Setting up OF1400 (US) and accessories....

[JustinWG]

Finally got a chance to try out my new OF1400 to cut some rabbets and dadoes.  I must say, I was very pleased with it! 

Having said that, I'm curious and/or mildly concerned that I did something incorrectly when setting up the parallel guides.

After securing the rods to the router, I mounted the guide - everything seemed fine at this point.  When I put the guides on the track, the right most track didn't sit flush on the track.  It was off by approximately 1/16" +/-.  When noticing this, I noticed that the router itself wasn't sitting entirely flush on the work piece (sheet of ply), which made sense because of the guide.

To experiment and troubleshoot, I took the router off the guide rods, then put the parallel guide back on the track system.  This time, the guide sat flush.  I tried to put the router back on the guide system, and the problem recreated itself.  I even tried to rotate the router 180 degrees to see if I did something entirely foolish/wrong - that made zero difference.

So simply put, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Naildrivingman]

Hi Justin,
It sounds like you have eliminated several possibilities for alignment error.  Even though festool is a high quality product, it doesn't mean that manufacturing errors don't occur.  Try this:

1. Set your router on a known dead flat surface and install the guide rods to the longest extension possible.
2. Take a piece of material of a known and consistent thickness and slide under the guide rods.
3. Observe if the guide rods are closer to the material at the router side and farther from the material at the outbound side.
3a. If this reveals a discrepancy, my guess is that there is a casting error in the base and you should return the router to festool for inspection.
3b. If this does not reveal a discrepancy, then I can't think of anything else than what you have already tried.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

 

[JustinWG]

The fine adjustment on the guide element is a bit... odd?  I'll have to be more cautious of that tomorrow when I play around with it.

[member=64733]Naildrivingman[/member] - I'll try your suggestions tomorrow.  The base seems fine when it's not mounted.  The only thing I can wildly guess at, is that the extensions may have the slightest bow in them, just enough to tweak the alignment.  However, they appear to be milled perfectly fine. 

The "dumb" question of the hour - the rods are milled to be identical, correct?  Like, there isn't a Rod 1 and Rod 2....?

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

Hi Justin,

Is your router sitting half on the Guide Rail and half overhanging the edge of the guide rail with the router Support Foot extended down to carry the weight of the router..?

If not, then when using the Guide Rail adaptor with the base of the router completely on the workpiece, the base of the router will not sit completely flat as the base of the router will be 5mm lower than the top edge of the guide rail. It is likely that the far RHS of the router is sitting on the workpiece but there will be a gap between the LHS of the router base and the surface of your workpiece.
As the router is not sitting level, it will try to lift/twist the guide rail adaptor off the rail causing the adaptor to tighten up as you try and move it along the rail.

Edit. The 2 guide rods are identical BTW..!!

 

[DrD]

Is the router overhanging the guide rail?  If so, are you using the adjustable foot on the router to compensate for the approx. 5mm thickness of the guide rail? 

As you are most probably aware, there are at least two ways to use the OF1400 guide stop.  The two pieces of the guide stop can be positioned both over the 2 channels on the guide rail - requiring some fineness in getting the 2 pieces set properly or, only one can be positioned to fit over a channel - in any event, the 2 adjustment screws found at the base of the individual guide stop guide must be adjusted for proper tension against the guide rail.

I just finished ploughing out a series of rabbits and dados using the OF1400, guide stops and guide rail, and had to very careful to use the adjustable foot to ensure the router remained parallel to the wood being routed.

Pictures of your situation are always helpful in attempting to diagnose the root cause of your issue.

Best wishes

 

[McNally Family]

Just wanted to post so I could easily follow this thread, as I have just recently purchased the 1400 router myself.

 

[semenza]

Yes, the 'T' shaped support foot is what I was thinking too.

Seth

 

[Daver]

The 1400 is a fantastic router. The ability to use it with the guide rails makes it even more so. One area where Festool does not excel, however, is in the materials documenting what they're selling and how to use it.

Luckily for them (and us) there are a number of dedicated users who have invested their own time and money to produce videos and pdf supplements to fill in the gaps.
To address the issues you're facing, here's FOG member Paul-Marcel demo-ing the 1400. He starts to discuss the base and guard rail issues at the 10 minute mark. There's also a part 2 video.


I highly recommend picking up an accessory base as shown in his video. It's so much easier to use than the T-foot that Seth and others refer to in previous posts.

Dave

 

[JustinWG]

Ahhh, yes... learning is good.  Often times, it ensures that the same mistake won't ignorantly happen again.  Sure enough, the culprit was the magical and ever-so-stout T-foot.  Added the foot and the problem was solved, relatively.  I strongly believe the foot leaves something to be desired.  Safe to say, I'd expect a more solid solution from Festool.

Thanks for the video.  The table widener very well may be an inevitable and necessary purchase.

 

[ear3]

I seem to remember an argument a few years ago whether the thick table widener base on the 1400 was actually the proper thickness for the 1400 to sit flush on the workpiece off the guiderail.  I use it that way and haven't run into any problems, but I've never double checked the precise measurements.