Square for the mft3

[sancho57]

The big box stores sell a Stanley large yellow plastic triangle square that has a nice wide flat edge perfect for butting up to the rail and fence. Cheap and accurate to set up the rail square I have found. Otherwise dogs do a great job too.

I'd check it with a known good square square before I'd use it for setting up My MFT.

That is if you want to insure accuracy

I've found that all of my Swanson Speed Squares are dead-on square.  I have three 6" and one 12".  Not so for others that I've tried.

I have not used the yellow ones, but the metal one was jacked up.

 

[grbmds]

It is true that there are other squares which will give the same results. My problem was that I always felt I was just getting close and never knew for sure. I bought the Woodpecker's MFT Square so that I'd always have one square I could just use without question. So far, it's worked just that way for me. When I'm ready to make final crosscuts, I always check the squareness of the MFT fence/guide rail and make adjustments if necessary. It just gives me peace of mind. As I said, though, there are definitely other squares out there which will most likely give the same result. I just felt I was able to  take Woodpeckers word for the squareness and, in this case, I was not wrong. I only wish some of my other tool purchases over the years gave me as good a result.

 

[sancho57]

Very true. One thing I have learned and it seems continually is being said to people who come asking why they aren't getting square cuts with the MFT is

Is your square square. 99% of the time that is the problem. It was a problem I had. I was ready to give up on the system at one time. Until Steve Base in a end users class showed me the wood peckers square and how true a cut I can get when I use it to square the MFT

 

[grbmds]

Very true. One thing I have learned and it seems continually is being said to people who come asking why they aren't getting square cuts with the MFT is

Is your square square. 99% of the time that is the problem. It was a problem I had. I was ready to give up on the system at one time. Until Steve Base in a end users class showed me the wood peckers square and how true a cut I can get when I use it to square the MFT

I'm sure any Woodpecker's square would be fine. I love the MFT Square (lucky considering the price). It just makes it so easy to check the MFT fence and square it up if necessary (because I ran into the guide rail). It's just one less thing I really have to think about. If the MFT square says it's square I'm done.

 

[jmac80]

Hi guys
Thanks for all the replies
The 1281 woodpeckers square just turned up.
What a lovely sturdy square it is too.
Checked 3 of my old cheap squares and 2 were out a tiny bit but that would be quite a lot over a long cut  [eek]
Also checked kapex fence and base.. All completely square from the shop  [big grin]
Will be spending the rest of the day making sure everything i own is square lol

Cheers

 

[Sparktrician]

Very true. One thing I have learned and it seems continually is being said to people who come asking why they aren't getting square cuts with the MFT is

Is your square square. 99% of the time that is the problem. It was a problem I had. I was ready to give up on the system at one time. Until Steve Base in a end users class showed me the wood peckers square and how true a cut I can get when I use it to square the MFT

I'm sure any Woodpecker's square would be fine. I love the MFT Square (lucky considering the price). It just makes it so easy to check the MFT fence and square it up if necessary (because I ran into the guide rail). It's just one less thing I really have to think about. If the MFT square says it's square I'm done.

One nice feature of the MFT Square is that it's capable of being recalibrated to a known-good reference square. 

 

[ear3]

The method I now use for MFT squaring is to line up the rail on a setup board that's almost the size of the table with a perpendicular line drawn on it by a Woodpecker's 32" T-square.  Due to space constraints I have to keep my MFT folded up when not in use, so I find the setup board saves a significant amount of time.  There are also many small adjustments that can throw the rail slightly out of square, like changing the bracket heights, moving the protractor assembly. or resetting the additional stop on the fence, so the setup board also allows me to quickly double check the rail mid-work.  The only limitation on this method is that the splinterguard has to be relatively intact.

Hi guys
Thanks for all the replies
The 1281 woodpeckers square just turned up.
What a lovely sturdy square it is too.
Checked 3 of my old cheap squares and 2 were out a tiny bit but that would be quite a lot over a long cut  [eek]
Also checked kapex fence and base.. All completely square from the shop  [big grin]
Will be spending the rest of the day making sure everything i own is square lol

Cheers

 

[jmac80]

There are also many small adjustments that can throw the rail slightly out of square, like changing the bracket heights,

Do you have a slop stop on your rail?
Mine doesn't budge at all after fitting one.

 

[grbmds]

Even with the "Slop Stop" and all the other things I do to keep the fence/guide rail square, I still always check it now with the MFT Square before doing final cuts for a project. Sometimes it's right on and other times it's a tiny bit off. Other times it's a lot off. Depends on whether I've bumped the guide rail while doing other work in the shop. My MFT is in a more central area of the shop so as to have room all around it. Thus, I do bump the rail sometimes. I do think that raising or lowering the rail also changes the orientation of the rail slightly. It shouldn't but I think it does.