Waste of time and good wood


curlyoak

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Tool failure.

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The lever that holds the vertical  adjustment. Over time and hundreds of reliable uses, the lever did not have enough to hold it in place. I was making a walnut face frame and when I started to glue it up, they were not level. Way off. That got me cussing and sweating and overall pissed off. I had to leave the shop. But before I did I had to repair the tool. A simple fix. The lever was bottoming out and it would not allow the pressure required. I took the lever off by removing the screw. Tightened the nut under the lever, replaced the lever in a new location and allow full torque. Then I was done for the day.

 This one occasion of failure is rare on my account with this festool. On total it has saved me uncountable hours. I also own the jumbo version.

Next day I was able to complete the face frame with typical results and move the project forward.

I hate wasting time and materials, especially walnut. The sweating and cussing is history now. Until I do it again. I hope the next time is a very long time from now! It seems like there always will be a next time. The goal is to minimize the frequency. I would like it to be never, but I don't think that is possible. I feel like the frequency continues to improve, but will never end.

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2 hours ago, Chestnut said:

It's good to know it's possible to readjust those. My locking lever for the front angle adjustment doesn't tighten very well. Though it hasn't been a problem yet.

It is easy to do. I had to take the piece that slide up and down completely off. There is a nut under the lever. I hand tightened the nut then find a new location for the lever.

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4 hours ago, Tom King said:

Couldn't you just enlarge the mortises, and make specific sllding tenon pieces for them?

I thought of that. But due to the looseness of the tool the holes were all over the place. I felt if I tried I'd get deeper in a rabbit hole and might never find my way out. Bit the bullet and started over.

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8 hours ago, elrodk said:

I don't have a domino...yet. I repair drilled holes by gluing in a dowel. Flush cut and redrill. Since the dominos won't show, could you glue in the loose tenons, flush cut, and recut the mortise? Would that be too weak?

Being that it was a face frame and a few sticks of wood, I preferred to replace. Also it would take a lot of time. There are 14 joints and when you lose conformity the risks of more mistakes go up. Sometimes it is more prudent to go back and replace. Also I was not happy about the domino losing the adjustment. At that point of time I needed to get that part right rather than cobble up a mistake.

In golf you are aloud a couple of mulligan when playing with friends. Mulligans are do overs. Woodwork allows unlimited do overs. Just keep the do overs to a minimum.

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3 hours ago, BillyJack said:

I generally check it every 2-3. After awhile the lever gets worn down...

Before you got in the good habit of checking lever, did you have any failures?

Today I was using my festool and while making the deepest plunge it did not recoil back. It was stuck. I took the motor assembly off and saw a little tiny rust on the 2 shiny pipes and cleaned it off with very fine sandpaper and added lubricant. Back to good again.

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I usually do these things by myself. The price is usually high. Like anything else when doing batches the profits are usually better...

You actually hope you'll get more work from other offices but the Web site showed nothing of court benches. So I never saw anymore..

 

Gotta advertise. ...

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