Charles Wilson
Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Messages
- 145
Is there a simple way to produce accurate, multiple rip cuts using your saw and rail system? I am interested in making pickets for a fence.
Thanks,
Chuck
Thanks,
Chuck
Repeatability of rip cuts
- Thread starter Charles Wilson
- Start date
Charles,
All that is required to do so is a fence under the guide rail, parallel to the cut line and set at the desired distance from the cut. John Lucas demonstrates a method that uses a digitally-measured fence in his latest posting at www.woodshopdemos.com.
If you need to make many rips of exactly the same width and don't need the ability to move the fence, a simple fence or stop will do nicely.
Dav
All that is required to do so is a fence under the guide rail, parallel to the cut line and set at the desired distance from the cut. John Lucas demonstrates a method that uses a digitally-measured fence in his latest posting at www.woodshopdemos.com.
If you need to make many rips of exactly the same width and don't need the ability to move the fence, a simple fence or stop will do nicely.
Dav
Chuck,
Hi. Unfortunately, I got home later than I wanted to and rushed this a bit. I used Clint's method to rip "fence boards". Since I didn't have any handy fence board material, I ripped thin, 1/2" strips from a castoff 2X4.
This test is pretty much a worst case scenario because the 1/2" strips are three times as tall as they are wide, my "rip fence" was a cast 1/2" board (only 1/3 the height of the ripped 2X), my setup took about 10 minutes including finding the test and "rip fence" boards, and my blade hasn't been cleaned or sharpened in about three months. Yet, it still worked out pretty well.
Here's a pic of my "shop". It's my master bathroom, which I'm remodeling. One of the things that I like about Festool is that you can take your "shop" to your work, or decide how much work to do in your traditional shop and how much at your on-site shop.
Here are the ripped "fence boards". Even using a rip fence that was only 1/3 the height of the 2X4, the ripped boards were square and within 3/100" thickness of each other - max thickness is a little less than .5" and min thickness is a little greater than .47" measured with a Wixey digital caliper.
Here's the rip setup. You can see the rip fence under the guide rail. The saw's weight is being supported by the rail completely. The rail is set so that the 2X4 can be repeatedly slid under the rail and butted against the rip fence. I.e., lift up rail, slide in target board, drop rail, and cut.
One point about my setup... This isn't a single purpose cutting bench. Last weekend and for the next two weekends, I'm doing the electrical install. For this demo, I just pushed my electrical stuff aside, yanked my TS55 from it's systainer, lowered the guide rail, and my "table saw" was ready.
This pic shows the rip fence that's clamped to the table. The only prep work that I did on the fence was to rip a straight edge on it. Those clamps are just standard Festool quick clamps. You can do the same thing in multiple other ways. For production work, I'd make a fence that met the needs of my project. E.g. either get a wider board or glue up a couple of boards, so that the fence was as thick as the target board and clamp from the back edge. Or, I might route out a couple of slots for the clamps. Or, I might use edge clamps. There's a bunch of ways to do it. It depends on the specific task at hand.
The clamps are just standard Festool quick release clamps that I've used for multiple other projects. Nothing special. My reason for choosing them? They happened to be on the top of the stack of clamps in my storage box.
Note the guide rail pivot on the back of the MFT and the rail support at the bottom left of the pic. These height-adjustable pivots support the guide rail. When you don't need the guide rail, you just flip it up like it is now.
In this configuration, you can rip 28" boards. Using the MFTs long dimension and a 55" guide rail, you can rip 46" boards. Since you can connect MFTs together (Jerry Work and I believe Daviddubya does this), you can use the same configuration on boards over 90" long using a longer Festool guide rail. Or, you can connect two 55" guide rails. Or...
You can use Lou or Clint's method. Or, John Lucas' method here:http://www.woodshopdemos.com/fes-mft-1.htm. Or, in my original question thread (http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=666.0), John Stevens posted several methods including pics of a nice method that might take maybe two hours to set up.
One great Festool feature is dust control. Remember that this is my master bathroom, which happens to be off my master bedroom (where my wife was reading in bed while I was doing this demo). Dust control is CRITICAL for me. Here's the kicker... since my 500 watt work light, the CT22 and the TS55 are all on the same 15amp circuit with an older circuit breaker, I had to cut the suction down to about 50%. This pic shows the TOTAL dust after all four cuts with NO cleanup.
I mentioned above that this is a general purpose "shop". Here's a pic that I took several weeks ago while installing the ceiling sheetrock. That's sheetrock on the MFT, it's clamped with the same quick-release clamp that I used for this demo (just reversed), and the Festool C12 drill has the Depth Stop Chuck installed to install the sheet rock screws (orange and black box).
The sheetrock is clamped like that because it was a convenient way to hold it while I used my RotoZip to rout a small piece. The RotoZip was connected to my CT22 vac for dust collection. Finally, I cleaned up the remaining sheetrock dust (nasty stuff) with the CT22 and the cleanup kit in the configuration you see here.
When I got done doing the demo, I disconnected the hose and power cord from my TS55, carried it into my master bedroom, and popped it back into its systainer. FYI, that color manual just to the right is a printed-out version of Rick Christopherson's excellent TS55 manual:http://www.bobmarinosbesttools.com/docs/TS_55_EQ_US.pdf.
Here is my Festool stack (except for one in the garage and the C12 systainer on top of my CT22) that I keep stored in my master bedroom for convenient access. Is it clean? Well that's our dog's water dish just to the left and the clothes closet is about three inches to the right of the brown bag.
Compact storage? In 16" X24" of floor space is stored my: TS55 saw + accessories and blades, OF1400 router + accessories, a separate systainer for router bits, Rotex 150 sander + a supply of sanding disks, PSB 300 EQ jig saw + accessories and blades, HL 850 E planer + accessories, and Festool cleanup kit.
I hope this is useful.
Regards,
Dan.
Hi. Unfortunately, I got home later than I wanted to and rushed this a bit. I used Clint's method to rip "fence boards". Since I didn't have any handy fence board material, I ripped thin, 1/2" strips from a castoff 2X4.
This test is pretty much a worst case scenario because the 1/2" strips are three times as tall as they are wide, my "rip fence" was a cast 1/2" board (only 1/3 the height of the ripped 2X), my setup took about 10 minutes including finding the test and "rip fence" boards, and my blade hasn't been cleaned or sharpened in about three months. Yet, it still worked out pretty well.
Here's a pic of my "shop". It's my master bathroom, which I'm remodeling. One of the things that I like about Festool is that you can take your "shop" to your work, or decide how much work to do in your traditional shop and how much at your on-site shop.
Here are the ripped "fence boards". Even using a rip fence that was only 1/3 the height of the 2X4, the ripped boards were square and within 3/100" thickness of each other - max thickness is a little less than .5" and min thickness is a little greater than .47" measured with a Wixey digital caliper.
Here's the rip setup. You can see the rip fence under the guide rail. The saw's weight is being supported by the rail completely. The rail is set so that the 2X4 can be repeatedly slid under the rail and butted against the rip fence. I.e., lift up rail, slide in target board, drop rail, and cut.
One point about my setup... This isn't a single purpose cutting bench. Last weekend and for the next two weekends, I'm doing the electrical install. For this demo, I just pushed my electrical stuff aside, yanked my TS55 from it's systainer, lowered the guide rail, and my "table saw" was ready.
This pic shows the rip fence that's clamped to the table. The only prep work that I did on the fence was to rip a straight edge on it. Those clamps are just standard Festool quick clamps. You can do the same thing in multiple other ways. For production work, I'd make a fence that met the needs of my project. E.g. either get a wider board or glue up a couple of boards, so that the fence was as thick as the target board and clamp from the back edge. Or, I might route out a couple of slots for the clamps. Or, I might use edge clamps. There's a bunch of ways to do it. It depends on the specific task at hand.
The clamps are just standard Festool quick release clamps that I've used for multiple other projects. Nothing special. My reason for choosing them? They happened to be on the top of the stack of clamps in my storage box.
Note the guide rail pivot on the back of the MFT and the rail support at the bottom left of the pic. These height-adjustable pivots support the guide rail. When you don't need the guide rail, you just flip it up like it is now.
In this configuration, you can rip 28" boards. Using the MFTs long dimension and a 55" guide rail, you can rip 46" boards. Since you can connect MFTs together (Jerry Work and I believe Daviddubya does this), you can use the same configuration on boards over 90" long using a longer Festool guide rail. Or, you can connect two 55" guide rails. Or...
You can use Lou or Clint's method. Or, John Lucas' method here:http://www.woodshopdemos.com/fes-mft-1.htm. Or, in my original question thread (http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=666.0), John Stevens posted several methods including pics of a nice method that might take maybe two hours to set up.
One great Festool feature is dust control. Remember that this is my master bathroom, which happens to be off my master bedroom (where my wife was reading in bed while I was doing this demo). Dust control is CRITICAL for me. Here's the kicker... since my 500 watt work light, the CT22 and the TS55 are all on the same 15amp circuit with an older circuit breaker, I had to cut the suction down to about 50%. This pic shows the TOTAL dust after all four cuts with NO cleanup.
I mentioned above that this is a general purpose "shop". Here's a pic that I took several weeks ago while installing the ceiling sheetrock. That's sheetrock on the MFT, it's clamped with the same quick-release clamp that I used for this demo (just reversed), and the Festool C12 drill has the Depth Stop Chuck installed to install the sheet rock screws (orange and black box).
The sheetrock is clamped like that because it was a convenient way to hold it while I used my RotoZip to rout a small piece. The RotoZip was connected to my CT22 vac for dust collection. Finally, I cleaned up the remaining sheetrock dust (nasty stuff) with the CT22 and the cleanup kit in the configuration you see here.
When I got done doing the demo, I disconnected the hose and power cord from my TS55, carried it into my master bedroom, and popped it back into its systainer. FYI, that color manual just to the right is a printed-out version of Rick Christopherson's excellent TS55 manual:http://www.bobmarinosbesttools.com/docs/TS_55_EQ_US.pdf.
Here is my Festool stack (except for one in the garage and the C12 systainer on top of my CT22) that I keep stored in my master bedroom for convenient access. Is it clean? Well that's our dog's water dish just to the left and the clothes closet is about three inches to the right of the brown bag.
Compact storage? In 16" X24" of floor space is stored my: TS55 saw + accessories and blades, OF1400 router + accessories, a separate systainer for router bits, Rotex 150 sander + a supply of sanding disks, PSB 300 EQ jig saw + accessories and blades, HL 850 E planer + accessories, and Festool cleanup kit.
I hope this is useful.
Regards,
Dan.
This thread has GREAT information about repeated ripping with Festool:http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=666.0
Regards,
Dan.
Regards,
Dan.
Dan Clark said:
Christian,
John Stevens has a great idea for what seems to be a practical, workable accessory that would enhance the performance and repeatability of the MFT (already an exceptional tool!). What is involved in getting an idea like that to Festool to study and examine feasibility, etc.?
Thanks
Dave
Christian93117
Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 159
Hello Dave,
I tried already a couple of times to post an answer, let's see if this one goes through.
We forwarded all the postings about the accessories for repeatability to Germany. They are working on solutions and welcomed
the input.
Best regards,
Christian
I tried already a couple of times to post an answer, let's see if this one goes through.
We forwarded all the postings about the accessories for repeatability to Germany. They are working on solutions and welcomed
the input.
Best regards,
Christian
Matthew Schenker
Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2007
- Messages
- 2,619
I agree that the earlier thread mentioned by Dan has terrific information on repeatability. I'd like to merge the two discussions, if it is OK with Mr. Wilson.
Thanks,
Matthew
Thanks,
Matthew
