festool mft table with guides
#23
(10-08-2017, 12:55 PM)oscarMadison Wrote: good to here.  I admit one thing I don't like is the proprietary stuff and I'm disappointed at the idea of paying that much and then needing to buy the braces for the table.  At the same time I've heard a lot of good and it sounds interesting.

An alternative is to buy the UJK Parfguide system from Lee Valley--created by Peter Parfitt from New Brit Workshop youtube channel. You'll also want some parf dogs. Then you can make your own MFT-style top with the same perfect accuracy as the Festool version. 

Why make your own? Even if you don't figure in your time, the first one--including the tooling and materials--will cost close to the price of a new bare MFT. 

For one thing, you can make the top as large as you want--the MFT is designed to be portable so you can set up inside someone's house for on-site work. So it needs to be small and relatively lightweight. But in the shop I'm constantly wishing I had a bigger one. 

Second, you can make it taller, so it could double as infeed or outfeed support for table saw, jointer, planer, band saw, etc. The current height doesn't really match any standard stationary tools, and it's too low for hand work (for me anyway). 

Third, you can make a top that isn't all holes. I use my MFT as a glue-up station, assembly station, and general workbench, but because it's a large hunk of Swiss cheese small parts fall through the holes constantly. Peter's youtube channel has a demo of using his parfguide system to make a cutting station, which has holes in strategic locations but not everywhere. 

Fourth, you can make it sturdy enough for hand planing--something the MFT isn't without additional bracing. It's just too light and wobbly. 

Finally, you can make it super portable--make it out of lightweight MDF, set it on a couple of sawhorses with screws or clamps, and you have a large, portable cutting, clamping, sanding, sawing, assembly station you can easily throw in the back of a van, minivan, or pickup and set up wherever you need one. I would have loved having one when I was building outbuildings here at the microfarm (chicken coop, garden shack, etc). Or go all out and build a Ron Paulk workbench using the hole pattern. 

Or, just go down to the local dealer and plunk down some coin and take a new MFT home. Either way you will never regret having one or a facsimile of one.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" Arthur 'Big Guy' Carlson
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#24
(10-12-2017, 01:31 PM)Johnbro Wrote: An alternative is to buy the UJK Parfguide system from Lee Valley--created by Peter Parfitt from New Brit Workshop youtube channel. You'll also want some parf dogs. Then you can make your own MFT-style top with the same perfect accuracy as the Festool version. 
...
Or, just go down to the local dealer and plunk down some coin and take a new MFT home. Either way you will never regret having one or a facsimile of one.

some neats ideas. I'm not sure which way, but I like the idea, more now of making my own after watching the parfitt demo and seeing Paulk's page. For some reason my mind kept going back to something like the table specifically but Paulk had some interesting ideas to.
mark
Ignorance is bliss -- I'm very, very happy
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