Shop reconfiguration/Breakdown MFT

[rmwarren]

Does anyone have ideas for ways to secure stock under the guide rail to prevent it from moving during a cut? An example would be these small pieces of 1/4" MDF, they will slide while cutting unless somehow secured.

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Needs to somehow push "forward" (towards the front of the MFT) and "in" towards the adjustable guide fence.

I'd love to have a spring-tensioned "arm" that pivots on a 20mm dog, but I'm coming up blank on how to do this. The point of contact on the stock will vary so whatever I use has to be infinitely adjustable. Also needs to be 1/4" thick so it'll fit under the guide rail.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

RMW

 

[guybo]

Hi, i use this in the field.I clamp or screw a stop to the table and kerf it.https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/is-ripping-narrow-stock-the-ts-achilles-heel/msg411193/#msg411193

 

[Michael Kellough]

Sliding stock is why you usually set the stock against a fence at the back.

The simplest fix in your setup is to make the bottom of the splinter guard less slippery.

Next is to add a strip of the friction foam close to the splinter guard.

If those aren’t good enough you can cut a notch in the corner of that sliding aluminum stop (top of lower photo). To keep the aluminum stop from pivoting away from position as the stock is pushed forward by the saw you can add a length of small diameter aircraft cable (or maybe Spectra fishing line) to the stop near the notch and secure the cable/line with a low dog with a hole for cable to pass through. Would have to tighten dog from under the table unless you invent a clever thing to print 3D.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Hi, i use this in the field.I clamp or screw a stop to the table and kerf it.https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/is-ripping-narrow-stock-the-ts-achilles-heel/msg411193/#msg411193

@guyb  that’s a long thread which “this” are you talking about?

 

[rmwarren]

Sliding stock is why you usually set the stock against a fence at the back.

Fair point. I am going through some contortions to make this work to replace either the typical rear fence or a tablesaw.

I'd prefer not to introduce another layer (i.e. something non-slip) and doubt I'd trust it without fiddling with every cut. I'll probably mock something up with 1/4" MDF and see what develops.

Thanks,

RMW

 

[squall_line]

Does anyone have ideas for ways to secure stock under the guide rail to prevent it from moving during a cut? An example would be these small pieces of 1/4" MDF, they will slide while cutting unless somehow secured.

Needs to somehow push "forward" (towards the front of the MFT) and "in" towards the adjustable guide fence.

I'd love to have a spring-tensioned "arm" that pivots on a 20mm dog, but I'm coming up blank on how to do this. The point of contact on the stock will vary so whatever I use has to be infinitely adjustable. Also needs to be 1/4" thick so it'll fit under the guide rail.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

RMW

I was thinking of the Clamping ElemenTS:https://www.festoolusa.com/accessory/488030---mft-sp#Overview, but they're thicker than 1/4".  Depending on how/where/what other interference is on the table at the time, could you use a Clamping Element (or similar horizontal clamp) to press against a 1/4" interface piece that then puts pressure against the work piece?

 

[guybo]

Hi, i use this in the field.I clamp or screw a stop to the table and kerf it.https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/is-ripping-narrow-stock-the-ts-achilles-heel/msg411193/#msg411193

@guyb  that’s a long thread which “this” are you talking about?

Reply#23 w/photo

 

[rvieceli]

Richard assuming you are going to use the triangle part to hold the left fife of your work piece. Rip some long pieces of 1/4 material. Long enough so you can clamp each end outside the rail and cutting area.

Put the piece you want to rip down, slide the triangle over to the piece, take a long strip and place across the top as a stop. Clamp that stop piece down on the ends. If you need to secure it on the right side then take a couple of 1/4 strips and slide the ends over to the work piece and clamp down on the opposite end.

Should work.

Ron

 

[Cheese]

I'm like a kid at Christmas with the new Erector Set (which anyone under 40-ish will need to Google...).

Well that comment certainly struck home for me.  [big grin]  I've had this for over 60 years and just 3 days ago I decided to finally put it down the road.

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[rmwarren]

I'm like a kid at Christmas with the new Erector Set (which anyone under 40-ish will need to Google...).

Well that comment certainly struck home for me.  [big grin]  I've had this for over 60 years and just 3 days ago I decided to finally put it down the road.

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Oh wow! Do you recall stepping on the little screws/square nuts lost in the shag carpet?

RMW

 

[Michael Kellough]

Sliding stock is why you usually set the stock against a fence at the back.

Fair point. I am going through some contortions to make this work to replace either the typical rear fence or a tablesaw.

I'd prefer not to introduce another layer (i.e. something non-slip) and doubt I'd trust it without fiddling with every cut. I'll probably mock something up with 1/4" MDF and see what develops.

Thanks,

RMW

I meant adding a strip of foam to the underside of the guide rail. The Festool foam might be too thick but McMaster has other thicknesses.

I resisted suggesting adding psa abrasive strips to the “MFT” surface even though it’s something I would do.

You’re not only cutting downhill but your surface is very smooth. The rougher raw surface of mdf would be more useful.

Another option is to make some low profile cams. A cam might be a way to prevent a sliding stop from pivoting.

 

[nvalinski]

Would it be possible to connect the dogholes directly next to the cutting strip to a vacuum or vacuum pump? Maybe run a vacuum channel underneath and plug any unused ones with bench dogs to direct the vacuum pressure to only the pieces being cut. Not sure if just a vacuum is strong enough vs. a true pump and if you'd need any bit of gasketing/rubber there anyways.

 

[rmwarren]

Would it be possible to connect the dogholes directly next to the cutting strip to a vacuum or vacuum pump? Maybe run a vacuum channel underneath and plug any unused ones with bench dogs to direct the vacuum pressure to only the pieces being cut. Not sure if just a vacuum is strong enough vs. a true pump and if you'd need any bit of gasketing/rubber there anyways.

I'd love to have that. Been trying to figure a way to incorporate vacuum work holding into the MFT short of hanging the vacsys heads off the edge. I'm not up to speed on holding power but in general I believe more area = more holding?

Considered printing some dogs that could be connected to the pump from below to experiment with. Also toyed with hacking out a section of the top to make a spot for drop in inserts similar to router table inserts.

RMW

 

[Bob D.]

"Oh wow! Do you recall stepping on the little screws/square nuts lost in the shag carpet?"

No, but I remember getting hollered at by my Mom when she sucked one or more up with the vacuum. :-(

 

[rmwarren]

Shaper'ed up a couple of low profile stops.

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And plumb forgot I had these Veritas 20mm low profile cams sitting in a drawer...

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Add in a few spacers & it should be enough to get by with until/unless something more elegant present itself. Thanks for the input.

RMW

 

[rmwarren]

The Veritas cam clamps work well enough.

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I cannot seem to consistently set the fence accurately using the scale, so I resorted to making a spacer using dog holes and cutting it in place. This lets me set the fence using setup blocks or some other known reference piece. In this case I needed to rip several MDF pieces exactly 1.5" wide, so I grabbed a random chunk AL flat bar to use for the reference. It's a 3-step process:

1. Use the dog-hole spacer to set a right-side stop to the exact point of the left-side blade kerf:

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2. Remove the dog-hole spacer and use the reference piece/gauge blocks to set the fence location:

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3. Remove the reference piece & stop then use the fence to make the repeat cuts:

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Accuracy is within my tolerance for measurement, call it ~0.1mm repeatably.

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As Michael pointed out, while finishing the top and fence protects them it also makes them slick and they can shift pretty easily so I needed to use one of the adjustable stops to prevent the fence from moving slightly (& also discovered a bonus use as an impromptu fence for pull saw cutting).

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Overall, I'm happy with this. It takes longer to explain than to set up now that I have the various bits & pieces.

Thanks all.

RMW

 

[rmwarren]

Yesterday was a test run of the full cabinet box setup, starting with extending the MFT.

(1) MFT top section, (1) set of legs, (2) pieces of 1515, (7) cap screws, (1) Allen head driver & (5) minutes, boom.

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It is so nice to have plenty of work surface and (after sizing the panels) not need to break down one station to use another function. After I make one more section of 20/96 MFT top I'll have enough room for everything.

I'm reclaiming material from the old MFT/SYS cart I'd disassembled at the beginning of this thread; you know that $80/sheet plywood... (some of the material was originally cabinets in my old shop from ~18 years ago).

LR32-ish setup works perfectly.

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Domino station also works pretty well.

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Assembly with dominos and Confirmat screws.

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RE: dominos, I discovered that the way I've calibrated the Carmonius/Veritas knock-off setup imparts a minor error I not sure that I can chase out. The corners of the assembled boxes are offset ~0.5mm all the way around and the pattern makes it plain the issue is a slight offset from one side to the other when swapping the fence side-to-side. Since the resulting offset is doubled the actual misalignment of the fence/domino is only ~0.25mm, which I don't think I can remove without fiddling more than I really care to.

For shop cabinets it's acceptable, may also be when I get to the closet build.

Paint, cleats and then I can start making doors/drawer fronts. The weather has been drought-dry and in the 70's for weeks, I'm trying to take advantage of this to wrap up the project.

RMW

 

[ChuckM]

I'm not familiar with your particular setup. Maybe it isn't the case, but your photo seems to show misalignment on the top as well as on the front. For a carcase this relatively large size, why did you not mortise the joints in the standard manner, using the fence (flipped down at 90*) to reference the workpieces?

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[rmwarren]

I'm not familiar with your particular setup. Maybe it isn't the case, but your photo seems to show misalignment on the top as well as on the front. For a carcase this relatively large size, why did you not mortise the joints in the standard manner, using the fence (flipped down at 90*) to reference the workpieces?

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There is a very slight,

 

[Vondawg]

Love that “L” shaped wrap around work set up….like an indoor/outdoor pool lol