Hi Everyone,
I've been reading this forum the past two days collecting as much information as I can about track saws, accessories, and the Festool MFT/3 table. There's so much knowledge and experience here that I thought it a good idea to request some opinions on what I'm thinking about doing. Hoping folks can help.
Some background:
I purchased a house 2 years ago, completely gutted it, and have been remodeling it myself. It's been a very long process, with everything taking much longer than I initially think it will. I've finally finished installing all my hardwood floors and am getting to the stage of wanting to build some built-in cabinetry and shelving using plywood and face frames.
Relevant tools that I own for creating these built-ins include a Craftman 10" table saw, a Ridgid 10" Sliding Compound Miter Saw, Dewalt 15 Amp 7-1/4" Circular Saw, aluminum straight edges to use as guides for the circular saw, Dewalt 5" Random Orbital Sander, Kreg Jig R3, Dewalt Saw Horses, Ryobi Cordless drills (impact and regular), Ryobi Router, and Ridgid 14 Gal 6 HP Shop Vac with Dust Deputity. I have more tools, but I'm just trying to paint the picture that I probably have what's needed to get the job done. However.....
My process and workflow is a nightmare. This is because our garage is overrun with material while our construction is happening. I pretty much have to unbury my table saw and other tools and drag them out into the driveway to work. Here my table saw often doubles as my work bench, which is a giant pain. So step 1, obviously, is to clean the garage out. Fortunately, this is actually becoming a possibility now that so much of the material that's been in the garage has actually been moved into the house.
For step 2, I'd like to switch up the way I work. I've watched many videos and read many reviews and feel that the tracksaw and Festool MFt/3 Multifunction Table would suit my personality and provide more accuracy compared to what I get with my current method. Also, because I'll be working in my 2 car garage (which will eventually have cars in it, as well) I like the fact that this table folds up for easy storage.
So, after watching countless videos, and reading countless posts, I've put together a shopping list of items I think we could be good for a small garage workshop, which focuses mostly on building built-ins. Please let me know what you think.
1. Festtool MFT/3 Multifunction Table. $615.50
2. Festool TS 55 REQ Tracksaw. $560 (have wavered back and forth between this, Makita, and Dewalt like so many folks do!)
3. Woodpecker 1281R 12" x 8" Precision Woodworking Square. $109.99 (I seem to have a hard time getting things exactly square and am hoping this will help).
4. Makita 118" guide rail. $178.99 (I've read this is compatible with Festool and it's 1/2 the price as the Festool model. Can anyone comment about if this is working fine for them?)
5. Precision Dog Parallel Guides: $164.99
6. Festool 488030 Clamping Elelments (2-Pack): $118.
7. Festool 491594 Quick Ratcheting Clamp, 65/8" (2): $80.00
8. Was Super Pack (2 pairs of Qwas Bench Dog and 1 pair of rail dogs): $98.00
Grand total: $1926.47
Having never had an MFT/3 I'm not 100% confident in my choices for clamps (6, 7, and 8), but many posts seem to recommend these.
Also, I'm now thinking it might make things easier to add a 55" Guide Rail to use when crosscutting 4 x 8 sheets. I had originally left it off the shopping list to save money thinking I could use the 118" Guide Rail all of the time, but that's a pretty long guide, which might be cumbersome to use at times.
Two more things:
1) To save money I thought I would start out trying to use my Ridgid shop vac and dust deputy for dust extraction. Anyone have thoughts on this?
2) I would love to get the Domino and a Festool Router (for Dados and Rabbits), but that drives the cost up so much. Since I don't think I will get these to start, I'm thinking I will most likely use butt joints, glue, and pocket screws for all of my cabinet joints. I do have a Ryobi Router, which works better than I expected it to. It's possible I could use that for Dados and Rabbits, but I don't have a table for it. Not sure if I could somehow integrate that into the MFT/3. I also have a table saw, which can can use Dado bits (I've never done it), but I'm not sure if moving between the MFT/3 and the table saw is the sort of workflow I'm looking for.
Finally, it would be really cool if I could get rid of the table saw after making this purchase, as it takes up some space, but I'm sure there'll still be times when I want that.
Anyways - thanks for reading. Any feedback is appreciated. It's late and I'm beat - I truly hope this wasn't too rambling!
Thanks,
Rob