The other day I was on site working on a fireplace mantel. Eventually I came to the point where I wanted make some flutes in the legs. I throw the piece of stock up on my MFT/3 and secure it with the clamping elements. Pulled my OF1400 out of the systainer and thought,... now what? I did not have a clue as to how to go about it. You see, one of the issues that I have as of late, is that I am having to 'rethink' how I do things. Afterall, Festool will change the way you work, right?
So I am standing there, looking at what I got to work with:
2 pieces of x6" stock to be fluted, 3/4 of an inch in from each side with 5 flutes an inch apart.
Well I don't know if I came up with 'the best' way to do it, but I did come up with a way.. the guide stops for use with with the LR32 drilling system! I set my rail up on my layout marks for the second flute away from me. Set teh (already set up) router on the rail and adjusted it to cut on the first flute layout,... essentially a 1" offset. Then routed the 1st flute. Turned the 'jig' around and routed the 5th flute. Changed out the boards and repeated.
Then I reset the guide stops for a 2" offset and routed the 2nd & 4th flutes on both boards..
Reset the stops once again for the 3rd and final flute on center. This adjustment I spent a little more time with to make sure it was dead-on centered.
In the end, it took me longer to figure out how to get it done than it took me to actually do it.
In the past I have always used my Bosch 'colt' with an edge guide to do this task. But the depth on it creeps down so I no longer trust it to use.
I can see that maybe the parallel guides could be useful for this if resetting them can be timely & accurate. Don't have a set, so I don't really know.
I know that several others must have done flutes with the OF1400, what method(s) do you use?
So I am standing there, looking at what I got to work with:
2 pieces of x6" stock to be fluted, 3/4 of an inch in from each side with 5 flutes an inch apart.
Well I don't know if I came up with 'the best' way to do it, but I did come up with a way.. the guide stops for use with with the LR32 drilling system! I set my rail up on my layout marks for the second flute away from me. Set teh (already set up) router on the rail and adjusted it to cut on the first flute layout,... essentially a 1" offset. Then routed the 1st flute. Turned the 'jig' around and routed the 5th flute. Changed out the boards and repeated.
Then I reset the guide stops for a 2" offset and routed the 2nd & 4th flutes on both boards..
Reset the stops once again for the 3rd and final flute on center. This adjustment I spent a little more time with to make sure it was dead-on centered.
In the end, it took me longer to figure out how to get it done than it took me to actually do it.
In the past I have always used my Bosch 'colt' with an edge guide to do this task. But the depth on it creeps down so I no longer trust it to use.
I can see that maybe the parallel guides could be useful for this if resetting them can be timely & accurate. Don't have a set, so I don't really know.
I know that several others must have done flutes with the OF1400, what method(s) do you use?
