My mft hole drilling jig

[AlexR]

So who's excited?  [big grin] 
I've not got the lovely lr32 kit so had to come up with another way to drill acurate distance holes.
I first cut clean straight edge and square the adjacent. Next set rail equal distance from short square edge. Clamp rail to material so nothing moves, use under rail clamp.


I a fixed stop under the rail on one side to have reference from that edge for the first hole on each row.



Then load up rail with accurate cut spacers of the distance between centres that you want. As you can see I'm using my 1010 with rail adapter sandwiched between spacers. Spacers are trapped by end blocks.





Spacers have extra bits to keep them on rail.


With rail set equal distance from front edge and sandwiched between end stop and first spacer drill first hole then just pop out a spacer at a time move router forward putting spacer back in to sandwich and carry on till row done.







To move on next column keep rail clamped use one of rail spacer to clamp stop then move rail over reclamp. Care and accuracy need when doing this.



Goes real quick once you get going. ;D

 

[Sparktrician]

Excellent!!!  Very clever idea!!!  Thanks for sharing it. 

 

[Woodmatt]

Very good Alex and thanks for letting us in on your idea

 

[duburban]

i'd like to see the results, us mangy humans just can't compete with the cnc.

 

[AlexR]

I've put a straight edge across the table, metre long and moved it along the edge of a line of holes and they're perfectly aligned. If your after a cnc top buy a cnc top. I do think this would have been easier with fessies lr32, but if you've got more time than cash....



Careful soon cnc/skynet will soon have no use for us mere humans [eek]
I've seen loads of big furniture makers round here rush to jump on the cnc bandwagon, taking huge loans to pay for these monsters and bigger loans to feed them only to go bang as there not enough demand to sustain these beasts. Furniture makers that have been around for generations firing loads of skilled craftsman 4 one cnc operator which soon to be replaced by another cnc.  [mad] Man i'll climb off my box. 

 

[dpeagles]

What kind of bit are you using?

 

[Julian Tracy]

I'll be selling my MFT3 shortly as I don't use it enough to warrant keeping it, but before I do, I plan on using the top to template a couple replacement tops to create a few I can make my own simpler clamping/cutting table out of a bunch of 80/20 stock I have sitting around.

Figure it'll be easiest to clamp it down on the stock, drill a 1/2 - 5/8' hole through the Festool holes, than route the final holes using a bearing pattern router bit.

I can certainly see the immense usability of the holed top, but with the advent of the bench dogs, the entire fence system is not really needed.  And at $675 new or $450 used, it's a bit too high dollar to hold onto for my purposes.

Great idea you've come up with to make your own though.

JT

 

[Yukonal]

Thanks for a great article and for sharing! The photos are especially helpful.
I have an MFT table and the same 1010 router. I want to make a larger table.
Just the other day I ordered the 20 mm Festool router bit 491072 to use with my router.

A few questions if you don't mind.

Is this the bit you used (491072)?
Is the plywood you used one half inch in thickness?
Did you support the under surface of the plywood where the bit came through to prevent splintering on the underside of the plywood?

I really appreciate all the tips and articles in the Festool Owners Group.

Cheers,
Alex Pratt