Essential track saw accessories (e.g. for Festool TS55)

[pike]

Congrats. Great kit and a joy to use.

Next you might want something like this http://precisiondogs.us/products/precis ... guides-v11 although not "essential".

 

[custard]

If you've made the decision to go the Festool/track/MFT route there's a lot to be said for keeping the momentum going and utilising it for many more woodworking tasks. For example you mentioned making bookcase shelves. I spent this morning cutting these housing/dado joints for a solid wood cabinet, which is very similar to what you're proposing. I could have cut them lots of different ways, but circumstances meant it was easiest to use an MFT table with a router running off the cross cut track. To do this you'll need the accessory that links the arms from your particular Festool router to the track,

Going off topic a bit, there's a really nice method for cutting housing/dado joints that works particularly well on an MFT table

The traditional method of cutting a Dado/Housing joint is shown at the top, where the housing joint is sized to take the full thickness shelf.

I prefer the method shown at the bottom, where the housing joint is cut narrower than the shelf (say a 10mm dado for an 18mm shelf). Yes, it means you add an extra step in that you've got to cut a corresponding rebate on the edge of the shelf, but in return you get several big benefits,

1. By making the shelf "tenon" about 1mm shorter than the depth of the dado you give the glue somewhere to go.

2. It's often hit and miss getting a precise dado depth right across a wide board, with this method you can live with some variation.

3. You're referencing from the "shoulder" of the shelf tenon, not from the floor of the dado, so it tends to produce more accurate results and squarer assemblies. This in turn means you're not struggling during the glue up to close a gap in the middle of a cabinet side where your clamps won't reach, forcing you try and rig up cauls as the glue's going off!

4. As a method it's consistent with traditional cabinet making principles which advise "make the hole then make the thing that goes into the hole". The dado method shown at the top of this (lousy!) sketch is effectively the reverse of that, you start with "the thing that goes into the hole" (i.e. the shelf), then you're faced with the much harder task of "making the hole" to a very precise size. Give this method a try and you'll see you're turning out more precise, better fitting housing/dado joints with very little additional time spent on the exercise.

Anyhow, that's my lunch break over, so it's back to furniture making.

Good luck!

 

[petermillard]

+1 to what Custard says - an MFT is more than just a board with holes in it! Incidentally, though I've never used them, the Walko quick clamps are a slightly cheaper alternative to the Festool ones.

HTH Pete

 

[Roughcut]

I'm nodding my head in agreement with what Custard has said.
I recently made a headboard and footboard for a single bed, and used the mft and festool router on the rail with the limit stops to produce a T&G effect using a v cut router bit.
It all makes it so easy to achieve.