Parallel guide on the MFT multifunction table - is there any play at all?

[Icestation2]

When you lower the guide down on to the material to be cut is there any play what-so-ever so that an accurate parallel cut is not always guaranteed?

I'm thinking it probably should not have any play if the guide is screwed onto the side of the table tightly, but has anyone found any problems possibly after the guide has been used for some time? 

 

[woodshopdemos]

Ice2,
  No play whatsoever if you have MFT setup correctly. The back side is hinged and no play there. The front comes down and sets into a mating groove on underside of rail.

 

[MarkF]

The front comes down and sets into a mating groove on underside of rail.

I was recently having problems with the saw guide on my MFT wiggiling a little from the front after 3 years of moderate use.  The steel registration pin which mates into the mating groove had worn the shoulders of the groove on the guide a little.  Steel pin vs Aluminum guide and the Steel won.  Easy fix...just loosen the guide at the hinge and move backwards or forwards a cm, re-tighten and you're ready for a few more years.

 

[Icestation2]

As I understand it, when using the guide on the MFT table you have it fixed/hinged on one side, and then the guide comes down and connects into a securing plate on the other side of the table. If you have read my other thread about using the parallel guide, I want to cut a 1250mm wide sheet of MDF into long narrow strips and I'm thinking that I could set up a 1.9m guide on one of the short sides of the MFT table but I wouldn't be able to use the securing plate on the opposite side because the sheet would be sticking out by about 100mm. What I need to know is can you just have the guide hinged on one side of the table and still have no play/movement? 

 

[Dane]

No.  Absolutely not. 

For your needs, you really would be best served by building a table that was the width of the stock that you are ripping and just get a piece of aluminum stock to serve as a fence and then fix a festool rail at a right angle to that.  No need to go to the expense of buying a tool that is made for adjustability if what you really need is a fixed fence and stop.  You could build a table that would serve your needs perfectly for 50.00.  Steve Jones posted a version that is a lot more complex, but you could take a look at it to get the idea.

 

[Martin Johnson]

If I understand the application...the new parallel guides might be a good solution...there have been a number of posts on the FOG.

 

[MarkF]

Icestation2 you appear to be in a situation I call "Analysis Paralysis." ;D
Where are you located?  If you're local to me you're welcome to stop by and see how this all goes together.  If not, I'm sure others near you would oblige.  Just ask.  We won't bite.

For a one off milling operation on the scale you have mentioned previously (and I assume you're still wrestling with) I would forget the MFT and Parallel attachments as Dane suggested and just make up a cutting table with an elevated sawguide bridging your workpiece and square to a long perpendicular fence of straight scrap MDF/Ply/Al stock/etc.  Screw or clamp down some stops into the table to the right of the sawguide splinterguard (the distance you need for final width plus your blade thickness) to keep your workpiece registered.  Slide your MDF sheet under the sawguide from the left to the stops, make your cut, remove the cut piece, slide the MDF sheet to the stops, cut, remove, repeat until the cows come home.

You'll need to mount each end of the sawguide somehow.  I would use a clamp on each end like this: http://www.festoolusa.com/products/guide-rails/clamps/screw-clamps-111316-489571.html
These mount in the bottom channel at each end of the sawguide and slide to the edge of your table.  In this situation sandwiching the sawguide, fence and tabletop together at one end; sawguide, spacer, tabletop at the other end.  Alternately you could drill 2 holes in each end of the sawguide and screw it down to the fence at the back of the table and to a spacer at the front of the table.  Just make sure in the end  it's square to the fence, longer than your sheet of MDF and is elevated above the workpiece my a few mm.