MFT 1080 Guide Rail Setup

[RMDavis]

Hi!

I'm setting up an MFT 1080 and have a question about how much one needs to laterally move a guide rail in order to drop down on to the alignment pin at the front of the table.  The manual suggests only the slightest lateral pressure should be needed to drop the guide rail down on the pin.  On my table, I need to moved the guide rail about 6 mm to the right in order to drop down on the pin.  Is this the typical distance?  If not, I'd appreciate suggestions as to how to properly adjust the setup.

TIA

Ross Davis

 

[MrToolJunkie]

Hi Ross,

You should not have to move the rail at all laterally.  My guess is that two allen bolts that attach the guide rail to the front profile are too tight.  If you tighten the top one too much you can skew the rail way out of square.  The solution is to loosen both bolts, position the guide rail over the front pin and get it close to square and then tighten the lower bolt first.  Lift up the rail and then lightly tighten the top bolt -- I like to snug it up and then tighten by 1/4 turn or less -- you want it snug, but it does not need to be overly tight.  You should then be able to raise and lower the rail and it should drop right over the tab.  After this is set, then proceed with squaring the fence to the rail and you should be good to go.  I did a quick video explaining this on my Hall Table Build project in the "how to" and there are some other good videos for setting up the MFT on Festool TV.

I hope that this explanation makes sense.  If not let me know and I will try and explain it better.

Scot

 

[Corwin]

I have to disagree with Scot.  The amount of lateral movement you describe is just about right to remove any play between the pin and the track in the guide rail's lower track.  This is exactly what is meant by those that have suggested to remove any slack by torquing the guide rail on the brackets.  So, I believe that you have correctly setup your MFT.

 

[MrToolJunkie]

I have to disagree with Scot.  The amount of lateral movement you describe is just about right to remove any play between the pin and the track in the guide rail's lower track.  This is exactly what is meant by those that have suggested to remove any slack by torquing the guide rail on the brackets.  So, I believe that you have correctly setup your MFT.

This is the set-up that my local Festool rep explained to me and it has worked perfectly fine for my cutting and use.  6mm of lateral play seems excessive to get it to seat over the tab.  I think it should drop down in the slot pretty easily...I think I have mine adjusted so it drops down and might ever so slightly hit the left side of the channel so that it does not move when you push the saw or router forward.  I have seen people think that they really need to tighten down those bolts that hold the rail and if you do that, it will skew the rail.  The good news is that you can adjust it to suite your preference.

Scot

 

[MrToolJunkie]

Here is a link to one of the best videos that explains the entire process to set up the MFT/3 -- this one is done by Steve Bace.  Go to 3:30 - 3:52 in the video and he explains and shows what I was describing.

Scot

 

[Corwin]

Yes, but if you setup your MFT as described in that video you are almost certain to have some amount of slop between the guide rail on the pin.  To eliminate that slop, you should mount the rail such that it requires a certain amount of sideways push to engage the pin, or purchase the aftermarket Slop Stop.

On Edit:  Oh, I saw where Scot posted the video, but missed his prior post.  I do agree that the mounting bolts should not be over tightened, however, I do not find that 6mm of lateral offset is excessive to properly torque the rail on the brackets. 

 

[RMDavis]

Thanks guys!  As the mounting bolts seemed to fit so securely in the track, for the I never once considered that this would be the source of the issue.  I've adjusted so that the guide rail now drops directly onto the from bracket.  This should help be avoid that rare time where I've forgotten to properly seat the guide rail and thus made a cut out of square - and a few mm short  [mad]

Ross

 

[janr1982]

Hello guys,

I have my mft/3 rail setup square, I find this fairly easy to do.
About the little slop that the rail has on the tab. I have heard about the slop stop, but I would like to ask some questions about torque-ing the rail. I would like to achieve this and at the same time be parallel to the holes of my mft/3.
Is this the correct way of achieving this:
First square the fence and rail with qwas dogs.
Making sure the guide rail is touching the dogs and position the rail clamps so that the tab is touching the left side of the t-channel. The clamps can be tightened down. And later on when everything checks out square, I can put the feather keys, against them to 'save' this position.
Now I can loosen the two allen bolts that hold the guide rail to the "hinged" rail clamp at the back of the mft. I slightly move the rail out of alignment front side to the right and tighten the allen bolts.
Now I have to move the front of the rail to the left to get it over the tab on the frond rail clamp but the fence and guide rail will still be square.

Kind regards,

Jan