Great ideas. I built one of the original Ron Paulks 4x8 benches and I the nice thing about it is when small parts fall through, they are caught on the integrated shelf below. I would recommend you mount that top to something like the Paulk bench. It will also give you cubbies to store your small power tools for ready access. Great idea with the routed corners. You could take this a step further and see what Ron Paulk is doing with the "wings" he connects to his new bench for accessories.
Cool Stuff. If you can get a slightly smaller sheet of OSB under your current top, or get the top off temporarily, you could use the current top as a router template to cut a sacrificial top from the OSB. Then that could be placed on top of the current slab, held in place by 4 short dogs (wiener dogs?). Just lift the OSB top off when you want to use your table saw. Also, Ron Paulk made a similar table top (~3x5), but he also made long, not too wide extension tops for that small top, which allows him to handle large sheets. Again the first top is used as template to route the others, and they sit on top of the smaller top when needed. Finally, you need a dust shelf under your top to catch the small parts, and a magnet on an extension to get them out when they fall.
Keith, I tried going to the website to purchase the plans for the MFSlab, but it seems the website was taken down. Do you know anywhere else I might be able to find the plans?
Genius. I love the end! Those red bumpers are perfect. I built the paulk style workbench with the holes and I'm super frustrated with the stuff dropping in holes too. The nice thing is having a shelf below to catch everything. Still annoying.
Just build your bench with a 1/4" backer sheet below. You'll need to make sure your top is thick enough to make sure the clamps and dogs you're using don't protrude too far.
Neat, I'm looking forward to your upcoming videos. And I also have some suggestions for your use of the MFSlab which may or may not come in handy. 1) Maybe keeping a small (magnetic?) tray nearby into which you can drop screws and parts could help minimize loss of screws. Or attaching a tray / box to the front underside of the slab. 2) Insetting a T-track or two greatly expands the useability of MFT-like tops, especially with the Kreg Automaxx track clamps. A bit pricey, but damn they're amazing. See the Stanton Bench by Dave Stanton for reference. 3) And while this is self-advertising, I designed a bunch of dogs, clamps, stops and such for the 20mm system of my Stanton Bench and uploaded them on my same-named thingiverse account. Perhaps they might be of use to you, so by all means do check out thing:4565616 . Nothing with downward-pressure like the clamps you have teased though.
*Holy crap!* That Thingiverse set is brilliant and comprehensive (and timely). (link: www.thingiverse.com/thing:4565616) Do you mind me giving that fairly extensive airtime in my upcoming video? What's the diameter of the shafts? I've found 19.85mm to work well for my MFSlab, but I have a feeling my slab was mis-drilled slightly as the Veritas dogs are pretty hard to get in/out. edit: and, great ideas on #1 and #2 also...
@@KeithsTestGarage Not at all, I've uploaded them for free for a reason. The shafts are all set to 20.0mm and work well with my bench top which was drilled with the Parf Guide System MK2. It's all parametrically designed in Fusion 360 though, so it's not very hard or time-consuming to change the diameter. I just didn't upload other diameters there as that particular thing already has almost 100 files and adding duplicates of basically all of them in 19.9mm, 19.8mm as well as 3/4'' (~19,05mm) and maybe 18.9mm (slightly sub-3/4'') would make it rather hard to organize. I've been toying with the idea of simply creating separate 'things' as basically duplicate sets with just the diameters changed. If you state which diameter you'd like to have I'll try to get that done within a day or two. Also, the Festool MFT system is designed to have pretty much *exactly* 20mm holes. I don't know the exact diameter of Festools own dogs, but Veritas and Parf Dogs are made to 19.9mm with quite high precision. Lastly, maybe some of my other designs are somewhat of interest to you as well. And while it'll take a while to get done as I remember you excellent shop organization videos I figured I might use this moment to tease you a bit - I'm currently designing a set of Sortimo-like assortment boxes. They'll be stackable, include a grid you can glue, screw or nail to wood so you can fill drawers with them (similar to Alexandre Chappel's approach, but hopefully even better. For his version refor to this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VntGnLuwoeY.html ) and maybe even go as far as to design some actual boxes for them to go into, stackable as well. As I'll have them made in various heights they should be useful for anything from drill bits, screws, nuts, bolts to electronics stuff and more. Like I said though, that'll take a few more weeks or even months of designing, printing, testing and refining.
That is quite a tease. As for the dog sizes, don’t worry about the duplicate sets. I think my case is unique. When I picked up the slab the guy mentioned something about having to do something awkward with the cut that ended up with slightly offsized holes. I’ll make a note in the video about how to work around it in fusion 360 to change the param if necessary.
@@KeithsTestGarage Not really. I am well aware of general manufacturing and 3D printing precision and tolerances, so I planned to upload other diameters anyway eventually to make it easier for people to just get a set, print and go ahead and use them with as little post-print-processing as possible. I didn't have the incentive to do so so far and hadn't put much thought into how to do it most conveniently yet. However, if for educational purposes you wish to show how to resize / edit STL models I certainly won't stop you as it is quite useful knowledge to share and have. By the way, if you'll have any comments about any of the models, suggestions, improvements or ideas for new dogs / stops / clamps / tools I'd be happy to hear them. I benefit from such feedback as my own collection of aforementioned goodies will keep improving and expanding as well.
@@KeithsTestGarage thinking more a separate “magnetic mat” the kind that iphone repairers use which can be rolled up or small enough to keep in a tool box. Alternatively just a thought recess a magnet in one of the trays or fix a stronger magnetic to the underside of the top and maybe mark out on the mft surface where the magnetic area is.
good idea. At one point I ruled it out since some clamps need room under the table to operate, but I suppose now that I no longer use that style of clamp (and instead use the HF clamps welded to bolts), that's no longer an issue. Hmmmmmmmm, thanks for the tip, I'll probably end up doing this.
Bora makes a 2'x4' MFT style top for their Centipede. I bought one and don't even own a Centipede! I'll be using it as a template to make a bigger MFT top.
@@KeithsTestGarage Why place the catch-all material UNDER the table top? Wouldn't it be far more effective - and essentially eliminate the problem altogether - to simply layer a thin removable slab on TOP of the MFT surface? That's what I'm contemplating doing when I build a Ron Paulk-style MFT table. I'm still exploring the appropriate material to use, but I'm leaning towards a 1/8" sheet of MDF. The beauty of this approach is that this removable top layer doesn't have to be one single sheet covering the entire table. You could make it modular, allowing you to keep a portion of table 'open' as a clamping surface, and the remaining surface solid. Or you could keep the entire back foot or so of the table solid as a storage area, keeping the front portion open for clamping/cutting etc. I haven't worked out all the details - like for example how to best secure the top layer to the underlying one (leaning towards simply lining the underside of the top layer with rubberized 'grippy' material), but I think this approach could yield the best of both worlds.
@@SteveinJersey1234 well that seems obvious. Shoot. Yeah I’ll have to make a 1/2 coverage 1/8” or 1/4” MDF piece that I can just slide in my plywood stack between uses. Thanks for the blatantly obvious idea that I’ve been overlooking.
Great video as always. What about scraps of wood with 3D printed dogs screwed on the bottom? Little islands, big or small, on the MFT. Could use any abuse them for your needs. Did you catch BlondiHacks recent (Oct 10th) video on shop organizing? Worth a watch.
Checking it out now. Er... will resume when I get a chance later after work. The first 60 seconds was enough to prompt me to subscribe to her channel. Thanks for the comment and tips as always.
Sorry to be so off topic but does any of you know of a trick to log back into an instagram account..? I was dumb lost my account password. I would love any tricks you can offer me.
@Harvey Amari thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
6:36 Why not just drop the table down 3/4 and add a piece of ply on top. You can even add pegs or something that line up with some of the dog holes so it stays in place
