Shopsmith Forums

While Festool is featured in this video there is also a ton of great ideas that be incorporated whether you have Festools or not. Check it out. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t5YzIwK-g ... VwqX84UHIQ

That is slick. There are some ideas that I might incorporate into my work cart.

Slick set up, yes!!! I went to Festools site, that set up is not a package, all individual items, to the tune of about $3000.00 as you see it there Without the power tools.
Clamps are $53.00 each, everything is Ala Carte!!!
Plus there site web sucks to find things on.

ERLover wrote:Slick set up, yes!!! I went to Festools site, that set up is not a package, all individual items, to the tune of about $3000.00 as you see it there Without the power tools.
Clamps are $53.00 each, everything is Ala Carte!!!
Plus there site web sucks to find things on.

Not sure how you calculated the price with no tools since the whole thing is home made with the exception of the aluminum extrusions. But that was not the point of me posting it. I saw some really innovative ideas that I thought would be food for thought.


Prices of what was shown
Saw. $660
Screw clamps 2 for $43
Guide rail $85
Jigsaw $250
Vac $550
Drill $330
Sander $360
Not sure where he got the extruded aluminium but if he bought a Multi Function Work Table and took it apart it would cost $460. But the extrusions could be bought much cheaper.
Add another $200-300 for things I didn't remember and the whole thing cost about $2800 WITH tools.
Also I know he used the Festool Domino which was not shown to cut his mortises and that is expensive at $895.
So I don't know where you got your prices. I got mine from the Highland hardware Atlanta ga.

I've seen several slick set ups out there for this sort of portable homemade "MFT". It would be interesting to see it in person.

The rails that are shown are not the MFT/3 rails. Maybe a third party system but not one I know about. I liked how there were slots to stick the rail when not in use. It would appear that clamps from Festool work with it too.

You can buy a mft replacement top for $135 (495544) so he may have just got the top and when from there. You could make your own but if you want to use the cnc quality like he did it needs to be cnc quality.

The basic mft/3 is $560 so depending on how much one could get the 3rd party rails I'm guessing you can save money on a do it yourself version but at the expense of time and effort. The results how ever could be well worth it.

The clamps shown are the 489571 at $54, the shorter 489570 are the ones for $43. In the drawer he opened there may have been the 491594 quick clamps at $39 each, they are a common add on.

The rail he has is not the one that comes with the saw system. It is the 55" (1400) for the LR32 hole drilling system and runs $133 (496939). The saw with rail comes to $660 (561556) so the question is why the other rail unless he owns the LR32????

It is hard to tell which items he has so trying to determine value is almost impossible. The dust extractor might be a CT26 at $675......... The router looks to be the 2200 model at $900.

It is also unclear what is in the tower of systainer's. Are they part of other tools or just a tower of the equivalent of the sysport 500 (491921) $373. There can easily be even a couple of $1000 in add on items or just the tools listed.

Anyway the system shown would be more portable then others I have seen and depending on if you have tools and will travel or just want to put stuff to the side to park a car there are some good ideas here.

Ed

I really like how he can use the dog holes to set up 90 degree crosscuts. I made the portable worktable below a couple of weeks ago for my secret-room project, and I may yet steal that idea. My table is intended both for trimming the T&G paneling boards (stacked beneath the table) with a Makita track saw, and for supporting them while sanding & sealing.
The cool fold-up sawhorses are from HD. Total out-of pocket costs was about $110 for the sawhorses and 2x4's, and I used some 1/2" ply that I already had on hand. You normally wouldn't have to, but I screwed the plywood to the 2x4 frame because it had been stored in my garage for many years, and needed to be drawn flat. I can unscrew it easily enough when I need to.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:I really like how he can use the dog holes to set up 90 degree crosscuts. I made the portable worktable below a couple of weeks ago for my secret-room project, and I may yet steal that idea. My table is intended both for trimming the T&G paneling boards (stacked beneath the table) with a Makita track saw, and for supporting them while sanding & sealing.

Sawhorse table lowres.JPG

The cool fold-up sawhorses are from HD. Total out-of pocket costs was about $110 for the sawhorses and 2x4's, and I used some 1/2" ply that I already had on hand. You normally wouldn't have to, but I screwed the plywood to the 2x4 frame because it had been stored in my garage for many years, and needed to be drawn flat. I can unscrew it easily enough when I need to.

Now this is what I call versatile. I will have a near duplicate of this soon. The main difference is that mine will reside on either the rear patio (under cover) or right outside my shop (garage) door. I will have to paint mine because it will be exposed to the weather. This will be an ideal extension to my shop.

Innovative indeed, regardless of whether you use Festools in particular, tracksaw in general.

One of the things that grabbed me was using the dog holes to square a tracksaw with the material. I've owned EurekaZone tracksaw, to include their bridge system, for several years and love it. However, its always time consuming to perfectly resquare the bridge, even though I have stops where I mount it (which are good enough if I'm not concerned about perfect 90 degrees). I could also use the dog holes to position material at 45 degrees, perhaps other angles if the math works out. Since I have a CNC router, I can easily and precisely cut the holes in MDF.

Another idea I want to explore adapting to my cart is using clamps on the legs and edges for holding material on end/edge for planing or whatever. I framed my cart using 1.5" square aluminum extrusion from 80/20. I already use the extrusion slots for attaching things with bolts/tnuts, but would be awesome if I could use it for clamping as well. While typing this, I found a posting on another site that says the Festool clamps will fit in the 1515 extrusion, so this might be something that I can do right away. Looks like my local Woodcraft keeps them in stock, so will pick up a pair the next time I'm on that side of town.

I've also collected a significant number of storage containers over the years, although I use the Harbor Freight medium and large containers instead of the $y$tainers. It would be nice to have a spot where I could store at least the ones relevant to whatever project I was working on.

Early photos of my cart are at http://tracksawforum.com/showthread.php?t=1234, although it has transformed a little bit since then and will likely undergo a major renovation this fall or winter, possibly a near complete tear down, especially if I need to elongate the access holes on the extrusions to allow inserting the above clamps into the legs; if I went to this extreme, I might extend the depth to around 30". The current base size is 24x48". It now has 2 side wings at ~30" long each, which, when both elevated transform the 48" width to a bit over 9'; I intend to dedicate one wing to my tracksaw bridge, sort of a mini EurekaZone EZ-1, not sure about the other wing as I intend to rebuild my router table to attach to the 510 as well as a Incra LS Positioner (have) and fence (not yet). I also have a small wing on the back that adds about a foot to the depth, I put it on when I was building a bookcase that was a bit wider than 24" and needed extra support.

I think it is cool.

I've been thinking about adding "T" tracks and such to my "New Fangled Workbench" instead of the face vise. And adding "T" tracks to the top, like the Rockler multi purpose work surface.

If I did this I could use all the same clamps for both.