jonny round boy
Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2007
- Messages
- 3,227
I'm currently in the process of re-arranging/tidying my workshop, and I decided to make a new rolling stand/sysport for my Kapex. I made a smaller work table/Kapex stand just over 3 years ago for taking out on site, but now I want something a little bigger.
That smaller stand has a footprint that's perfect for the Kapex, so I decided to keep that footprint and make a new, taller version. This has 2 main advantages: firstly, it won't take up too much room when I'm not using it, and secondly, that would also allow me to use the Router Table Insert I made for the smaller table in the larger one too.
The height of the new unit is determined by the Festool system. I want the working height of both the Kapex bed and the Router table surface to be 900mm, ie the same as an MFT/3. I don't have an MFT/3 yet, but I will get one at some point. I do have some work-tables; luckily these are also 900mm high!
I ordered some 75mm dia. locking castors for the new unit. These are 97mm high, so I needed to subtract this from the unit height. For the Kapex, the tabletop needs to be 790mm from the floor (the same as the MFT Kapex) so the bed of the Kapex will be at 900mm. This will allow me to attach the KA-UG Extensions without altering the legs.
In order to use the Router Table insert I made, and have that at 900mm too, I realised that I could simply put an MDF skirt around the tabletop, to increase the height.
I decided to make the cabinet big enough to store the 'modules' inside it when they weren't in use, so that takes up some of the room. The rest would be used to store systainers.
After working on it for a couple of hours, I came up with this basic design:
[attachthumb=1]
And with the router module in place:
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
The main 'box' is made of 18mm WBP ply. The panels were cut with my TS55, then glued & screwed together. The top board (that the removable sections sit on) was made from 100mm wide strips, dominoed & glued at the joints. I didn't fit this part initially; I assembled the sides, back, and base, then fitted the castors. This meant that I could stand the whole thing up on the castors, and then measure up from the floor to get the board at the exact height required. Once this was marked, it was fixed in place.
All the screwholes, along with the voids in the edges of the ply, were filled with 2-part filler & sanded off.
Here you can see the part-finished stand, showing the Kapex alongside the UG extension and my existing 900mm high bench:
[attachthumb=4]
[attachthumb=5]
I decided that I was going to paint the table, but I have a dislike for oil-based paint so I decided to try something different. I had some matt emulsion left over from painting various rooms in the house - a tin of a light blue-grey, and a tin of a beige colour. The grey was too blue, so I mixed it with the beige 50/50, and painted an offcut of the ply. It's not quite Festool grey, but it's not far off, and it saved me having to buy more paint!
When that was dry, I overcoated it with a waterbased satin varnish. The result isn't quite as hardwearing as an oil-based eggshell would be, but it was far easier to apply as it didn't need priming & undercoating.
I painted the bottom first, so I could attach the castors & turn it the right way up to paint the rest. After a coat of paint & a coat of varnish, I put on the castors. On the first stand I fixed the castors with small woodscrews, but on this I wanted something with a bit more purchase in the timber, so I used 5mm confirmat screws:
[attachthumb=6]
With the stand the right way up, I fixed the front rail and the wooden runners for the inserts. The front rail was going to be ply too, but I had a bit of pine lying around so used that instead:
[attachthumb=7]
And once those screw heads were filled & sanded, I gave the whole thing (apart from the underside) a coat of the emulsion applied with a mini-roller:
[attachthumb=8]
Followed by a coat of varnish, again applied mainly with a roller.
And so, aside from the sysport pull-outs, finished (or so I thought, but more on that later) with the now extended router module on top & the MFT top in it's slot:
[attachthumb=9]
[attachthumb=10]
With the router module removed, the Kapex sits nicely on there:
[attachthumb=11]
And with the UG extension:
[attachthumb=12]
It was at this point that I discovered, to my horror, that I'd made a slight error. I'd fixed the wooden runners into the sides without triple-checking the measurements, and the router module wouldn't fit into it's slot! [eek]
So 5 minutes (and perhaps, one or two obscenities) later:
[attachthumb=13]
When I screwed the runners on, I also glued them, so removing them pulled a couple of layers out of the ply leaving a channel that needed to be filled (Luckily I decided not to bother filling the screwheads!). But at least now the router module fits:
[attachthumb=14]
So that's pretty much it for now. I've filled the channels in the side, but it now needs sanding down & re-painting. Also, I need to add a second set of runners underneath the remaining one to carry the MFT top insert. There should still be room for a sys4 in the sysport-style drawer pull-outs, which I haven't done, but that's purely down to the fact that I don't have the runners yet...
I'll update this when it's finally completely finished.
JRB
That smaller stand has a footprint that's perfect for the Kapex, so I decided to keep that footprint and make a new, taller version. This has 2 main advantages: firstly, it won't take up too much room when I'm not using it, and secondly, that would also allow me to use the Router Table Insert I made for the smaller table in the larger one too.
The height of the new unit is determined by the Festool system. I want the working height of both the Kapex bed and the Router table surface to be 900mm, ie the same as an MFT/3. I don't have an MFT/3 yet, but I will get one at some point. I do have some work-tables; luckily these are also 900mm high!
I ordered some 75mm dia. locking castors for the new unit. These are 97mm high, so I needed to subtract this from the unit height. For the Kapex, the tabletop needs to be 790mm from the floor (the same as the MFT Kapex) so the bed of the Kapex will be at 900mm. This will allow me to attach the KA-UG Extensions without altering the legs.
In order to use the Router Table insert I made, and have that at 900mm too, I realised that I could simply put an MDF skirt around the tabletop, to increase the height.
I decided to make the cabinet big enough to store the 'modules' inside it when they weren't in use, so that takes up some of the room. The rest would be used to store systainers.
After working on it for a couple of hours, I came up with this basic design:
[attachthumb=1]
And with the router module in place:
[attachthumb=2]
[attachthumb=3]
The main 'box' is made of 18mm WBP ply. The panels were cut with my TS55, then glued & screwed together. The top board (that the removable sections sit on) was made from 100mm wide strips, dominoed & glued at the joints. I didn't fit this part initially; I assembled the sides, back, and base, then fitted the castors. This meant that I could stand the whole thing up on the castors, and then measure up from the floor to get the board at the exact height required. Once this was marked, it was fixed in place.
All the screwholes, along with the voids in the edges of the ply, were filled with 2-part filler & sanded off.
Here you can see the part-finished stand, showing the Kapex alongside the UG extension and my existing 900mm high bench:
[attachthumb=4]
[attachthumb=5]
I decided that I was going to paint the table, but I have a dislike for oil-based paint so I decided to try something different. I had some matt emulsion left over from painting various rooms in the house - a tin of a light blue-grey, and a tin of a beige colour. The grey was too blue, so I mixed it with the beige 50/50, and painted an offcut of the ply. It's not quite Festool grey, but it's not far off, and it saved me having to buy more paint!
When that was dry, I overcoated it with a waterbased satin varnish. The result isn't quite as hardwearing as an oil-based eggshell would be, but it was far easier to apply as it didn't need priming & undercoating.
I painted the bottom first, so I could attach the castors & turn it the right way up to paint the rest. After a coat of paint & a coat of varnish, I put on the castors. On the first stand I fixed the castors with small woodscrews, but on this I wanted something with a bit more purchase in the timber, so I used 5mm confirmat screws:
[attachthumb=6]
With the stand the right way up, I fixed the front rail and the wooden runners for the inserts. The front rail was going to be ply too, but I had a bit of pine lying around so used that instead:
[attachthumb=7]
And once those screw heads were filled & sanded, I gave the whole thing (apart from the underside) a coat of the emulsion applied with a mini-roller:
[attachthumb=8]
Followed by a coat of varnish, again applied mainly with a roller.
And so, aside from the sysport pull-outs, finished (or so I thought, but more on that later) with the now extended router module on top & the MFT top in it's slot:
[attachthumb=9]
[attachthumb=10]
With the router module removed, the Kapex sits nicely on there:
[attachthumb=11]
And with the UG extension:
[attachthumb=12]
It was at this point that I discovered, to my horror, that I'd made a slight error. I'd fixed the wooden runners into the sides without triple-checking the measurements, and the router module wouldn't fit into it's slot! [eek]
So 5 minutes (and perhaps, one or two obscenities) later:
[attachthumb=13]
When I screwed the runners on, I also glued them, so removing them pulled a couple of layers out of the ply leaving a channel that needed to be filled (Luckily I decided not to bother filling the screwheads!). But at least now the router module fits:
[attachthumb=14]
So that's pretty much it for now. I've filled the channels in the side, but it now needs sanding down & re-painting. Also, I need to add a second set of runners underneath the remaining one to carry the MFT top insert. There should still be room for a sys4 in the sysport-style drawer pull-outs, which I haven't done, but that's purely down to the fact that I don't have the runners yet...
I'll update this when it's finally completely finished.
JRB
