Should the MFT/3 rail drop directly onto the pin on the other side?

[bigarm]

When you lower the rail should it drop directly onto the pin on the other side?  Mine does not.  It has to be pushed over to do so.  I think I must have something set up wrong.  Any suggestions as to what I have done wrong?

 

[copcarcollector]

Pushed over how far? If there is just a little 'slop', an easy fix is the Slop Stop
https://www.festoolproducts.com/Tool-Improvements-Slop-Stop-for-Festool-MFT-Tables-p/ti-ss.htm

You might also check that the guide rail supports are butted up tightly to the feather key (stop) in the MFT side rail extrusion. At Festool training, these were often slammed quite hard into the stop, to ensure they were seated correctly.

 

[Bohdan]

If the cut is not square you have to adjust squareness first by moving one of the mounting brackets away from the stop by the amount that the cut is out of square, move the stop to the bracket and then perform the following procedure.

If the two rail mounting brackets are against the stops in the MFT sides and the cut is square then all you have to do is release the pressure on the cap head screws holding the rail to the bracket to only finger tight.

Release the front one, with the rail upright, first then lower the rail, release and retighten the back one, raise the rail carefully and tighten the front one.

The rail will now land on the pin and the cut is square. If the rail moves slightly due to wear from the pin move the rail backwards or forwards slightly so that the pin lands on a new section of rail groove.

 

[grbmds]

If  you check online, there are some videos out there that would advocate having to move the rail slightly to get it locked on the tab to put a little tension. If the rail is square to the fence, then it really doesn't matter. That's the important thing. The "Slop Stop" is a good after market accessory though. It gets rid of any play between the tab and the rail.

 

[Shane Holland]

Watch this...

 

[eddomak]

I also need to push the rail a little (to the right) before it drops onto the pin.

Having said this, note that I am aligning everything (fence and rails) to the holes by using bench dogs (eg qwas / precision /parf), and it is all an accurate 90 degrees.

I suspect that it is possible to drop the rail into the "natural" position that it falls into (ie without shifting to one side) and then align the fence perpendicular to this, but holes would be used only for clamping purposes, rather than alignment?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Christopher Fitch]

Mine was way off...(I bought it during a reconditioned sale). I ended up figuring out how to adjust it and did so. Now it's square to the table and the fence.

Here's what I did:

• Adjust the two rail stops so that they are the same distance from the right edge
• Slide both swivel and support unit to the right as far as they can go and lock them down.
• Loosen the two screws on the swivel unit. They have enough play when loose so you can adjust the rail.
• Put the rail down on the support unit and the pin.
• Use a framing square to square the rail with the table edge. Tighten the screws
• Pull up the stop pin on the protractor fence.
• Use a framing square to square the fence to the rail
• Loosen the protractor pin and set the head to zero and then adjust the head to it reads 0. Tighten the screw

At this point everything is square and your rail should drop and easily hit the pin almost correctly.

I will point out that it can get out of wack again but it's easy to fix.

 

[bigarm]

Thanks for the help.  I will give that a try.