 miles away.  Considering the price of diesel it might be cheaper to have it shipped back.  ;D

So in hopes of getting part of this project done I go with low teck at the moment.  As today was a total rainout I did make an auxilliary base today out of some hardboard.  Hopefully this will get me to the finish line.

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[Qwas]

I would think another option is a thin board covering your ramps. Will need to chamfer the edge of this board where it will sit on the project.