Festool MFS Fence System Instruction Manual page 2

since saws and routers are subjected
both to in-thrust forces which tend to
push the saw or router against the fence
as well as out-thrust forces which tend to
push the saw or router away from the
fence. Far too often the result is a less
than perfect straight cut.
The innovative engineers at Festool de-
veloped a unique guide rail (the horizon-
tal piece in this photo) which features a
hat shaped track onto which each of its
cutting tools rides. A "U" shaped channel
is cast or cut
into the base
of each cut-
ting tool or
into a guide
made just for
that cutting
tool. That
channel has
gibbs which
can be ad-
justed so the
channel fits
firmly on the
hat shaped
section on
the guide
rail. Since
the base of
the cutting tool is held firmly on both
sides as the two sides of the "U" engage
the two sides of the hat, the tool is guided
in a perfectly straight line whether sub-
jected to in-thrust or out-thrust forces.
This is the heart of Festool guided rail
cutting and routing.
What this allows is a whole new way of
machining wood. Instead of passing the
work piece by a stationary cutter, guided
rail machining allows the cutter to be
moved past the stationary work piece in a
highly controlled manner. This opens up
2
all sorts of things that become easy to do
which previously, using the old tech-
niques, were hard to do.
One example is the ability to easily cut
multiple mirrored stopped dados or slid-
ing dovetail slots on either side of a cabi-
net carcass. When you try to do this with
conventional stationary cutting tools you
wind up referencing some of the cuts off
of the top of one piece and their mates off
of the bottom of the other piece. You
might get lucky and have two such
Festool MFS system components
have them all align perfectly.
Since the Festool offerings are all con-
sidered parts of one system, there are
many components from which to choose.
Many people start with a Festool circular
saw, a guide rail, some clamps to hold
the guide rail firmly to the work piece and
one of the excellent Festool dust collec-
tors so that the cutting operation makes
far less mess of saw dust all over the
place.
stopped mir-
rored slots
line up that
way, but it is
a rare crafts-
person who
can make
four, five, six
or more such
slots line up.
Using Fes-
tool guided
rail routing it
is easy to do
as many
such stopped
mirrored
slots as you
wish and