So I'm considering make an MFT-style top for a portion of one of my tables/workspace in my shop. I thought about using a jig or template such as this one here, but it seems like a ridiculous price for a low-usage jig.

Does anyone here have one to loan out or sell? It wouldn't be that hard to make one, I realize, but you don't know if you don't ask!

@John Morris My antivirus fired off from the like listed in the thread above.  Just saying.

MFT?  got a pic of what you are talking about?

 

4 minutes ago, DAB said:

MFT?  got a pic of what you are talking about?

 

 

I'm actually looking for a jig for making the top rather than the top itself.  They want $170 for this piece of melamine.

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Chirogyro

16 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

@John Morris My antivirus fired off from the like listed in the thread above.  Just saying.

Not sure why -- its a tinyurl link to an Amazon listing.  By the way, John -- you may know me as Sominus on WoW.. :-)

 

Edited November 30, 20241 yr by Chirogyro

With a drill  press, fence, and stop blocks it would  not be too hard to knock  one out in a few minutes.   I have a shelf bracket jig that once you set it and drill a few holes, you just move it, put pins in where your last holes were and <repeat>.  Actually,  mine uses a plunge router with a guide bushing.

 

I am still a little curious the advantages to an MFT surface, especially one that gets saw cuts in it all the time. I built some work tables for the theater set shop and the manager likes people to  screw pieces down to work on them, making holes all over.  If you did that in my shop, I'd kick you out.

my work table top is 3/4" plywood.  i have no problem hammering on it nor screwing things to it as needed.  

 

like others have said, why not just mark off the hole locations and drill away?  if they are off by a bit, that shouldn't matter?

32 minutes ago, Chirogyro said:

Not sure why -- its a tinyurl link to an Amazon listing.  By the way, John -- you may know me as Sominus on WoW.. :-)

 

 

Not sure why either.  Just thought I would forewarn others.  I know you as Sominus at WoW as I frequent it too.

1 hour ago, Chirogyro said:

Not sure why -- its a tinyurl link to an Amazon listing.  By the way, John -- you may know me as Sominus on WoW.. :-)

 

Can you relink it, I tried to fix it but I blew the url out of the link and saved your original topic, SOrry about that! Just go find it on Amazon directly and relink it.

That's a fairly straightforward CNC machining task, if you wanted me to make it for you. I'd probably make it out of 1/2" thick acrylic if I were doing it for myself, though MDF or whatever else would work just fine. Obviously, machining the full MFT table is just as straightforward, but the cost of shipping around panels of that weight defeats the purpose.

 

The one you posted assumes the use of a 30mm router bushing — a simpler way to do it is for the template holes to be the final dimension (20mm or 3/4", depending which you need), assuming you have the suitable drill bit for the dog holes. I know they make these and should be pretty cheap. Hell, I've just used spade bits for dog holes in the past, seemed to work fine for my purposes. The specialty "dog hole" bits can be nice though, since they also add a little chamfer, etc.

 

4 hours ago, Chirogyro said:

I'm actually looking for a jig for making the top rather than the top itself.  They want $170 for this piece of melamine.

 

Edited December 1, 20241 yr by David Walsh

Made this one with a Shaper Origin.