MFS 400 and MFS 700 Multi-Routing Template System.

[bruegf]

D#$#@@#n you Brice,

Now I want one of those too.  Excellent job, as always.  Keep up the great work.

Fred

 

[Brice Burrell]

Have you tried routing a groove for a rail and stile door using this system? I am thinking their may not be enough wood on either side to register the MFS properly but perhaps I am wrong

Dan Clermont

Dan, I haven't, but, I'm sure it can be done. check out the pictures below. It's from my jack miter "how to", notice the work piece clamped to the side of the MFT with MFS then supported/clamped to the table top. If your rails and stiles are narrow, like for cabinet doors then let something like in the last two pics. A block of wood to offer some support.

Thanks everyone, I'm glad you guys are finding this worth while. I'm not even half way through this review yet, so if you aren't ready to buy the MFS yet, you will be by the end.   

 

[Dan Clark]

Brice,

Very nice!    As the saying goes, a pic is worth a thousand words.   But I like the drawings even better.  Sometimes a drawing is worth a bunch of pics!    The drawings of the copying ring and MFS' do a great job of clarifying the concept.

Therefore, I'm giving you the OH ficial:

And the brand new (just for you):

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Inlays are a great way to add some interesting detail to your projects. The inlay I am going to do now is a simple and relativity small but it is going to have a huge impact on the piece.

We start the same way as the rest of the examples by selecting the bit/copying ring combo, setting the MFS to size. In the picture here I'm add some scrap stock to act as shims to help support the MFS.

More of the same, set the depth of the bit and rout. I need to be a little careful because I'm routing off each edge, tare out can happen here. Removing small amounts near the edges will greatly reduce the chance of tare out.

Here are the pieces that I will use for the inlay, zebra wood.

With the pieces fitting perfectly, some blue tape will help hold the pieces in alignment until I can glue and clamp them.

In the photo above the excess zebra wood has been cut off and the piece sanded. Using the MFS to rout this inlay was not much effort, but, added a lot of visual appeal to this piece.

Text, graphics and pictures, copyright 2008, Brice Burrell

 

[stvrowe]

Dan,
I don't know if you've ever noticed this or not but, did you know that you have two right hands? ;D

Brice,
Good thread and great pictures.
Thanks,
Steve

Brice,

Very nice!    As the saying goes, a pic is worth a thousand words.   But I like the drawings even better.  Sometimes a drawing is worth a bunch of pics!    The drawings of the copying ring and MFS' do a great job of clarifying the concept.

Therefore, I'm giving you the OH ficial:

And the brand new (just for you):

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Dan Clark]

Steve,

Yep.  When I first tried this, I made them mirror images.  Looked dumb!    (Actually, two thumbs up looks dumb too, but not quite as bad!  ;D )

Regards,

Dan.

Dan,
I don't know if you've ever noticed this or not but, did you know that you have two right hands? ;D

Brice,
Good thread and great pictures.
Thanks,
Steve

Brice,

Very nice!    As the saying goes, a pic is worth a thousand words.   But I like the drawings even better.  Sometimes a drawing is worth a bunch of pics!    The drawings of the copying ring and MFS' do a great job of clarifying the concept.

Therefore, I'm giving you the OH ficial:

And the brand new (just for you):

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Brice,

I vote your tutorial on use of the MFS the best yet!!  Thanks.  Now I want one (or two).  I am a bit concerned reading about the difficulty (impossibility) that some have expressed about components not being available in NA.  I looked into availability of the extra connectors kit about a year ago and was told "no" so I refused to buy any set.

Thanks, also, to Jerry for his excellent manual on this tool.

Dave R.

 

[jo041326]

Hi Brice,
your tutorials are really outstanding. Perfect photos, simple text. Great. As I wrote you, I am not convinced about some accessories as for the price. But there are some which are hardly to replace with cheaper or simpler solution. And thanks to your tutorial one can see all the possibilities what to do with it. Thank you.
Josef

 

[bruegf]

Brice,

Any chance you will create a PDF of this material when you're finished?  Definitely a document I'd like to add to my reference library.

Thanks

Fred

 

[Brice Burrell]

Brice,

Any chance you will create a PDF of this material when you're finished?  Definitely a document I'd like to add to my reference library.

Thanks

Fred

  Fred, at this point the answer is no, however, the review is on my site as well. MFS review. I've never done it, but, I understand it is possible to convert web pages in to PDF files. You could look into that, perhaps someone here knows how to do it.

  I'd like to be able to easily convert this into a PDF, but the document programs I have don't insert photographs very well. And to make things even worse, every time I try to convert a document to a PDF it ends up corrupt. It's a hassle I don't have time to sort out right now.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Taking offset routing one step farther, we'll take a look at making the male portion and female recess for inlays with the MFS. Keeping the MFS the same size and changing the copying rings/bits allows inlays to be cut quickly and accurately. Some of you may be familiar with inlay sets available today, the sets have a bit and guide bushing with a second bushing (with a larger diameter) that slips onto the first. With this type you follow the template to rout the female recess with both the guide bushing and second bushing installed on the router. Then, rout out the male insert with the larger second bushing removed, using the same template. I'll illustrate this principal with the MFS using different size bits and copying rings/guide bushings.

This drawing shows how to use the same bit to rout the male and female potions of an inlay by changing the copying rings. In the drawing the 10 mm bit/20 mm copying ring combo cuts out the male inlay and the 10 mm bit/40 mm copying ring the female recess. The 40 mm copying ring with the 10 mm bit produces a 15 mm offset from the outside edge of the copying ring to the edge of the bit. With the 20 mm ring and 10 mm bit combo used for the male portion, the offset between the edge of the bit and the copying ring is 5 mm. When we add the 5mm offset and the 10 mm bit diameter we get 15 mm, equal to the offset of the female bit/ring combo. The goal is to have the offset of the female's combination of bit/ring be equal to the offset, plus the diameter of the bit used for the male portion. (Offset of Female bit/ring = Offset of Male bit/ring + bit diameter)

Let me show the whole process with a few drawings using these same bit/ring combinations. This example will be an open field inlay 200 mm X 50 mm.

The MFS is set to 230 mm X 80 mm. The rectangle inside the MFS represents the where the inlay will be.

With the 40 mm copying ring and the 10 mm bit in the router, we can rout out the female recess 5 mm deep. The red arrow shows the path of the router making systematic passes to remove all of the material to form the recess.

The recess should look like this. Note the corners have a radius, a chisel will square them up.

Text, graphics and pictures, copyright 2008, Brice Burrell

 

[Dan Lyke]

I looked into availability of the extra connectors kit about a year ago and was told "no" so I refused to buy any set.

It comes from the parts department, not the main catalog. I had to stay after my dealer for a phone call or two, but now they know, and presumably now the west coast Festool rep knows too.

 

[Brice Burrell]

With the female recess finished lets turn our attention to the male cut out. The male inlay stock is 5 mm thick to match the female's recess. It is a good idea to placed the stock on top of a sacrificial piece of scrap to prevent cutting into the work table. Also the area that will be the cut out is adhered to the scrap with two sided tape to keep it from being damaged by the bit when it is cut free.

To make the male inlay piece I've installed the 20 mm ring, leaving the 10 mm bit in. To cut out the inlay the router's depth is set to cut all the way through the 5 mm stock. In this model the red arrow indicates the router's path, only traveling around the template's perimeter.

Here is the piece cut free. Unlike the female piece the male has square corners.

Now, with the male inlay cut free, carefully remove it from the two sided tape and try the fit. If all goes according to plan you should have a perfect fit, or, one that will require very little trimming to make fit correctly. If the male piece is too small, trash it, adjust the MFS and make another one, if you have enough stock. It will only take a few minuets, remember, a prefect inlay adds to the value of your project and a sloppy fit takes away from it.

 I should mention in my example of the ring/bit combinations shown above that Festool doesn't offer a 20 mm copying ring (at least not here in the US). I used that ring/bit combo because it is easy to understand the relationships between the offsets. How about if I show you examples with rings and bits Festool does offer, as well as some Imperial combos.

The first bit/ring combination, on the left in the drawing, is the 10 mm bit and 40 mm ring used to rout the female recess, then the 6 mm bit and 24 mm ring to cut the male piece. The second set on the right, to rout the female portion, the 10 mm bit with the 40 mm ring then, the 3 mm bit and 27 mm ring for the male cut out.

 For a couple of Imperial combos, set one: 1/2" bit / 1" bushing (female) and 1/8" bit / 3/8" bushing (male). Seconed set: 1/2" bit / 1 1/4" bushing (female) and 1/4" bit / 1/2" bushing (male). The examples given are only a few of the possible bit/ring combinations commonly available.

On my site, MFS review, page 6, I have one more routing example. If you have want to see how to rout in a mounting plate for a router table using the MFS, check it out.

Coming up, routing circles, curves and arcs.

 

[enderw88]

Brice,
  When you are finished with this thread writeup, I would be happy to reformat the information into a PDF document for you to distribute.  It is a easy way for me to contribute back to this forum.

Craig Earls

 

[bruegf]

  Fred, at this point the answer is no, however, the review is on my site as well. MFS review. I've never done it, but, I understand it is possible to convert web pages in to PDF files. You could look into that, perhaps someone here knows how to do it.

I'll take a shot at it when you've completed it.

Fred

 

[Michael Kellough]

Brice, thanks very much for the outstanding job you've done here!

Your post above gets to my pet peeve with the MFS. You said -

" I should mention in my example of the ring/bit combinations shown above that Festool doesn't offer a 20 mm copying ring (at least not here in the US). I used that ring/bit combo because it is easy to understand the relationships between the offsets."

There are 25 and 15mm rings for the 1100 router. And, there are 40 and 30mm rings for the 1400. But, there should be more copy rings available. I noticed in Jerry's manual several rings that are NAINA also. Festool should put together sets (at least conceptually) of rings and bits as accessories (or links) for the MFS.

 

[Brice Burrell]

There are 25 and 15mm rings for the 1100 router. And, there are 40 and 30mm rings for the 1400. But, there should be more copy rings available. I noticed in Jerry's manual several rings that are NAINA also. Festool should put together sets (at least conceptually) of rings and bits as accessories (or links) for the MFS.

  The copying rings in my examples are available for both the 1010 and the 1400 (40, 27 and 24 mm rings). I agree offering more rings would be nice and like you say, listing them as accessories would be a big help.

1010, 24 mm ring.
1010, 27 mm ring.
1010, 40 mm ring.
1400, 24 mm ring.
1400, 27 mm ring.
1400, 40 mm ring.

 

[Brice Burrell]

We move from using the router to travel around the MFS as a template, to moving the router and template on a pivot to create circles, curves and arcs.

I'll start with a quick overview of the process for circle cutting before I go into detail. The circle cutting insert fits into the interior V grooves of the profiles, the template is closed on and capturing the insert (see photo above). A 30 mm copying ring fits into the insert, so the next thing to do is install the ring in the router.

The pivot goes in the underside of the profiles, in the V groove closest to the inside of the template. Slide the pivot in as far as it will go, then tighten it with the allen driver.

We need a hole for the pivot to go into, a 8 mm or 5/16" drill bit will do the job.

Slip the pivot in the pilot hole, set the insert to the desired radius and tighten it in place, then set the copying ring/router in the insert. The template and router pivot around the stock to cut the circle. You can see from the picture I'm working out the process on scrap first before committing to the real work piece.

  I initially thought using the MFS to cut circles would be a little awkward, turns out I was wrong. However, setting the size of the MFS to cut circles for the first time was a bit of a challenge for me. Well until I realized the instructions show the insert installed incorrectly. I have some drawings to help illustrate the setup.

Text, graphics and pictures, copyright 2008, Brice Burrell

 

[Brice Burrell]

I'm going to start with showing the finished piece for this example so you can see what I am setting up to rout, a cut out with a lip or rebate.

Step one is to lay out for the pivot point, then drill the pilot hole.

The next step is to set the insert to rout the proper size circle, the pivot is already installed.

Before we move to the next step, let me explain the setup process in detail. The insert is set using the scale on the MFS profile and insert's own scale. The insert's scale is not centered on the hole for the copying ring (see picture above), at first that doesn't seem make much sense. But remember the pivot is offset from the profile's scale, this accounts for the insert's offset scale (say that three times fast). Now, take into account the bit, it's cutting edges are offset from the zero point on the insert. I know, a lot of offsets here, so let me show you a couple of drawings to help clarify things.

This drawing is of the insert, the scale is larger in this picture that the real one, this makes it a little easier to see. The first thing to notice, the scale has graduations on both sides of zero. Zero is the centerline of the cut. The graduations above zero (towards the top of this drawing) represent the outside of the cutting radius, also referred to as R2 in this drawing. And the gradations below zero are the inside radius or R1. In this example a 10 mm bit is used, the outside radius is plus 5 mm from zero and the inside radius is minus 5 mm.

This drawing shows how to set the insert with the MFS scale. With the 10 mm bit, the insert is set to cut a 310 mm outside radius and 300 mm inside radius.

Text, graphics and pictures, copyright 2008, Brice Burrell

 

[Brice Burrell]

Alright, back to the example, a 10 mm bit is in the router and the insert set to cut a 100 mm outside radius (90 mm inside). My MFT has a piece of scrap down to protect the top, the work piece has two sided tape to hold it down to the scrap. I've dropped the pivot in the pilot hole, set the depth of the bit to 8 mm. Plunge the router and start turning the template on the pivot to rout the circle.

Here is the result.

Now I want the center cut out, leaving the lip. I've changed bits, a 6 mm spiral bit now in the router. I'll move the insert to cut a 90 mm outside radius for the 6 mm bit. The depth is set to cut all the way through the stock.

Remove the center cutout from the two sided tape and that takes us back to the finished piece, the first picture at the beginning of this example.

Text, graphics and pictures, copyright 2008, Brice Burrell