Replies

1. 
   Bob_Van_Dyke | Aug 14, 2007 04:55pm | #1

   Quonset-
   That has always been a tough one for me. I am a firm believer in using the tablesaw if you want things dead on accurate- so I would rough the parts down with a cicular saw and then cut them to final on the tablesaw- either with a cross cut sled or against the fence.
   I have no personal experience with the festool rail system you refer to other than when one of my instructors used it last year to cut all the plywood parts for a cabinetmaking class we were doing- they were all out of square!- don't know if it was the tool or the operator but we went back to the tablesaw real quick!
   Maybe someone else has some ideas?
   Bob Van Dyke

1. 
   GaryW | Aug 14, 2007 09:55pm | #2

   Since sheetgoods aren't necessarily square to begin with, using a tablesaw fence will only repeat a possibly out-of-square angle. I think that repeatable, quick, dead-on-square cuts can be made only with a panel saw, sliding tablesaw crosscut fence, or a crosscut sled. And those tools must be calibrated and checked often for squareness.Gary W

   gwwoodworking.com

2. 
   hotwheels | Aug 17, 2007 06:20am | #3

   Hi,
   I have been watching and waiting for others more experienced than I to respond. I will contribute by 2 cents as a novice and a Festool owner.

   With sheet goods I have used a sliding table saw to first get a straight edge (you do the same with the guide rail on the Festool or any other guided rail system) flip the panel and put it against the fence and then you have two parallel edges. If your fence is 90degrees then you can cross cut and get the square we all need. So, how do we do this with a guided rail system? I have struggled with then answer to this since usually folks who use guided rail systems align the guide rail to pencil or other marks and then make the cut. I have always felt there are many sources of potential error in this approach, although there have been a recent post at the festool owners group by someone who tested the accuracy of this method and found the cuts accurate.

   Parallel and square go hand in hand and there are some recent posts by John Lucas on the festool owners group about his method of getting both square and parallel cuts. I went the route of using the festool MFS to set up a means to get square and parallel cuts. Jerry Work has a PDF of how to use the festool MFS system to set up a square and then essentially use this as a fence with the guide rail to get a parallel and then square cut. It is expensive, but it works. There are probably many other ways to do this, but John Lucas -- he as a website called workshopdemos -- and Jerry Work (check the festool website and their "tips" section) offer some options for making square and parallel cuts that do not rely completely on mark and cut methods.

   I have limited experience with the festool MFS accessory and it seems to meet some of my needs for making square and parallel cuts that do not rely on mark and cut methods. There is a way to do this. The issue is how does it stack up against using a table saw and what are the costs and benefits. But, the good news is that there is an option!

   Good luck

   JR

1. 
   quonset | Aug 17, 2007 02:53pm | #4

   Thanks JR. I'll check out those places online and see what I can find. I've thought about getting the MFT, but I think that even the big one can only crosscut up to 28 inches. Maybe I will just have to get a sliding table saw at some point (when I have more money and space).

1. 
   hotwheels | Aug 17, 2007 06:01pm | #5

   Hi Quonset,Sorry if my reply was rambling ... too tired and jet lagged. A couple of additional thoughts.1) Some folks seem to rely on first making a trim cut with the rail and saw then a "close enough" cross cut using a variety of squaring devices before making more precise cross cuts using the MFT. The MFT allows for setting up accurate cross cuts, but there are size limits. I have two of the larger MFTs joined together and that helps some. More below about the "squaring devices."2) If you rely only on the rail system without an MFT, tablesaw, or sliding table saw, then there are ways to make reasonably accurate cross cuts. Some of the information I references in the previous post offers ideas about this. The basic approach is something like this:
   a) make sure you have a straight working edge to start by using the rail and saw to trim an edge.
   b) use a known square to reference on that straight edge, align the saw and then make the square cut. People seem to use a variety of squaring devices: framing squares, "T" squares, story sticks constructed from incra track, speed squares, and other home made and store bought options. I settled on the MFS because I am hoping that it will offer more options for other work. The MFS is just a set of aluminum extrusions that are cut very accurate and then marked in millimeters. They can be made into a large and accurate "squaring device." I take the MFS rectangle, align it to the "straight edge" of the work piece (using mdf or plywood), then clamp it down. I can then reference the guide rail off this mfs rectangle. This makes a reasonable square cut.Jerry Work suggests that he believes he can make cross cuts using the MFS and guide rail that are as accurate as those he makes on his sliding table saw. Food for thought ....Parallel and square are some of the key issues for me in using a guided rail system, so I have tried to find solutions that do not rely only on aligning the rail to a pencil mark. Good luck!