Hi,
I've been going doing a research hole for too long and I'm still not sure what these tables are really for. Do people on here that use them (and have a tablesaw) let me know?
My situation is that I want to be able to make relatively fast and repeatable cross cuts on sheet goods. I don't have the resources at the moment for a nice panel saw or a sliding saw. So I figure the next best method is to use the track saw. I made a list of things to purchase for the next project and I wrote down the Festool MFT. However, I just can't make myself do it. It looks wobbly and poorly made and I think I'd be angry with it as soon as it showed up. So started my Googling.
I then came across Dash Board. Obviously nice stuff. Obviously expensive.
Then I came across UJK, etc. Obviously nice, a bit more on the reasonable expense side IMO.
So I see there are basically 2 methods that overlap: Have a flipper w/ a tracksaw (use extruded aluminum sides) and a fence (and for some reason you also need really accurate holes?) OR make your own accurate holes and buy accessories that use dogs for both material fence and guide rail fence.
Both are interesting.. to a degree. I'm starting to lean towards buying some extruded series 15 aluminum, the really nice flipper by Dash Board, a fence that attaches to the aluminum (by anyone reputable) vs buying the Parf Mk II and accessories.
My main flip flopping is: what do you do with all those super accurate holes? I have a beat up heavy duty workbench that I add moderately accurate holes to as needed to use with my Veritas bench pups and Veritas sliding bench pups. The holes don't need to be accurate: I'm just clamping and / or stopping some board from moving when I use the hand plane. The sliding bench pups get rid of misalignment issues. The Parf table tops make me feel like I'm being scammed into buying $1000 of accessories only to find out there's easier ways.
Don't you just end up using the same area on the table top for your fence anyway (i.e. don't you only need two accurate edges that are 90 degrees to each other)? How often do you move dogs around to make it worth having super accurate holes? What are you using these super accurate holes for that you could NOT do without said holes?
I'm genuinely curious. I have my finger hovering over Option 1 (Parf): UJK ($530) and over Option 2 (Flipper): Dash Board, Amazon and Precision Dogs ($ 600 - no accurate holes and using my existing guide rail). If I add accurate holes to the Dash Board option, I'm up to $850 (the price of a Festool MFT FWIW). Of course these prices don't reflect my hours into building or the materials. So these are becoming pretty expensive tables and I'm not entirely convinced I'll get the value out that I'm putting in.
Cheers,