Film your Stuff

No, this isn't an invitation for you to make your own porn; it wouldn't compete with the Tommy/Pamela video leak anyway.

No, it just seems like in my neighborhood, there's been more vandalism, garage-door break-ins, and maybe even some home porn, but I really wouldn't think you'd want that, either.

So grab a video camera and cruise through your shop then your house.  You can narrate a bit, but mostly pan everything at a reasonable speed and open all drawers for a shot.  Put the tape somewhere safe so if you get a break-in and something gets swiped, you have some video reminder and proof of what you had.  Granted, for jewels, you need papers, but when someone pops your garage door and swipes every tool they can reach in 5 minutes, you'll stand better with the insurance.

Handiest Bandsaw Thingy

I'm vocabularily challenged tonight.  Many things are thingies.

In the absolutely waning hours of Safety Week (yes, technically it ended 3 hours ago, but I haven't gone to bed yet), I post this addition.  Behold, the handiest bandsaw thingy (oak version):

At the bandsaw, I find this scrap of oak more useful than many things I actually paid for.  The nub sticking out is a 5mm Domino.  You could use a piece of dowel.  I don't glue it in so I can replace it when it looks even worse than it does right now :)

The distance from the front of the thingy to the front of the Domino is a hair less than then distance from the front of the bandsaw table to the blade.

This nub lets you hook it onto the front of the table. I do this often with my featherboard stack since it doesn't quite make it when I'm dealing with thin stock.  It also has the advantage that the featherboard pressure is evenly distributed over the oak board and I find it handles slightly bowed stock better.  The nub keeps the thingy from advancing as you push the stock.

 Here it is in action when I resawed a "stile"-sized piece of walnut into 6 strips for inlaying.

 Lastly, I often use it as a pushstick when resawing.  Note how I can use it on the side of the stock and the nub pushes the stock through. If the nub hits the blade and loses, pull it out and pop in a new Domino.
If you look carefully, there's a corner seriously dented on the thingy.  Yup, you can use it as a Howard Cosell Brick and hurl it to blow off steam... it's only scrap.

TS-75 Splinter Guard Enhancement

When I first got into woodworking, I pre-mortgaged my first three kids to buy some Festools.  As I was new, I opted for the TS-75 over the TS-55 not knowing if the more limited capacity of the 55 would make a difference.  Today, I can say... no.  Besides the extra unused capacity of the 75 over the 55 (20mm capacity difference), you get bigger biceps because the 75 weighs more, is more cumbersome, and has a splinter guard that only works at significantly deeper cuts.

The splinter guard is the green thingy off the side of the blade in the front.  The front of the blade rotates up as it cuts thus lifting unsupported fibers.  The fibers under the guide rail are supported by the rail, but the offcut fibers are not unless you lower the splinter guard to press on the fibers (you may not care about tearout on the offcut but many times I do).

The problem is this: the splinter guard is designed for the 55.  The TS-55 can engage the splinter guard at a relatively shallow cut depth.  The TS-75 uses the same guard and requires nearly 30mm of depth to engage the splinter guard.  On a 5mm guide rail, you are cutting 25mm (that's an inch for you 'merican readers).  This isn't acceptable when cutting 12mm or 18mm (1/2" and 3/4" respectively) material.

My solution was to attach a substrate to the splinter guard that made the whole considerably longer.

I simply cut a strip of wood 5mm thick by approximately 90mm long.  Two #6x1/2" screws countersunk through to the plastic hold it in place.  With the saw supported and the blade off the edge of the workspace, I plunged to full depth.  I cut off the wood on the other side of the kerf from the green guard with a flush saw then re-glued a portion of that above the wooded pad that isn't under the green plastic just to reinforce it.

Now, the blade is engaged with just a 12mm plunge depth.  Given that I always use it on a guide rail, that's a 7mm cut depth with support.

Adding 4 1/2" to your MFT's Cross-cut Capacity

Now, I wrote this and photographed this using my MFT-1080.  I believe the same process will net you more space on your MFT/3, but you'll need to read this and see if your rail fence clamp will allow it.  Please post your results in the comments...

The Festool MFT-1080 table is genius, but it also has a hair over 24" cross-cut capacity.  For whatever reason, my recent projects have all had big panels or drawer front panels that easily exceeded this limit.  Granted, Qwas dogs and rail dogs will get the job done a different way, but it isn't the same.  It just isn't.

I honestly never use the miter gauge on the table.  A bit awkward and usually I do those cuts on the table saw or, if the panel is big, I draw the line and put the guide on it.  If it's 45°, 30°, or 60°... I use the Qwas dogs.

First up, a photo of the end result.  The mark of the old fence position is clearly visible and the frontmost edge is 4 1/2" ahead of the current location.  When I removed the angle unit, I bought another fence rail clamp and put my original and this second clamp in the T-slot channel in the back of the table.  The fence slips in.  Tighten.  Marvel at the newly found space.

This fence rail clamp doesn't seem to be a replacement part you can order with a single clever 6-digit number.  Instead, you have to order all the individual parts.  If you visit Festool's EKAT system, you can find the exploded part under your MFT table and see exactly what to order, quantity, and price.

Naturally, you want to ensure the fence is square to the guide rail.  Now, I align my guide rail using Qwas dogs and a spacer.  I also had a spacer for aligning the fence with the miter unit to the dog holes.  Now I created another to align this miter-less fence to the holes.
I squeeze the fence to the alignment bar (a 30mm wide bar of MDF) and tighten the clamps.  It holds surprisingly well even when I banged a huge panel against it a few times to see if I could misalign the fence.  The one minor complaint I have is that tightening both clamps up slightly lifted the front of the fence.  I may tinker with a spacing washer in the rail fence clamps to avoid this.
I left the alignment bar there, dropped the flag stop and made a cut to eventually scoot the fence over so the flag stop's position on my metric/imperial tape was dead on.
Tonight, I was crosscutting a large panel that will become the stock for drawer fronts of a built-in I'm making.  It was 27.5" wide and cleanly fit on the table.  Voilà, my new crosscut capacity.

While I was ordering all these parts, I ordered 2 more (3 total) fence rail clamps and a second fence.  I want to tinker to see what other uses I can get out of it.  Here you can see how the second fence can span the table and be locked into place on the edges.  Granted, there isn't enough play to allow setting any angle you want.

Lastly, while you are ordering spare parts, order feather keys, washers, and cheese head screws to place things in your top and side T-channels.  I have one set with the short cheese-head screw that you use to set a stop for the front guide-rail position. I have it positioned in the side track so I can put a spare fence rail clamp bumped up to it and use the angle unit in mid-field.  I may never use it, but it is already aligned.

The cheese-head screws are available in a couple other lengths (dig around in the spare parts :)  I bought several other lengths along with feather keys and washers as they lock into the side so much better than a random hex nut and will provide excellent attachment for jigs and fixtures.

Files and the Gentle Art of Centrotecing

Since writing this entry, I rolled a video to show how to do it.  It ultimately has the same content as this posting (so people reading through translators will prefer this entry), but if you rather watch, here's the video version of this post.

The haulidays have kept me away from the shop so light on the useless insight... but I have a few other posts coming.  (Yes, "haulidays" because after the "holidays" you spend your time hauling your now fatter shadow)

I have a Festool C12 drill/driver.  Actually, 2, but that's a long story.  It's a 12V wonder with enough torque to winch your car out of a ditch if you're lucky enough to have its Systainer in the glove compartment at the time.

The problem is that I don't have any Centrotec drill bits or drivers.  Up until 2 weeks ago, there were only metric drill bits for this puppy, but this isn't about drillin'.  The drivers are what I really wanted.  I use the Centrotec Bit Holder to hold wire detent stubby drivers that conveniently stow on the magnetic handle of the C12, but they aren't the Centrotec driver bits made for the C12.

The differences between a regular long ball-detent driver bit and a Centrotec driver bit are:
- the Centrotec edges on the hex shank are softer ('standard' hex shank won't fit the hole)
- the Centrotec ball-detent is about 3/8" (er, 9mm) further up the shank.

The ball-detent position could smell of being non-standard for the sake of selling your stuff, but actually it is because the ball is in the Centrotec chuck while the base of the bit shank sits in the output shaft of the C12.

Tonight, I took 2 McFeely's Robertson drive bits (we 'mericans call those "square drive" bits and have no idea who Robertson is), chucked them in the drill press (individually...) and hit them with a flat bastard mill file to soften the hex edges.  Once they could be easily inserted through the Centrotec chuck, I marked the location of the ball detent based on its location in the bit holder, chucked again and ground out a fairly accurate, if ugly, copy of the Festool detent.

Photo below shows the Festool bit holder by the Kreg #2 long-ass driver to show how I marked the detent.  This photo also shows clearly how the 'standard' ball detent is much lower on the shank than the Centrotec detent.

Result?  These two sit perfectly in the chuck with no play and I cannot pull them out without releasing the ball.  Total time? 10 minutes including wasted time finding a file that went out for a ball of chalk.

In the photo below, left to right, the C12, the Festool bit holder, McFeely's #1 modified, McFeely's #2 modified, McFeely's #2 unmodified, and the bastards who did it.

I decided I should do the long-ass Kreg #2 driver that came with the pocket hole kit.  This puppy is apparently made with diamonds as it was a beast to grind.  I eventually pulled out the Dremel with a grind stone to work off most of it then used a rounded file to make it nice.  Again, this inserts and seats with perfection in the Centrotec chuck.

Photo is of the Kreg #2 chucked for milling:

Next up will be to buy 3 TORX (not shouting, it's how it is spelled) driver bits and grind away.

Highly recommended.