MFT Horses?
Since I have a long weekend for the 4th I figured I'd spend a little time cleaning up around the shop and trying to get everything back into it's home. I haven't gotten very far because I got side-tracked again. I was moving things around when I found myself moving the extrusions I have for the large MFT frame I still haven't put together yet. I moved them not once but 3 times and the third I was no longer amused. I decided I'd put the frame together because assembled it would be easier to move than in pieces. It was the next two events that cost me the day. I first realized I didn't have a surface big enough to assemble the frame. I got out my Dewalt saw horses and found that they would have worked nicely had their width been about 8 inches longer. When I set up the horse I thought "sure would be nice if they were the same height and width as the MFT".
I recalled that I had ordered extra sets of the miter saw stands that attach to the saw horse so I pulled a pair out and attached them to the horse. I was half hoping that the height difference would be close enough to the MFT that I wouldn't need much of a spacer but I knew I wouldn't be that lucky.
Sure enough the difference was just under 3-inches. Almost perfect for a 2x4 on end. At first I was thinking I could screw a couple of 2x4's to a piece of plywood and match the height nearly perfectly (and if it wasn't a slight trim on the 2x would certainly get me there).
One of my character flaws is I can turn any 15 minute project into an all day project. I found out I didn't have even 6-inches of a 2x4 so I started fiddlin' around and when I was done, I had essentially built another MFT. The oblong slots in the box allow me to put my hand through and squeeze the release levers so I can remove it from the saw horse. The holes were machined using my router base and peg-board trick.
I also drilled the sides and ends so I could clamp on all surfaces. I built up the base with some scrap to get the exact height (though a washer ended up being the final touch to get the exact height).
And laminated the surface like the rest of the MFT's.
When slid up against the MFT, I get surface continuation. I can even clamp the two together inside if I don't want the saw horse to move while in use.
Then while I was about to assemble the other top I had an idea. I made some bushings out of aluminum that fit my 3/4-inch holes.
And modified a french cleat to have the same 4 inch wide hole spacing as the MFT's holes so I could attach the cleat to the table in any of the locations where holes exist.
And now I can hang my tools, accessories, and other odds and ends off the side of the table so they're not taking up space.
Since all of my screw boxes have cleats off the back of them they can also hang off the side which keeps them easily accessible during assembly but not actually on the work surface which is really nice.
With the luxury of having more space I can now assemble the second one by using the first one. Having the MFT and the MFT-Horse I can now machine on one and assemble on the other which prevents me from moving things around during assembly - extremely nice.
As soon as the second one is finished I played with a couple of different setups. Here's one clamped on either side of the MFT if I need a bigger table.
After moving them around a couple of ways this is what I think is the most likely configuration for most projects.
Talk about getting side-tracked. I started off wanting to work on the long MFT frame and instead I ended making a pair of smaller tables. I'm a little disappointed I didn't think of building them in the first place.
