At right is a picture from
early days when we first got the Festool plunge saw and guide rail system. Skinny me was
demonstrating my procedure for cutting up a 4 x 8 panel to make a cabinet. It took 23
minutes to cut the various parts. Yes, the cabinet did go together.
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With my "new" procedures, we take the 24" by 97" panel to
workstations 2,3,4. They are all MFT/3 tables and share a fence. We have taken great pains
to align that fence so that all three workstations are in sync.
Here, Elena uses a tape to measure the height of the cabinet. We want the cut
off to be on the right of the rail, so manual measurement is required. I will try to
figure a way to employ a fence stop.
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Elena uses a large drafting
triangle to double check for square. It is right on and should be. We worked for hours to
set everything up for square cuts. More close-ups of this below.
Did you notice the task light here? I purchased one for every workstation.
Each one has two 150 watt halogen lamp and provide the level of light my old eyes require.
(Shop light from
Rockler: click here)
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She makes the cut. Note, she is using the same TS 55 as was used
for the rip cut on the main table (1). It is on the Festool boom and easily is wheeled
back and forth.
Note also that Elena has placed a portable roller stand under the right end
(you can see the base of it) so that the off cut does not fall off after the cut is
completed.
It is a bit awkward to have the MFT/3 in the long dimension but we like the
fact that it handles such wide cuts.
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I said a few blocks ago that I would explain our squaring procedure.
Here goes. We have three areas we want to "square together." The Kapex, the left
feed table and the right table with guide rail. It is important to make those areas square
in a sequence. I arbitrarily start with the Kapex — we already know that it's miter
angle is square to its fence. Here, Elena is using the yellow 8 ft level as a straight
edge to align the fence of the infeed table with the fence of the Kapex. The two tables
are not physically connected so at this time we nudge the infeed table until the
fences are aligned. We may add physical links later.
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She adds a clamp so that the yellow straight
edge will not stray.
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On the
outfeed table, the guide rail is already squared to the table and the front hold-down. We
don't want to reset those so Elena nudges the table until the tables fence is inline with
the yellow straight edge. The table has pretty good footing so nudging it a wee bit is
easy. Actually we found that a rubber mallet soft tapping at the bottom of the leg
worked very well.
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Yes, I said we had squared this before aligning to the Kapex, but Elena
double checks the guide rail.
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The last step in the whole process is to set the front guide rail stop
so that the nib fits smoothly into the underside groove of the rail. That done, the System
is square.
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But the real test of square is on a real cut. Elena is doing just that
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And it is square.
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