Dan Clark said:
What is the best of way to repeatedly rip a large number of boards IF you used only Festool products and maybe handmade jigs?
Dan, so far no one has asked you to clarify your question--repeat rip cuts where the finished piece is wider than the guide rail, or repeated rip cuts where the resulting piece is narrower? It makes a big difference, but for both situations, this question has come up repeatedly on the old forum, and it's impressive the way that the wheel keeps being reinvented--lots of bright, innovative people come up with very similar solutions.
This thread has focused exclusively on the latter situation (everyone is assuming that the fence boards will be narrower than the guide rail), so I'll disregard the solutions for the former. (Jay St. Peter's impressive rip gauges would fit this category, as would Jerry Work's innovative use of the MFS rails for this purpose in his MFS manual)
Ed in Tampa came up with an idea that's very similar to one that our moderator, Matthew Schenker, posted on the old forum. I think he called it his "right register jig" or something similar to that.
Lou Miller suggests that one can "simply clamp a board to the underside of the rail." If you try to do this, you'll find that it's not always so simple to do, depending on the length of the board and how you intend to support the guide rail, saw and work piece. This is where the EZ rails and clamps really seem to have an advantage, because the clamps on the underside of the rail will sit flat on any flat surface. However, since we're not allowed to suggest solutions other than Festool (and since we seem run the risk of being falsely accused of "gorilla [sic] marketing" for simply mentioning the EZ system) I'll continue to talk about some more workable variations on Lou Miller's idea.
Mark Enomoto mentioned an idea that was posted on the old forum by Steve Dunkerly in messages # 3005 and # 4516. Steve fastened two guide rails side-by-side using ordinary Stanley hinges from a hardware store. The hinges are mounted in the top "T" track of the guide rails with 5/16" bolts and wing nuts. This method relies on having sufficient stock available to support both rails side-by-side. The scrap is positioned the same way as Lou Miller suggests. The advantage of this system is that the guide rail that is being sawed upon can be tilted up at the end of the cut, allowing the finished piece to be quickly removed, and the new stock quickly inserted. Another advantage is that, because you use same-sized stock to support the rails, you can use this with stock of any thickness. But this is a double-edged sword, because it's possible that you may not have enough stock to support both guide rails.
I liked Steve's idea, but I liked the idea of using dedicated stock and a single guide rail. The advantages are that you only need a single guide rail, and you will never have a situation in which you don't have enough stock of equal thickness to support the rail. The disadvantage is that my type of jig may only be used with stock of the same thickness, unless you shim the stock or the jig to make the height of one equal to the other. Alternatively, you could make one for each thickness you work with frequently, e.g., 18mm for carcase stock, 12mm for drawer sides, and 5mm for drawer bottoms.
The jig consists of a piece of "fence" stock and hinged pieces that connect the fence to the guide rail in a manner similar to Steve Dunkerly's method. At each end of the stock there's a slot that runs across the width of the stock. Pics of my jig are posted below. The first one shows the rail from above. The second shows the rail tilted up, as if to remove the cut piece and replace it with a new piece to cut. The third shows the underside of the jig, with the t-bolt that holds the hinged piece to the fence. The underside of the slot is cut slightly wider so the head of the t-bolt can't rotate.
A disadvantage of Steve Dunkerly's method and mine is that the piece being cut can move under the guide rail. I know, it sounds like heresy, but I've had it happen while cutting pieces that were so narrow that they were only in contact with the rubber "anti chip" strip under the guide rail.
EDIT: I forgot to mention a similar idea posted on the old forum by "Markeno." Using two of the pivoting assemblies that attach the guide rail to the MFT (part group #50) , use t-track or something similar (Incra dual t-track, perhaps) to attach the MFT lengthwise to the two assemblies on the MFT. The t-track would allow the guide rail to be set at various distances from the pivoting assemblies. A fence could be set up anywhere on the MFT to enable the guide rails to be positioned relative to the fence for cuts that were narrower or wider than the rail. And because the pivoting assemblies are height-adjustable, the amount of support stock needed under the rail is minimized, or made completely unnecessary in some cases. Markeno posted a CAD drawing of this proposed setup on the old forum. For what it's worth, I'll type in the old URL, although it seems not to work--
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/FestoolOwnersGroup/photos/view/cf16?b=68&m=f&o=0
Regards,
John
