TS75 First Impressions

[butzla]

I just built some portable sawhorses (plans courtesy of Frank Pellows...thank you!).  Anyhoo,  the plans were in exploded diagram form which is fine.  But made me have to think about how to mount the leg support cleats on to the top rail.  I  made spacers using a 2x8 off-cut and 2 pieces of 1/4"plywood scraps and a cardboard shim to allow for clearance for easy assembly.  After I attached first set of cleats,  I test fit leg assembly and found it way too tight.  And stupid me used some fast setting polyurethene glue to attach cleats with screws.  I wasn't even thinking about expansion. Rest of cleats were assembled using no glue using 4 cardboard shims from the cover of an old Grizzly catalog. 

Problem was, how do I trim, what we call in New England, "a short hair" off the cleats while they are mounted to rail as I could no longer remove them. 

I simply laid some sleepers same thickness as cleats across the rails to support guide rail (2nd picture), then clamped guide rail to work piece eyeballing a thin reveal (3rd picture)

In 2 quick passes I had the requisite clearance for the leg assembly (4th & 5th picture)

I could have done it differently without Festool, perhaps using a router with a pattern bit, but that requires careful setup,  crafting a jig for bearing to follow, etc.  The whole point of this thread is to show how easily and very quickly with a high degree of precision a problem can be solved using Festool products.  I'm sold. 

Original Post

 

[Ned]

Good example of using the system.

Great pics, too.  Not just focus and that kind of stuff, they also tell your story well.

Ned

 

[Frank Pellow]

Congratulations on a well executed project.  My saw horses get a lot of use and they have lasted many years.  I expect your experience to be the same.