SysPort workbench (MFT & CMS) + CMS based Router Table

[Kev]

Check out the blue tooth drill from Bosch in the link below. It records how many screws you've driven etc. scary.

Richard

Matt,

Was looking for some ideas on a router table with an incra ls positioner and fence and came across your design.  Fantastic!  Can you please tell me where you got the pivots for the incra or how you made them

"so it lifts clear of the table, in case I want to use a template bit and want a free surface.. "

I need to do the same thing with mine.

Thanks!

James

This is the link to the hinges
http://www.aluminium-profile.co.uk/acatalog/Aluminium_Profile_Joints.html

It's a UK company, think you have 8020 in the US who must do similar, else Bosch Rexwroth how make most the stuff KJN sell

Let's hope some doesn't decide to try and put a cellular phone in a jig saw - that could be messy  [eek]

 

[rookie08]

Thanks Matt!

I'll do a search to see if I can find a local based company/dealer to source the from

Cheers,

James

 

[Manish11122]

Hi,

wow what a great job I am so impressed thank you for your post.

I have been looking for a solution for my small shop for a while to combine my Incra wonder fence with MFT and possible the Kapex 

Kindly could you email me your Visio diagrams with layout and measurements or materiel list? for this and any other that may help in a small shop.

I know Visio better than sketchup

thx again

Manish

manish11122@yahoo.com

 

[tonycartercraig]

A few questions about your project.

I'm planning a similar type build for my shop cabinets.  I think the use of the aluminum extrusion in strategic locations will allow for the use of clamps, featherboards etc. whether it be on the face of a cabinet or topside. In comparing the t-slot in some of the products on the market, i.e. Kreg's track systems and the Incra track systems, with the track in the aluminum extrusions it appears that the accessories would be interchangeable.

My question for you is do you use your slots for different attachments?

Next question. You say that is a 45mm x 45mm profile. In the pictures that appears to be larger than 1.7" square aluminum tubing. If it is only 1.7" square, is it enough strength for the spans that you are doing or is there some reinforcements being made that aren't in the pictures?

Also, I would like to see some more pics on your drawer slides and points of attachment for them. Where did you source the slides?

Your project pictures are a great inspiration for me. Thanks for posting them in such detail.

One other note, ALUMINUM IS EXPENSIVE.

 

[semenza]

Hi Tony & Manish,

Welcome to the FOG!  [smile]

Good luck with your projects.  Lots of great homebuilt things on here. Please post build threads so we can all enjoy.

Seth

 

[mattfc]

Hi,

wow what a great job I am so impressed thank you for your post.

I have been looking for a solution for my small shop for a while to combine my Incra wonder fence with MFT and possible the Kapex 

Kindly could you email me your Visio diagrams with layout and measurements or materiel list? for this and any other that may help in a small shop.

I know Visio better than sketchup

thx again

Manish

manish11122@yahoo.com

Have sent you your e-mail, sorry for the delay, forgot to check this thread

 

[mattfc]

A few questions about your project.

I'm planning a similar type build for my shop cabinets.  I think the use of the aluminum extrusion in strategic locations will allow for the use of clamps, featherboards etc. whether it be on the face of a cabinet or topside. In comparing the t-slot in some of the products on the market, i.e. Kreg's track systems and the Incra track systems, with the track in the aluminum extrusions it appears that the accessories would be interchangeable.

My question for you is do you use your slots for different attachments?

Next question. You say that is a 45mm x 45mm profile. In the pictures that appears to be larger than 1.7" square aluminum tubing. If it is only 1.7" square, is it enough strength for the spans that you are doing or is there some reinforcements being made that aren't in the pictures?

Also, I would like to see some more pics on your drawer slides and points of attachment for them. Where did you source the slides?

Your project pictures are a great inspiration for me. Thanks for posting them in such detail.

One other note, ALUMINUM IS EXPENSIVE.

Re using the slots, I do use them for a long fence on the KAPEX workstation (I have some profile bolter on the top inline with the KAPEX Fence), and I have used the T-Bolts for this, they make it easy to clamp any jig in place, since you just drop them into the profile and twist by 90 degrees to lock in place. The 45x45 slot also allows for the Festool clamps to slide in place if required, providing you leave the end of the profile exposed to slide the clamp in.

The 45x45 is 1.7", but very strong (modulus of elasticity is about 7 times that of oak for example). There is no additional re-enforcing, apart from it being bolted into the square grid that you see which helps stiffen it, that said even on a 2 m section if you stood in the middle you would be hard pushed to deflect it by more than a mm or 2. For the heaviest item I have, the KAPEX workstation with all the drawers full you can see that the base profile is a 90mm x 45mm section which all the weight bears down on, that profile could support a heavy car no problem.. this stuff is very strong, the weakest points will be the connections.

Re the drawer slides, they are just standard fully extening drawer slides (these ones to be exact http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/Products/Cabinet_Furniture_and_Hardware/Runners_and_Cabinet_Systems/1524/Ball_Race_Drawer_Runners_Double_Extension). They are fixed by drilling through the sides at the front and back of the slide with a spacing to match the centre of the slots in the profile, then I just pop a bolt through the whole and into a t-nut which sits inside the profile
T-Nuts

 

[tonycartercraig]

One other question. What are your thoughts on having the crown stop with base extensions included on the Kapex and allowing the space for the complete assembly to fit into your Kapex workstation? I noticed that your workstation just allows for the saw without any additional width.

 

[mattfc]

One other question. What are your thoughts on having the crown stop with base extensions included on the Kapex and allowing the space for the complete assembly to fit into your Kapex workstation? I noticed that your workstation just allows for the saw without any additional width.

Would be easy enough to design it as such, I didn't as I wanted to build my own fence, as I intend to add a digital read-out

 

[Coxworth]

Hey Matt!
This is exactly what I was looking for and the amount of detail you provide is awesome.
I am planning out my workshop for my new home and will Try to replicate something similar here.

The only thing I could not figure out is how you connected your corners. You mention that you drilled and used hex bolts.

This makes sense for 2 pieces joined at a 90 but how to attach the third piece without running into the previous bolt?

You can by 3 sided connectors for this profile but that drives up the cost!

Also, you said all of the bolts were self tapping. Does this mean that you did not need to tap anything? Even the leveling screws?

Thanks for your help, and your great design!

 

[mattfc]

Hey Matt!
This is exactly what I was looking for and the amount of detail you provide is awesome.
I am planning out my workshop for my new home and will Try to replicate something similar here.

The only thing I could not figure out is how you connected your corners. You mention that you drilled and used hex bolts.

This makes sense for 2 pieces joined at a 90 but how to attach the third piece without running into the previous bolt?

You can by 3 sided connectors for this profile but that drives up the cost!

Also, you said all of the bolts were self tapping. Does this mean that you did not need to tap anything? Even the leveling screws?

Thanks for your help, and your great design!

re the 3 pieces connecting in a corner, you can do this fine since the bolt head sit in the outside channel/slot (e.g. the core bolt only extends about 5mm from the end of the profile you tap the bolt into and then you slide it into the slot of the other profile) and doesn't go right through profile, you have to drill 2 holes that go right the way through though. Make sense? If not I can post a picture

The core bolts are all self tapping, they only tap into the end section of the profile though

 

[rmwarren]

Coxworth,

This may help to clarify. This graphic shows the position of the hex screw itself, the access hole is drilled through the t-slot in the top extrusion, directly above the centerline of the extrusion you are attaching to. Then you can reach a hex key through the access hole to tighten the hex screw. I am not sure if I am explaining this clearly but basically the hex screw does not pass through the drilled hole, only the hex key does to tighten it.

[attachthumb=#]

This is one of the cheapest hardware options for connecting these extrusions and it is easy to do yourself in the shop.

RMW

 

[Kodi Crescent]

For anyone planning a bench like this...

I tried configuring one of these using 8020 profiles from eBay.  I have a relatively unsophisticated shop with just a MFT, no drill press, no chop saw.

You need to have a way to get good square cuts on the profiles, and a way to drill nice straight holes.  The 8020 folks on eBay will NOT do this for you, even for a charge.

Finding the connectors was really a pain.  There is a $2 or so per connector option on eBay, but again, you have to be able to machine a 10mm hole through the profile with some precision.

The cost of building one of these using the cheapest 8020 profiles and connectors I could find was $320 + shipping, + cutting, + drilling.  This is for the bench only, and does not include the drawer slides.  Again, this was the cheapest I could get this to.
By the time I was done building this I could have bought a new MFT/3. 

I decided to attempt to replicate this in wood.  So far I'm only $100 into it, and I think that will provide enough material for the build.  All the joints will be Dominos.  I'll provide details as I complete it.

Thanks to MattFC for the design and dimensions.

 

[rmwarren]

You are absolutely right that using their stuff has a learning curve and it probably is not worth it for a one-off use. I think 8020 only sells through distributors (other than what you can get on eBay) and in my case there are 3 or 4 distributors who service my area. I have not tried to buy direct from them because I can cut/drill myself. What I learned is that I can buy some of their stuff on eBay and then send them a list of anything they don't offer on eBay and they will add it to the order.

There is another company selling similar stuff (less complete product line) called Faztec, I believe they will cut to length, drill etc. for one-off projects. You just send them a sketch. Still costly.

RMW

 

[nsc]

anyone know where you can get that kind off aluminium in the US?

 

[Corwin]

anyone know where you can get that kind off aluminium in the US?

http://www.8020.net/PostalLookup.asp

 

[Kodi Crescent]

You are absolutely right that using their stuff has a learning curve and it probably is not worth it for a one-off use. I think 8020 only sells through distributors (other than what you can get on eBay) and in my case there are 3 or 4 distributors who service my area. I have not tried to buy direct from them because I can cut/drill myself. What I learned is that I can buy some of their stuff on eBay and then send them a list of anything they don't offer on eBay and they will add it to the order.

There is another company selling similar stuff (less complete product line) called Faztec, I believe they will cut to length, drill etc. for one-off projects. You just send them a sketch. Still costly.

RMW

That may be the case.  If you are not using those end tap connectors, then the cost really goes up for these.  I wanted to use the drill through bolt connectors because I could position a profile anywhere perpendicular to another profile without having to drill into the second profile.  These allow adjustability.

I finally got 8020 to commit to cut to length for about $2 per cut.  They would not drill the holes though.  They said it was an easy job, but that the eBay side of things only deals with getting rid of surplus.  I'd have to contact a local distributor.  The "local" distributor was 3 or 4 hours away.  It was just too much hassle and too expensive for a home hobbyist to be worth it.

I figure that making it out of wood would be a better opportunity to learn woodworking, using the Domino, and be a hell of a lot cheaper to boot.

 

[sgryd]

Hi.
I'm on the fence to build some work benches out of 45x45 Rexroth profiles. The 45x45 profiles has a 10 mm groove.

But I just noticed that the Festool clamps and other common wood working accessories uses 8 mm grooves. That means that the Festool clamps probably are to small for the 100 mm groove. I think they would fall out.

Matt, have you tried the clamps in the groove? Or have you fond any other clamps that fit in the 10 mm grove?

Thank you for your thorough post on this. It made me change my mind from welding the frames. The extrusions will be a heck of a lot easier to build with.

//Michael

 

[mattfc]

I do use festool clamps in the grooves, its not a tight fit (you can probably move the clamps about 30degrees side to side, but does work ok)

If in doubt, just get a sample of the profile sent through, most have offcuts knocking about.

 

[sgryd]

Thanks.
Can you even get the clamp into a closed groove if you tilt it? My thought was to mill some at the start of each groove to widen it. But that might not be needed, or?