Square up the Factory T-track stops on my MFT3?

[peter halle]

When initially setting up your guiderail to be perpendicular to the fence, you can totally remove both of the feather keys and then determine where you ultimately want the kerf in your table to be.  If you have a thinner square you can can have the rear fence slid left so that it does not go under the rail and then have the rail adjusted flat to the table.  Once you adjust and lock everything in place then you slide the feather keys into location.  When you tighten the socket screws in the keys, the rear feather key will want to move towards the rear bracket.  Make sure the bracket is secure.  When you tighten the front it will want to move away.  Take a screw driver and hold it against the end of the key to prevent movement while tightening.

This has always worked for me.  I have chosen to use dogs to set mine up but that is just my preference.  There is an unedited video on my youtube channel showing my approach but the Festool approach also works well and has for years.

Peter

 

[gearhound]

Insanely HAPPY to report that I FINALLY got it all squared up right when my Anderson square arrived yesterday and I installed the slop-stop! Huge thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and help me out!

I really wish Festool would include a large plywood square and something similar to the slop-stop with the MFT to save all the frustration....I wasted countless hours and wood trying to use a 12 x 6" woodpecker square I bought specifically to square it up!

Having a taller/longer reference edge and no side-to-side slop I could see that I was setup at maybe 88 or 89 something degrees when cutting 3/4" ply (I don't have a way to actually measure). My feather keys came factory set in such a way that when standing at the front of the table, I had to pull the rail about 1/4" to the left to get it to sit on the support pin....which is what made me initially make this post as all the videos I've watched on setup say that the rail should drop directly on the pin. So I decided to loosen the front feather key and get the rail to drop dead inside the slop-stop and then retighten it and re-square my fence....was then able to rip two 24"x16" boards exactly dead on.

Thinking about it now after seeing [member=182]Corwin[/member]'s comment: "we used to recommend that people have the guide rail installed such that the rail would need to be pushed to one side to fit onto the pin on the front support bracket. Skewing the guide rail on the hinged support bracket like this worked fine, and was one of the better tricks that I learned here so long ago." now has me thinking maybe the factory feather keys were set in the correct position to create a bit of tension on the pin because if the rail dropped dead on you'd have more left to right slop? Anyways, I'm overthinking it as I generally do and need to just be glad I'm finally squared up!

Thanks again everyone for all the help/suggestions!

 

[DrD]

Good Deal!  Now make some saw dust. 

It took me a while to get what works for me down pat, then I change the arrangement - placing 2 MFT/3s side by side rather than butt to butt, using the FS1900 instead of the FS1080.  Thanks to [member=182]Corwin[/member] and his willingness to put up with my multitude of questions, I am once again Happy, Happy, Happy - to quote a very famous man from Louisiana.

DrD

 

[Corwin]

Good to see you guys are happy with your MFTs. And, glad I could be of help.  [big grin]

 

[Kevin VanCleave]

Bringing this post back, as this post answered most of my questions on squaring the MFT.

I use the TSO 18" triangle to square the fence, however I was doing it without a piece of stock under the rail.  Just for clarity, once the rail supports are set for the stock thickness, they should not be changed with re checking for square? 

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[mkasdin]

I ordered the woodpecker square for the mft. MFT-LAYOUT-SQUARE-GROUP It was retired and the brought back from the OTT-grave... I have not received it yet, so I’ll post something after the fact. I’m thinking the TSO precision triangle is more accurate, but this was less money and woodpecker is pretty good with customer service.

I took off the aluminum fence and protractor to get more surface area with a single MFT and then shellac the surface and the holes for a tighter fit. The dogs fit very tight. Had I known at the time about the TSO close fit dogs I wouldn’t have hobbled the MFT dog holes with shellac.

 

[Bugsysiegals]

This was a frustrating issue for me also and why I only used it for rough cuts rather than finish cuts. 

I ditched the factory fence which has to much deflection even after buying a second attachment clamp, made my own 3d printed mounts, and added an Incra fence to it ... it is solid and if there's deflection you'd need to measure it with a thin feeler gauge! 

Finally, I got some Super Parf Dogs, put them in the first/last holes next to the fence, loosened the mounting brackets, pushed the fence to the dogs, and tightened.  Whenever I move the fence to raise it, etc., I insert the dogs, raise the front raiser bracket, push the fence up to the dog, and fold down the handle.  This takes up any slop in that front pin and I've not accurate cuts.  At some point I should make a thread on this, cut 4 sides, and show how square it is but this is my 2 minute version of how I do it...