Has anyone (else) tried creating (Festool) MFT style dog hole grids with their 1F?
I have been trying to add “axes” of 20mm dog holes at 96mm OC along the Y axis and the X axis, and while they appear to be accurate and orthogonal to themselves, I can’t seem to get them to align with those on my MFT.
I have gone down the whole sequence of squaring my rails (multiple times) and I believe the diagonals are now within 0.03mm of each other (measuring a gap between angle aluminum with a digital caliper).
How square is square enough? Should I keep trying to achieve perfection here, or is it possibly some (other) limitation.
BTW, I am using a new Whiteside 1/4" UC bit, and set the pocket allowance to -0.125mm, and the standard dogs have a tight slip fit, but then I ream the holes with a UJK reamer, and they have a very nice (easy) slip fit. The holes along one axis line up nicely, but the orthogonal axis has a slight very subtle lip that you can really only feel with your finger tip.
Have you measured to see how square the hole grid is on your MFT?
Yes, to the best of my ability and (current) layout tools, the MFT grid appears to be square.
I have a TSO high-precision triangle on order, and will verify with that.
I guess I have always been a bit of a precision nut, and I think I now have my 1F “dialed in” to square. I ran a check last evening using gcode to put points down on a 3-4-5 triangle, and it checked out along the diagonal.
Will do another test run of my dog holes later today.
Thanks,
JohnL
To provide an update…
I finally achieved “square” on my OF WW Pro!
All of my previous attempts did not result in a set of dog hole axes that would align with my MFT 3 (which is accurately machined).
I was getting to a level of square that was verified by my framing square and a new TSO 18" triangle, but the dog hole tests were still failing.
I now consider this the “gold standard” of testing for square on my OF.
Today I managed to get my axis test to 100% square, and I could place a set of tall dogs through the holes in my test piece aligned with the MFT below it.
In the process, I developed a way to measure the diagonals to the spindle axis, and adjust the rails based on those measurements. I will post a longer description for others who might be interested.
1 Like
I woul dlike to know how you did t please.
Love to see your process.
1 Like
I will start a topic this weekend to document my process. It will require pictures and setup and I am in the middle of drawer box production until then.
1 Like
I just got my machine and I have some ideas about using my mft to help setup, so I’m curious to see.
