pmarcusm, I think you should have an extended and critic view and play with one before you commit to the buy, depending on your particular use there might be some serious downsides to an MFT/3, not in the least the cost.
It took me a long time to decide between an MFT/3 and a Walko. In the end I went for the MFT/3 because of the guide rail. But after owning one for almost a year now as I do more and more small on-site jobs nowadays I'm getting more and more frustrated with the MFT/3's portability and inaccuracy. Even though it's advertised as a portable workbench, it's quite a pain in the a** and cumbersome to take with you on the job. So ironically I find myself looking more and more at a Walko again
You should also know that making miter cuts with this thing is absolutely not precise, there's too much play in the miter gauge to have accurate miter cuts. In general getting your protractor squared up again if you make adjustments is a real pain.
If you use it as delivered out of the box, the only thing it's excellent at is clamping & straight cross cuts. Portability, size and stability are a compromise.
So my advice? Absolutely get one if you're going to use it solely in the workshop, but be sure to also get the support braces or fold up the legs and put it on a custom base, because it's pretty wobbly otherwise. Definitely get some bench, rail, whatever dogs. They're far quicker & accurate to work with than the standard protractor. You'll most likely need to make some adjustments and buy some extra's to get the performance you want, but if you do, depending on what you want it to do for you, it truly might be great.
And like others have said, for people in the states it's mostly a very expensive table with holes in the top. Since you guys don't get all the accessories, like the vaccuum clamp (which I also have) or all the MFT/3-VL inserts, the only thing it's got going over there is that it's got a CNC'd top and you can attach a rail to it to make cuts. Not sure if that's worth all the money for just that. It's less expensive to just buy the MFT/3 extrusions & rail attachment parts to add them to a custom table.
So in conclusion, I don't want you to take this as a negative rant about the MFT/3. It's not a bad table at all. It can be quite good after you put some work & accessories into it. But it's really not the precision setup that some claim it to be, out of the box, and that grinds my gears! Of couse not everyone has the same expectations and way of working and some might genuinely be very happy about how it performs. But still, you deserve to hear about some other experiences besides all the positive ones, before you spend that amount of hard earned money on anything.
I'll keep mine and keep adding to it, because I'm already too heavily invested in it now, but I'm torn if I'd do it again if I had a do-over.
