TS55 and MFT to the rescue!

[bdog01]

I'm building a trundle bed for one of my kids and the trundle is made of 1.5" thick, 9.25" wide, 80" long rails. It was a bear to mill it flat (planer sled and my little 22-580, not fun). The killer was when I needed to rip it to final width. I ripped a straight edge with the TS55 and rail and attempted to load that beast on my table saw. Must be some bad reactive wood because about 6" in it clamped down on the blade and locked it up! Then I couldn't get it off the blade. The cut pinched shut so hard I had to really get crazy with it to get it off the blade. Scary...... TS55 time. ripped it to width no problem (should have done it this way to begin with). Just before finishing the cut the cutoff piece sprang off the table! Not a safe cut on the table saw........ The cutoffs are about 1.5" wide and look like bows now. The rails stayed straight though so I think I'm OK.

I also want to mention what a job the TS55 and MFT did crosscutting the rails and bed ends square and of equal lengths. Super smooth cuts and as 90 deg as I can measure. I like my Festools!

 

[Mirko]

When I need to rip somthing I split it in half first, this will relieve the majority of the tension in the board, I then straighten the two boards, follow up on the table saw for the final sizing. When I cut sheet goods I use the same technique, It continues to surprise me, how much tension there is in a sheet of melamine!

Mirko

 

[bdog01]

yeah, in this case I did not want the chance of a glue line down the middle of the bed rail so I made it out of one wide board of soft maple. Not sure I would go that route next time..... Mirko, I see you have a Jello Biafra quote. I don't meet many other woodworkers that are punk music fans, cool.

 

[Mirko]

There's always room for Jello

Mirko

 

[Loren Hedahl]

There's always room for Jello

Mirko

Does that mean that outlaws, by definition, are more highly evolved than inlaws?

Loren

 

[Mirko]

Being perceived as an outlaw may keep you from gaining inlaws :-\

Mirko

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I'm building a trundle bed for one of my kids and the trundle is made of 1.5" thick, 9.25" wide, 80" long rails. It was a bear to mill it flat (planer sled and my little 22-580, not fun).

Bdog01,

This is probably much too late to be of any use to you, but here goes anyway.  Many years ago, I built my son a bed that has both a bottom trundle bed and above it a row of full width drawers, for use with the longer length mattresses.  The bed is made of hard maple, with overlapped drawer fronts of bird's eye maple.  To enable it to be transported and carried through a passage doorway, the side rails, which are made of 7/8 inch thick maple and are 17 inches top to bottom and include the drawer openings, engage 17 inch mortises on the headboard and footboard.  Each end of each side rail is removable fastened a pair of 1/4 inch flat-headed connector bolts [available from Rockler's] that are screwed into threaded metal inserts set into the ends of the rails.  When the bed is assembled, a piece of 1/2 inch plywood screw fastened from the top side to a set of cleats around the interior perimeter of the upper mattress cavity ensures complete rigidity of the assembled bed.  There is no racking, wobbling, or motion or squeaking of any kind whatsoever way you push or pull on that bed.  Other than the bottom trundle, which is essentially a very big drawer on castor wheels, all the other parts of the bed take up very little room when the bed is knocked down.  To get the drawer openings complete square, each of the side rails are made of an upper and a lower board running full length of the rail, with short pieces doweled and glued in to form three spaced apart door openings.

Sorry, but I have not yet learned how to post photos.  And I have "killed" to PCs within the past year.

Dave R.