Mafell MT55 in the hands of a plunge saw newbie

[Farmer Giles]

I've had this a couple of days now but have only just got around to play with it. I'm new to plunge saws and holey tables and dogs so be gentle with me

So far I have the holey board on a pair of tressles, a couple of super duper parf dogs, some dogs that came free with the board, a couple of axminster clamps and the saw.

Newbie mistake number one, "the saw blade interferes with the plastic chip guard on the guide rail".

I now know that this is intentional and you are supposed to plunge through this before first use to get zero clearance, it would be handy if this was in the manual.

It briefly mentions some guide rail adjustment in the manual but these knobs just take out any slack so the saw fits snugly on the guide rail. There are two, one fore, one aft. Here's the fore knob.

and what it adjusts, it just takes up any slack between the protrusion on the rail and the slot in the saw base.

Play time over today, I shall plunge through the plastic strip tomorrow, I wanted more time to research this before tearing a great rip in it

Cheers
Andy

 

[Hot stuff]

Evening sir, how are you?
Does the adjustment these knobs allow take care of the potential gap between the plastic strip and any new blade fitted, or do you need to fit a new strip with any blade change?

 

[Eric The Viking]

The knobs snug-up the carriage to the guide rail, to control any play sideways, and to an extent affect the amount of friction as you push the saw along the track. they shouldn't make any difference to the clearance, as long as the rubber strip was trimmed correctly in the first place (Farmer Giles hasn't done this bit yet).

Once plunged and trimmed to match the blade, the 'snugness' of the cut to the rubber strip should always be the same, unless you use non-standard blades, in which case all bets are off. These systems are designed so that you can swap the correct blades without wrecking the alignment of the blade with the rubber strip. You can change for a different number of teeth, etc., as long as you stick with the correct ones.

The tiny distances that matter are the blade kerf width together with the thickness of the saw plate (the metal disk the carbide teeth are mounted on):

( kerf - plate thickness ) / 2

That should always come out the same for a specific model of saw (it will probably differ between brands, and the actual value doesn't matter). But if, for example, you fit a thin-kerf blade, you'll probably change this accidentally, as the plate and/or kerf thickness will change and not match the correct blades for the saw.

Too complex? Don't worry: the basic rule is either use the same blades as the manufacturer supplies, or change to a better brand before you trim the rubber strip and then stick with those for ever after.

By the way, cheap 160mm blades often have a 1.7mm kerf. they probably won't cut anything like as nicely as the proper things (usually 2.2mm kerf, IIRC). this is mostly because the saw plate is thicker on the right ones, which means the blade flaps about a lot less, and the cut is cleaner.

Hope that makes it clearer.

E.

 

[custard]

Play time over today, I shall plunge through the plastic strip tomorrow, I wanted more time to research this before tearing a great rip in it

The plastic strip is a replaceable part. If you use different thickness saw blades, or the saw blade changes kerf thickness after re-sharpening, or possibly make bevel cuts (varies from brand to brand), or just due to general wear and tear after a few hundred cuts, then the plastic strip will need replacing anyway.

Looks a superb tool, I'm sure you'll do some tremendous work with it.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks guys,

Any tips on cutting the plastic strip the first time around? I'm guessing you start at one end, plunge about 10mm gently and go the full length of the rail. I have 3 rails, 2 x 1.6 and a 0.8m, I bought them a while ago to use with my Mafell P1CC Jigsaw, this uses the other side of the rail so I don't have to take two tools into account when doing this.

Once I have done this, I shall be mainly working out how to get the best out of this system. I've only bought a small top for now but if it works as well as I hope I shall see about getting a full 8 x 4 sheet of holes so I can break down the big sheets of ply needed for the new kitchen.

My youngest finds it very funny, she thinks I'm talking about parp dogs, i.e farting hounds

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

Looking at a Festool video, they say max speed and max plunge depth to cut the splinter guard. I shall have a play in the morning.

 

[Nelsun]

Someone's been a very good boy for Christmas!

One thing to add regarding cutting the rubber strip for the first time is that you may end up not cutting the very start of the strip; the piece behind the the rear of the plunged blade if that makes sense. This is likely why Festool say to plunge at full depth as this increases the reach of the blade. It may be different with the Mafell though.

If it's an issue, you can get round it by joining up rails as this will let you get at the start of the right hand rail with ease. You then swap the joined rails around to get at the start of the other one. It's early and I can't remember if it's easy enough to cut the very start of the strip by just paying attention to what you're doing It's worth keeping an eye on as you don't want any extraneous rubber strip potentially knocking your alignment of the track.

Sent from my m8 using Tapatalk

 

[Rorschach]

I trimmed the plastic strip on mine using my good blade and then I switched it out for a cheapy thin kerf blade that I bought a few of from screwfix on clearance (75p each I think). At the time I was cutting up a lot of chipboard floorboards to do some repairs and chipboard can often contain little chunks of metal etc. The cheapo blades have worked very well and means I can save my good full size blades for important jobs.

If you also plan to do some rough cutting jobs and want to use a cheaper blade for that, do the same thing and get a thinner kerf. The actual gap between the strip and the blade when I use the thin blades is just over half a mm so it's not exactly difficult to take that into account and chip out isn't really an issue for those kinds of jobs anyway.

 

[petermillard]

Best way to cut the rubber strip cleanly at the start of a new rail is to join two rails together and begin your cut on the older rail. If you don’t have a rail with the strip already cut, then with Mafell it’s relatively easy to take the strip,off as it’s held in place with interlocking profiles, not double-sided tape.

Make the cut with the rail against a sacrificial backing board to get the cleanest cut.

HTH P

 

[adidat]

Word of warning plunge saws can kick like a horse if the blade jams so take it easy! But nice tool to add to the collection. A parallel fence is great for ripping down stock btw!

Adidat

 

[thick_mike]

First time I ever used a plunge saw I didn’t wait for it to get up to speed before plunging and it climbed out of the cut and gouged my track. It was a good lesson and gouging my track means I’m not so prissy about any dings or scratches now!

 

[Phil1975]

I have had my MT55 for a couple of years now. It's pretty much my go to saw for 90% of what I do.
I am just finishing building my work bench, which is designed to use the MFT style hole system; most cuts, such as mitres come out perfectly straight off the saw.
Love mine to bits!

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks for all the tips guys, rubber strip now cut nicely on all three rails. I haven't had time to give the saw a good work out yet, or the holey table and dogs, that may be a tomorrow job along with sorting out an extractor hose to the henry vacuum. I would like a Festool extractor or similar but I am now officially skint and apart from consumables, I will not be buying any more tools for a while. I may link it to the workshop extractor with a pipe dangling from the ceiling, I can tape the power lead to it as well, get them out of the way.

I've seen full 8' x 4' holey table tops advertised but usually miles away and they are usually pick-up only. I don't want to buy the kit to make my own, I don't think I will use the 8 x 4 much after making the kitchen and library shelves. I will have a look around, there is bound to be a CNC shop near me. The top comes under the consumable category, not tool so I'm allowed

 

[Distinterior]

Here's a picture of mine the day I went and collected it.

I was using it today to cut up some sheets for a one off cabinet I'm making.

Needless to say, its got a load of cuts in it now....!!

 

[Farmer Giles]

Here's a picture of mine the day I went and collected it.

I was using it today to cut up some sheets for a one off cabinet I'm making.



Needless to say, its got a load of cuts in it now....!!

Very nice

I've vowed not to buy more tools for a while after buying the Mafell plunge saw and a Bosch mitre saw.

However looking at the cost of an 8 x 4 sheet of MR MDF, max about 35 quid if its Medite, I can get the builders merchant to deliver for nothing versus the price of an 8 x 4 CNC holey sheet which I'm guessing will be about 120 quid delivered.

The UKJ parf guide system jig is 150, by making two sheets with the jig total cost is 220 including MDF so I save money on 1+ sheets. But on the other hand, a sheet will last me ages. Obviously I'm not taking into account my labour costs as its for me.

These kind of rarely used tools would be great shared. I don't need it straight away so will think on it, I'm selling some tools soon so maybe I buy it then. :?:

 

[Doug71]

You already have a mdf top with holes in which you can use as a template to make as many holey tops as you need, just put a bearing guided cutter in your router and away you go.

Doug

 

[Farmer Giles]

You already have a mdf top with holes in which you can use as a template to make as many holey tops as you need, just put a bearing guided cutter in your router and away you go.

Doug

Not a bad idea, I had thought of using it as a drilling template, but not a router template for some reason, too much Christmas spirit maybe

 

[chippy1970]

I bought one last year after using a festool for 10 years. It's a better saw but one disappointing thing was when you drop it over to 45 it doesn't cut on the rubber edge, like it says it does in all their bunf and videos

 

[Farmer Giles]

I bought one last year after using a festool for 10 years. It's a better saw but one disappointing thing was when you drop it over to 45 it doesn't cut on the rubber edge, like it says it does in all their bunf and videos

I've heard about that, but haven't tried it yet. Not a deal breaker for me but I would have thought Mafell would have a response as it must impact their otherwise good name. I have their jigsaw and its the dogs danglies and does what they say.