James McNees has a large format CNC. I’ll check with him. Can the current pieces be recut? Is it only the edges? What about the hole patterns?
The entire thing is skewed. We need new stock and to re-cut.
I should have checked for square after cutting them. I just didn’t even think about it.
Okay. We’ll go back to standard MDF also. What are the dimensions? We may have another project that can harvest them. Also, what about using them for the vertical panels you mentioned?
I have a cnc router.
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So did the CNC skew the edges? I just want to be sure what the root cause was.
Are the holes themselves square to each other? If so, bring them to my shop and we’ll use a track saw with square rail guide and some dogs/spacers to square up the edges to the holes.
It appears to have cut the tops like this:
This is a dramatic re-enactment to illustrate the point better
The holes are off. I noticed they were a little out of square when I was setting up my hinge some weeks back, I assumed I just needed to calibrate the hinges. But now I checked them against my square and they’re off a bit. Hard to notice over the short distances that my squares cover, but like I said over 4’ it’s off by an 1/8"
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I think the gantry was askew
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James is getting a delivery of MDF tomorrow, and has a large format CNC. He offered to get an extra sheet and do the job. So he’s on it. Can you get the files to @jamesfreeman ?
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Done >>
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I’ve glued a table up, and brought it into the shop. It will function like an MFT table even if it’s isn’t actually an MFT table. The dog holes are out of square, and I’m waiting to access the new CNC router to cut new tops/sides.
I needed to get it out of my garage in order to glue the rest. I’ll bring them in piecemeal, but make take them home from time to time to finish them up. For instance I need to install a blade destroyer around the perimeter - to protect the table(s) from being cut in half.
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Cool. Thanks!
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Used these tables to put together a drill charging station the past two days and I used all 3 of them as one big assembly table that can be rotated and moved around instead of your workpiece
Gotta say, big fan.
Thanks for putting these together, they’ll definitely be my favorite assembly area going forward
I’m even more excited now to cut some MFTs for my own portable sawhorse workbench
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That’s great to hear. Everything you said was on my checklist of “killer features”
I was thinking smaller, modular and portable tables would offer some benefits that the large ones couldn’t. And while I was working on them today, I had several people approach me and say how they came in handy.
I can’t wait till we have all the components available for them. A few small purchases will make them a real asset.
just being able to do this was so helpful:
I passed by y’all working on them today after james taught us how to use the cnc and I’ll be attempting to cut out a pair of MFT worktops from scrap mdf tomorrow:
squared off sections will be 1/4’ deep cutouts for keeping screws and whatnots from rolling around/falling thru holes, along with some rounded handles
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Thanks for making these @jiggliemon! They are great and have been a great addition to the shop. My roommate and are thinking of making something similar for our garage – do you have any plans available for these?
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@gordoa40 the good news is I actually do have plans (as I was hoping to empower some other suckers to make more tables for Asmbly). The bad news is they’re pretty 1/2-assed. And I have some recommendations from having made three of these things.
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@gordoa40 here’s the current state of the plans. They’re designed around 18mm thick ply. You could probably use 3/4" but the math would need to be adjusted. Instead of 54mm wide laminated square stocks you’d make them 2.25" etc.
I think for an MFT table it’s worth using good wood, but it’s obviously very expensive. There is a chance you could reduce the costs by making the stretchers out of another material and only using BB for the two main table faces. Meaning you only need to buy 1-sheet of BB.
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Thanks @jiggliemon! Those are super helpful. How about the files for the top/sides? Also, did you use that exterior MDF that was mentioned earlier in the thread?
Is that cut list correct? By my count, and based on the drawings on page 3 and 5, there should be Ax4, Bx8, Cx14, Dx6, and Ex15. The drawing on page 3 has 15 laminated stretchers on it, which would mean that would require 45 cut plywood strips, which lines up with my count. Your cut list has 49 strips included. Just want to make sure I’m not missing something.
Also, the A piece doesn’t make sense to me – in the drawing it is sandwiched between two B’s to make the mortise piece, but B is 1074mm and A is 454mm, so the difference would be 620mm – some deep mortises haha. Is it that there’s two A’s per board, leaving a mortise in the middle as well? Which would make the 3C’s assembly obsolete, and the yellow highlighted piece would be replaced with the blue one?
Hang on, that would make me recalculate the cut list – ok yeah, that would give me Ax4, Bx8, Cx12, Dx6, Ex15, which is close to yours but has 4 fewer A’s – does yours include those just because you cut them out of the same strip as B so you’d have 8 A’s no matter what you do?
Sorry for the confusing ramble of a post, just working through it in my mind and thought it might be helpful in developing the plans to see where my mind goes haha