Festool MFS Fence System Instruction Manual page 40

tail, the perceived value of the piece goes
even higher. Sometimes it is an excited
phone call a week or two later and some-
times it is a gasp on first inspecting the
piece. Either way the value proposition
they experience is dramatically in-
creased.
Inlays nearly always look best if the inlay
piece has grain that runs the same direc-
tion as the surrounding piece into which
the female recess was cut. That will
minimize any expansion differential is-
sues as well. If your aesthetics call for
cross grain orientation of the inlay piece,
you usually won't have any problem if the
inlay is 4mm or less in thick-
ness and you use a stan-
dard woodworking glue.
Don't use epoxy or any rigid
set glues if you insist on
cross grain inlays as you
would be asking for trouble,
whether you get it or not.
No reason to tempt fate.
Band Inlays
Band inlays are where you
run a ribbon or band of inlay
material across the face or
edge of a piece. To cut the
female groove on an edge
use your Festool router with
one or two edge guides, a
router table, or a table saw.
In this photo the band inlay
is going onto a curved sur-
face. I mounted two side fences to my
router to keep the router centered on the
edge of the work piece and to stabilize
the router so there could be no tipping
from side to side. One quick pass and
the female slot is established.
40
If the work piece that is to receive the in-
lay is flat on the edge and you have a
Festool Multi-Function Table, a fast way
to make these cuts is to clamp the work
piece to the side of the table with the
edge to receive the inlay flush with the
top of the table. Now use your guide rail
clamped to the top of the table to guide
the saw or router to make the groove cut.
You can use the story sticks made from
the MFS extrusions and the shop-made
saddles and stops to quickly establish a
line of cut that is parallel with and where
you want it on the edge of the work piece.
Band inlays set in the front edges of the
shown on the next page. This is a walnut
and maple bedroom unit with band inlay
along the front edge of the top.
This piece also features a tricky seg-
mented sliding dovetail shelf support sys-
sides of a
cabinet and
along the
front and
side edges
of the top
can be
done in
minutes.
They really
add a spark
of class to
the piece
that in-
creases
value be-
yond the
time and
effort re-
quired to
add them.
One such
example is