Novice mistake to avoid with Festool Connectors

[sprior]

My son just started college and he wanted a side desk, so I of course used this project as an excuse to get started with the Festool Connectors system.

Knowing it would be VERY easy to get confused about which surface to put the slot in and which hole to drill the round hole in I was very careful about that and limited errors to a practice piece.  I was proud of myself that I didn't make any of that error on the project pieces.

Here's the error that got me as a warning to others.  When you're drilling the round hole for the locking pin at first you are drilling through wood and then you break through into the domino slot.  Your/my instinct when you break through is that you've finished the hole and think you hit the depth stop of the bit - that would be wrong, the hole still isn't quite deep enough.  The result is that the locking nut still sits a little proud of the hole but you might not know any better.  Then when you try to put the joint together the pins don't want to go in effortlessly and again you might not know any better, but the two pieces don't come together perpendicular and you need to use more force than you should (which is the final warning).

Then you've got the locking nut and the plastic piece stuck in there and you're not sure how to get them out.  What I figured out is that you can half thread the locking pin in the first one and screw a loose locking nut on top of it, stick a screwdriver through the hole and lever the stuck locking nut out of the hole.  Then the remaining fuss is getting the plastic slot piece out of the side.

So the good news is I learned a lot tonight, I managed to fix the depth of all the holes I drilled and none of the project pieces are wrecked.  The bad news is that yet again my life's purpose is to serve as a warning to others.

Also, I know I've already found them cheap on Amazon, but if the purpose is to be making stuff that's designed to be disassembled later wouldn't the completely solution from Festool include bulk packs of cheap 3mm hex keys?  There's a nice handled 3mm driver included in the set but obviously I'm not giving that away with what I build with the connectors.

 

[Mark Katz]

The need to force the drill to bottom out completely when you're drilling that hole is explained thoroughly in the comprehensive manual supplied with the set. Yea, right. The "pictures only" instruction sheet only shows the drilling jig being attached to the workpiece and doesn't even show the drill bit being used. The only words on the instructions, in about 20 languages, are a few warnings about the connector usage. You'd think for a $400+ set that they could write a short blurb (in those 20 languages) to go along with each set of pictures.

I have had the same experience as you with my first project using the connectors.

 

[sprior]

While I agree the instructions are quite "minimal", I think I would have been fine drilling to the stop if it weren't for the fact that you're going through an empty void in the middle.  It's just instinct that you think you've hit the end stop when that happens and now I'll know better.

 

[Birdhunter]

I’ve been doing rather serious non-money making woodworking for about 40 years (started about 40).

I still make dumb mistakes although I’m pretty good about not repeating the same one again.

I built a king size bed for a young couple using the 700 connectors. I had to go back and finish drilling the pin hole on a few places. I did tape a cheap hex key to the bed.

I, like you, used scrap to learn on. Fortunately, Halfinchshy had a good video to explain how to use the connectors. I don’t think the New Brit videos were out then. 

 

[HowardH]

I bought the set to make knock down cabs for our son who is in grad school in NY.  I know what you are talking about using the drill  I watched the video first that Sedge made about how to use it and he was quite clear to make sure you drill all the way to the bottom. That being said, knowing what I know now, I may have splurged and bought a Lamello P2 Zeta.  So much simpler and a much smaller hole when using the Clamex connectors. 

 

[squall_line]

I bought the set to make knock down cabs for our son who is in grad school in NY.  I know what you are talking about using the drill  I watched the video first that Sedge made about how to use it and he was quite clear to make sure you drill all the way to the bottom. That being said, knowing what I know now, I may have splurged and bought a Lamello P2 Zeta.  So much simpler and a much smaller hole when using the Clamex connectors.

The overall user experience with the Zeta P2 is definitely superior almost start to finish compared to the K8 connector set, from the single plunge depth setting to the cross-drilling to the insertion of hardware and final assembly, but the price of a P2 plus the concomitant price of the consumables can drive a person to question their sanity if they pay too much attention to the costs.

That said, I still used my P2 when building a small box out of scrap melamine for my networking equipment, and used Tensos instead of Clamex since I didn't need it to knock down later.  A few pieces of masonite stapled to the back avoided any racking concerns.  I have both of the blades, and still have only used the diamond since I've only used it in melamine-faced particle board so far.

 

[HowardH]

I bought the set to make knock down cabs for our son who is in grad school in NY.  I know what you are talking about using the drill  I watched the video first that Sedge made about how to use it and he was quite clear to make sure you drill all the way to the bottom. That being said, knowing what I know now, I may have splurged and bought a Lamello P2 Zeta.  So much simpler and a much smaller hole when using the Clamex connectors.

The overall user experience with the Zeta P2 is definitely superior almost start to finish compared to the K8 connector set, from the single plunge depth setting to the cross-drilling to the insertion of hardware and final assembly, but the price of a P2 plus the concomitant price of the consumables can drive a person to question their sanity if they pay too much attention to the costs.

That said, I still used my P2 when building a small box out of scrap melamine for my networking equipment, and used Tensos instead of Clamex since I didn't need it to knock down later.  A few pieces of masonite stapled to the back avoided any racking concerns.  I have both of the blades, and still have only used the diamond since I've only used it in melamine-faced particle board so far.

The Zeta is really something else. The Domino connectors are really good but are an afterthought. You have to remove the posts in order to flat ship. I'm getting an itchy finger to press the order button on one for a big project I will have coming up but it's not until after the first of the year so I'll get a little Cortizone to control that itch for awhile! 

 

[Crazyraceguy]

[member=396]HowardH[/member] when the Cortizone runs out, you can rest assured that you are making the right choice.
The Zeta P2 system is fantastic for both knock-down (Clamex) and for things that are difficult to clamp. In that situation, the Tenso are great. They leave no visible connectors at all, but will likely need other means of support, a few Dominos are just the ticket.