Spending time with Allan Kensley

[sancho57]

This is more of an observation and suggestion to Sedge and Festool for Festool live on Fridays or his Sedge tool series or any you tube Festool gurus out there in cyber space..

New things to focus their episodes on.

First a little background

Alan Kensley and I became friends when he was a field rep for Festool.
We met at a Woodcraft demonstration he was having. I was new to Festool and was sucking up all the info I could get about these tools.

Every time he would have one I will show up and just talk to Allan so we became friends.

Even when Alan was doing the roadshow we still kept in touch via text and phone calls etc.

He was always very very helpful to me and very very knowledgeable with the tools.

So as he no longer works for festool ( which I can’t understand cuz he is one of the most knowledgeable people about these tools I know and I feel FT lost a valusable resource)

He moved near me maybe half hour away.
he comes over to visit me and he uses my shop  every now and then.

I have almost a complete Festool shop, I use the TS75 in my CMS for a table saw yes almost a complete FT shop).

He helps me with my projects and does a few of his own for his daughter.

What I learned is the man is amazing when it comes to these tools.

I’ve had my tools for quite a while and they’ve been well used and in my opinion they were accurate and work fine.

Until Alan came along.

For example my KAPEX .
I use it cross cuttting including rough and final dimensions.  To me it was very accurate.

I like the accuracy of it and trust the accuracy of it .

Well Allan was using it and he noticed my laser lines were off about 2 mm.

I never noticed because I was getting accurate ( to me) cuts.

So he told me my laser was 2mm out.

He asked me if I had a 2 mm hex wrench. when I said yeah here it is he took it but to show me how off it was he put a piece of wood on the saw and showed me that it was off about 2 mm.

I didn’t recognize it was off.
It’s the way it always has been and I’ve been happy with it.

Allan asked me if I cut on the line or do I leave the line.

I told him I’d cut on the line.

So he showed me how heres what you got and he peeled back the lazer adj screws  cover . then adjust the screws and dialed then then he showed me.

Now my ex is 100% accurate cuts right on the line.

Another time he was doing something in the shop and I was going to do some routing using my CMS.
He saw me setting up my CMS he came over to watch  and he said you know it looks like your fence is a little off just by eyeballing it.

So he said let’s get that perfectly fence perfectly aligned.

So he did some adjustments on the side of  fence that is adjustable in out. He adjusted the play of it got it perfectly aligned.  I’ve never seen those adjustments done using those screws/ hex bolts. Hell I didn’t notice they were there.

the fences in and out apparently has a couple of adjustments to it that I didn’t know about and never seen demonstrated before.

Now there were a few other things he did set it up the MFT little nuances he uses to ensure perfect accuracy to the cuts.

So these are the things that I suggest perhaps Festool can do for a Festool Friday.

That just basic adjustments already have been done before and a lot  but not how to find tune these tools.
which It’s something I have not seen on YouTube have not seen any owners manuals,  books or any of these YouTube Gurus do .

So that’s my suggestion to Festool and Sedge.

And me bragging to you guys ha ha Ha ha ha life is good.

It’s good to have friends don’t you know.

 

[squall_line]

It's all about who you know...

I believe Festool just did a Festool Live recently on dialing in the MFT/3; it was called "MFT/3 Beyond the Basics".  Sedge has also done some posts about dialing in the Kapex wings and the lasers.  Some of those have been under his Sedgetools account instead of the FUSA account.

I bet Big D ([member=71429]DerickC[/member]) has a pretty direct line to Sedge's ear but I'm not sure who officially decides the programming.

 

[sancho57]

[member=75217]squall_line[/member]

Saw that. One of the nusences that Allen showed me was every time you raise and lower the rail take your thumb press it against the metal part of the bracket pushing towards the stop.
. The bracket will move every time you raise and lower the rail. Doing it his way will ensure you will keep the alignment. The metal part  will move even if the knob is tight

He showed me that after I set up the MFT and told him my cuts still weren’t coming out square.

They do monitor the FOG ( I think, they might  see this.
They haven’t been active here and hands on like they were in the past

 

[squall_line]

[member=75217]squall_line[/member]

Saw that. One of the nusences that Allen showed me was every time you raise and lower the rail take your thumb press it against the metal part of the bracket pushing towards the stop.
. The bracket will move every time you raise and lower the rail. Doing it his way will ensure you will keep the alignment. The metal part  will move even if the knob is tight

He showed me that after I set up the MFT and told him my cuts still weren’t coming out square.

They do monitor the FOG ( I think, they might  see this.
They haven’t been active here and hands on like they were in the past

It's those little annoyances that have me looking at the Dashboard PWS bracket for my rail instead of the factory hinge.  I really don't like the idea that I need to hold it just right when lifting and lowering to keep it from losing its alignment.

 

[Erich]

I have another Allan story. A little while after the upgraded TS55's came out. My partner and I were at a Roadshow event at the local Woodcraft and asked Allan about the bevel lock on the saw. Allan determined that ours was evidently an early production model that only had the pivot lock at the front. He gave us his card and told us to send the saw in to Festool Service. We got the saw back ten days later upgraded to the latest specs cleaned, serviced and with a new blade. Over the years Allan, has spent hours on the phone and in person helping us to get the most out of our Festools.

 

[sancho57]

Allan’s here with me today.  Read yer post to him he said yah I remember him ( you)

 

[ChuckM]

Snip. Over the years Allan, has spent hours on the phone and in person helping us to get the most out of our Festools.

Never heard of this gentleman (I haven't heard of many many other tool or technical product representatives either), but from this statement, I see passion in him in his trying to help other woodworkers. Passion can't be bought.

 

[peter halle]

Allan is a great guy.  Period.  Sorry to see him outside of the Festool employment.

You are lucky to have him so close, and having a friendship.

Peter

 

[ScotF]

He is great. When I first got into Festool he would help me make adjustments and answer questions. He even swapped a new sander for me when a new one was not working and brought it to my shop. He is a goid teacher and super knowledgeable.

Tell him I said hi, Ron.

 

[sancho57]

@ ScotF
Will do. He’s back in Ca finishing up some work he has. He’ll be back in a couple of weeks

 

[sancho57]

[member=57948]ChuckS[/member]
If you managed to go to a road show you prolly saw or talked to him.
He did the Festool road shows for a couple of years.

I can give you a example how well he knows the tools.

The wheels for  trolley for my sliding table on CMS were cracked and broke.
When I called Festool and ordered a new bearing/wheels for it they said that
there were two part numbers for it.
I asked him what was the difference between the two partners.
They said they really didn’t know but it was probably an upper and lower.

So I replaced them and the trolley still wasn’t running smooth as it was when it was new.
I was at a roadshow and asked Alan about it.
He said oh I know here let me show you.

He pulled out two of the wheels and their bolts.
He said look one is just a slight off-center and that one goes on the bottom.
I never for the life Of me would’ve noticed that.

By the way I asked a couple of other Festool reps on the very roadshow one from Germany and they had no idea what I was talking about or what the issue was.
That’s just one example of how well he knows the tools