Hybrid MFT and mitre saw table

[Farmer Giles]

I was given a steel frame bench a while ago, an have decided to make it into a combined MFT and mitre saw. The dog holes are perfect for installing fences for the mitre saw, but the saw will be on a separate small table that can be wheeled away when working with big sheets. There should be some sketch up diagram here but quite frankly I can't be bothered tonight

First the bench, it had a manky old top on it that I had to cut off, but the frame is ok. The welding is a bit rough but the steel is mainly heavy 2" angle so plenty strong enough.

Its a bit scruffy and needed another under the counter angle iron to hold a shelf. The closest lower rail is just resting on it, awaiting a visit from my welder. I found a similar bit of angle, or rather the digger did when we were digging out the foundations for the barn. It must have been in there years and its well pitted on the underneath but its heavy gauge and will be plenty strong enough to hold a couple of systainers.

So here it is with angle welded in and painted up a bit.

That's it for now, I have some 4020 profile aluminium extrusions and a vague idea of a hinge mechanism and a few other ideas. The table is low so there will be a 130mm high box built on top, all birch ply. The top will have the usual 20mm holes. There will be 4020 aluminium at the top back to hold the sliding hinge for the track and more 4020 at the front to hold a guide for the rail to make sure it is locked at 90 degrees.

While the paint dries I'm on with a home made domiplate, I can't fathom out the Festool choice to leave out 18mm thickness on the Domino so I'm shaving 1mm off the plate to centre the cutter on 18mm ply. Once I drill the slot I'll use that to fix the plate to the milling table then take off the left most clamp and mill off 1mm.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I have been cogitating the design and realised that depth is an issue. You lose about 150 to 200mm between the saw hitting the edge of the table and the centre of the blade so a 700mm deep table is only really good for boards up to 500mm wide if you have the table against a wall. If the track is longer than the table is wide you can place the saw on the track so the centre of the blade hits the edge of the table.

So I decided I needed to extend the table to about 1m deep. I could have created a torsion box to sit on top of the bench but to be honest I'm sick of torsion boxes, it seems I can't watch a woodwork video on youtube without a torsion box being mentioned So I just have some big lumps of 4" x 2" and 5" x 2" left over from other jobs to extend the width and raise the height of the table and leave a void underneath. It will all become clear soon, I hope!

Here's progress so far, using some 12mm OSB for the base, mainly to stop stuff that drops through the dog holes to drop onto the floor. Then some 5 x 2 to lift the holey top and extend the width to the front of the table and some 4 x 2 around the back of the table to extend that a little. I should make good progress now, it's all pretty simple joinery.

I'm at my brothers 60th tomorrow so no more play until Thursday PM or maybe Friday

Cheers
Andy

 

[BigMonka]

Nice project Andy.
Did I read it right that you’re building up the height with solid side pieces? Make sure you’ve got a way to retrieve anything that falls through a dog hole into that void!

 

[Farmer Giles]

Nice project Andy.
Did I read it right that you’re building up the height with solid side pieces? Make sure you’ve got a way to retrieve anything that falls through a dog hole into that void!

Thanks for the suggestion I had already planned to have the front section open, I've used 5 x 2 rather than 4 x 2 so I can get my arm in without getting it stuck I also need access to be able to push obstinate dogs out from underneath. 5 x 2 planed comes in at about 115mm, this brings the final height of the worktop to around 900mm which is about right.

Off to my brother 60th now so no more progress until tomorrow afternoon, I'm still finalising the hinge arrangement for the track. As my current project is mainly 18mm I think I may go for a fixed height version for Mk1, and add height adjustment to mk2.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I got back from my brother's slightly earlier than expected and cracked on. Table frame built and existing holy top transferred and cut to size. The front will get covered in a bit of timber with large holes in so you can get your arm in.

Then start on the hinged rail.

First cut a piece of 10mm thick aluminium plate to size, in this case the same width as the rail and about 60mm long.

Then drill and tap the plate to take M6 countersunk A2 S/S bolts

Then attach it to the 4020 extrusion with M5 t bolts and some M5 knobs, I can probably get away with 2 rather than 4 bolts, quicker to adjust and easier to slide. You can also see the bolts that slide into the Bosch/Mafell rail which is upside down. These are just M5 countersunk, they slide in nicely.

So I drilled and tapped the plate for the two M5 countersunk bolts, one for each t slot in the rail, screwed the bolts in until the rail was a tight fit and slid it on. I could drill a small hole in the top of the rail so I can tighten the bolts with an allen key, but they seem fine as they are at the moment.

The height of the rail in this configuration is 20mm from the holey top. To get the 18mm I need for the current project I will put a 2mm shim between the plate and the hinge. I'll contemplate future modifications to make it height adjustable later, it maybe that I mount the extrusion differently and use a plate with slots in it between hinges and the extrusion.

The rail hinges nicely and goes beyond 90 degrees so will rest against the ply upstand that I haven't added yet.

Next job while a 1.1m rail is on order is to make a front plate to locate the rail. This will have a profile similar to the underside of the rail and be made out of aluminium too. I also need to fit the under shelf.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Has your holy top been consecrated?

 

[Farmer Giles]

Has your holy top been consecrated?

Yes, its been splashed with holy water ( I spilt my tea) and anointed with chrism oil ( I dropped some Polyx oil on it) so hopefully it won't need exorcising this week

 

[Farmer Giles]

Not much more done, I've tidied the front of the table up with a bit of softwood and fitted the undershelf.

I'm awaiting a couple of deliveries before I finish it off and get on with the kitchen. I've marked up the aluminium plate to locate the front of the rail and ordered a 1.1m Bosch rail, the cheapest I could find was from a garden centre in Spain

Cheers
Andy

 

[basssound]

Where did you get the extrusion from and how long was delivery if you don't didn't pick it up.

I want two lengths, 2mtr and 1mtr but delivery is expensive!

Table looks like a thing of beauty!!

 

[Farmer Giles]

First lot I bought came from Ooznest or similar. I've just ordered some from Aluminium Profiles, not arrived yet but only ordered yesterday.

 

[basssound]

Aluminium profiles is the place as am thinking of using but the £19 for delivery seems steep to me.
I'm hoping I'll find it in either Doncaster, Sheffield or Rotherham so I can just pick it up.

 

[Farmer Giles]

My extrusions arrived Wednesday, only just had time to unpack them, expensive transport but packaged well and the price of the extrusions is lower than others.

Cheers
Andy

 

[basssound]

I picked up my two extrusions from a local 3d printing company who sell spare parts.
Ended up with a 2 and 1mtr length.

 

[fezman]

Hi Basssound - who was that company - I might be interested in some of those too & am local to that area

 

[basssound]

https://shop.wedo3dprinting.com

 

[campagmike]

Hi all, I know I am v old and thick but can you tell me what is an MFT?

 

[Farmer Giles]

Hi all, I know I am v old and thick but can you tell me what is an MFT?

MFT - Multi-functional table. I believe first marketed by Festool but now lots of other's on the market as well as DIY versions. It's really a development of woodworking benches of old, just using dog holes in a very precise grid so you can use the dogs to guide tools and material to get very accurate angles.

In addition to dog holes on an accurate grid pattern, they typically have some kind of aluminium extrusion around the perimeter to assist with clamping, fences . Usually used with tracks saws, and other tools that fit on tracks.

Some are easily transportable too so you can get precision cuts quickly on site. You can do all the MFT can do without one, it just makes it easier to get precision quickly and repeatedly so more for repetitive stuff like kitchen cabinets than one off cabinets.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I managed to get a bit more done but the track is not due for delivery until Monday and some bits arrived late today.

I fixed the front 2020 extrusion to the front with t-bolts, this will be used to locate the front of the track once squared against some dogs.

The rear 2040 profile was drilled and screwed then the bench moved into position on a wheeled dolley and pallet truck.

The bench will have a back on it but I only have birch ply to hand so for now the drawers that I had to move to position the bench will butt directly up to it. I think either shuttering ply or OSB will become the back.

And then I could tidy the other side, I had the youngest daughter sorting nuts, bolts and screws into the metal drawers and the plastic raaco drawers for extra pocket money. Most of the metric is sorted but I probably have a 50 to 100kg of imperial fixings to sort through.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I cut the front guide plate to size over the weekend using a short bit of track I had to mark of the underside profile.

The slots were milled but the milling cutter, although new was made of finest Chinesium and it abraded it's way through the second hole rather than cut. I shall have another go at some point as it's bit scrappy, I have found some other milling cutters in the workshop drawers while tidying up.

I used 4mm aluminium plate and have plenty left over for mk2. I need to take a bit more off the right side in case I make the cut too deep, I don't think it will damage the blade much, if at all but it only takes a few seconds with the power file.

However it works as intended, once you have set up the rail against a couple of dogs and adjusted the front plate to fit then there is no lateral moment so you can remove the dogs for the rail and re-position them to keep the work piece square with the rail

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

As mentioned in the the thread about make or buy and MFT top, I've just swapped out my top for a CNC one. The UJK parf guide made one was not quite up to scratch, I was having to plane components or fiddle the guide rail as you could measure that it was about 2mm out on a 600mm wide piece of ply. I'm pretty sure it was my screw up, it wasn't Pythagoras's fault

Anyway, now all lovely, just cut 3 shelves for kitchen cabinets, absolutely spot on. Also the holes were machined out to 20.2mm on the recommendation of Mick from Formatic CNC, and they are nice and snug on the dogs without needing stilsons to get them out. Altogether a much better experience.

Cheers
Andy