"Raised Panel Doors — Start to Finish in the All Festool Shop"

Yes, this picture is a composite picture with a little retouching to make a
panorama both possible and meaningful.

We have created three work stations. If we can keep them clean and un-cluttered it makes cabinetmaking so very easy.     Station 1, is simply two saw horses on which we have fastened one sheet of 3/4" plywood followed by a 1" piece of foam board.     That makes up the worktable. In the picture above, we have placed a sheet of 3/4" MDF which we will be cutting for rail and stiles and door pieces.    I always say "cabinetmaking" but really mean almost everything that we build in the shop —chests, bookcases, tables, benches, chairs, drawers, vanities — you get the idea.    Here is an exercise I do occasionally. I look through magazines and look at every furnishing type picture and ask myself the question: "How would I do that or can I make that in my all-Festool shop?"
	In almost all uses of the Festool Plunge Saw, we use the guide rail to make clean and accurate cuts. Here, Elena is not using the guide rail, but instead the Parallel  Guide. This well designed accessory allows the Plunge Saw to do the same task as a table saw — make repetitive accurate rip cuts. In this case, she is ripping material for the rails and stiles of raised panel doors. She has set the width of the cut to 2 9/16".  I will describe all these dimensions in some future pages, but for now, suffice it to say that the width has to be very exact in order to make doors that will fit exact opening. The parallel guide allows her to make very exact cuts.
Station 2 is an MFT (multi function table) that is set up to do three things in the cabinetmaking process. 1) with guide rail moved to the right against a stop and two machines moved, the MFT serves as a very accurate cross cut saw giving us square and accurate components — as fast as a going to a sliding miter saw.  We will see more of this later.    2) The Festool planer is sitting on a bench unit and is set up to be a bench top jointer. This combination can be very accurately set to remove any thickness. We use it with the depth set at 1/32". In that way, two passes of both sides of stile and rail stock give us an extremely smooth and jointed edge and we have removed 1/8" of material. So our 2 9/16" stock will now be 2 7/16" wide. That is precisely what we want for the raised panel doors.    We will also use Station 2  for making dovetailed drawers using the Festool VS600 which is in the back of the bench in this picture.  The holes in the MFT make it easy to move and clamp these machines on the bench surface.
	Station 3 is a second MFT. In our shop, we have installed a router lift and a fence so that we can use it as a full function router table.    Here, Elena and I are posing with some of the raised panel doors we have made with this setup.
In this picture, we are making a sample cut of a rail. While the fence is made of the same MDF material as we have on the MFT table top, it is a full fledged fence — the holes allow us to set feather boards in place quickly and accurately.
	Elena and I are now in the process of shooting a DVD on the subject of Cabinetmaking.  As we do that, we will also create "how-to" pages on each and every task.    If you say "Oh no, another Festool story." I am a happy Festool user but what you see Elena and me do in cabinetmaking can be done also with the standard shop — sometimes easier and sometimes not. That is for you to decide.

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