Festool MFS Fence System Instruction Manual page 24

Using the MFS compo-
nents to accurately locate
the guide rail to be paral-
lel with and the desired
distance away from the
edge of a work piece
Another common set up where the MFS
earns it stripes as a valuable addition to
Festool guided rail cutting and routing is
where you want to establish a cut line
that is a precise
distance away
from the existing
back edge of a
work piece.
Normally you
would simply
measure out the
desired distance
on both ends of
the work piece
and then manu-
ally set the lead-
ing edge of the
guide rail to your
marks by eye.
This can be very
accurate for one piece, but
accuracy is dependent on a
clean narrow mark, good
light so you can see those
marks, and an eye held
perpendicular above to the guide rail so
you can accurately place the guide rail on
those marks. If you are only going to cut
one piece to that dimension, usually you
can get close enough this way, but, if you
want multiple pieces that are all exactly
the same size, there is too much room for
error relying on the measure, mark and
align visually approach.
24
This is where the next use of the MFS
extrusions can be of invaluable service.
Since the 200mm, 400mm, 700mm and
1000mm extrusions all have metric ruler
marks along one edge, you can quickly
use them as a very accurate "story stick".
For hundreds of years craftspersons have
used marks on a piece of wood (called a
"story stick") to do repetitive layout work.
In more recent times sliding stops and
ruler marked edges were added to make
these story sticks faster to set up and
use.
630mm mark on MFS extrusions pro-
duces 630 line of cut for guide rail
MFS extrusions with shop made
saddles and stops set to position
the guide rail for a 630mm cut
to set the guide rail a precise distance
away from one edge of the work piece.
This is the same principle Festool uses
with their shelf hole drilling fixture. In that
case two short story sticks are provided
along with a lock to fit over the hat sec-
tion on the guide rail on one end and an
If you
calibrate
the zero
marked
end of
one of
the MFS
extru-
sions to
the zero
clear-
ance
rubber
lip on the
guide rail
you can
then use
a simple
stop to set the de-
sired length of cut
and the story stick
becomes the way