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- I've had a Festival multifunction table,
in my shop since 2005.
That's pre Wood Whisperer era.
So we're talking like bigger soul patch,
(exclaims)
than even bigger sideburns.
But since then, I've thought long and heard
about the role of this thing in my shop,
and while I still consider it a game changer,
I thought there were things I could do to improve it.
Now Festal designs thinks for portability.
So if you are a road woodworker,
it's great to be able to fold the legs up,
pick this thing up and throw it in the back of your truck
and go to the job site.
For someone who works in a shop,
things don't move that often,
what was an asset for someone else
kind of becomes a liability for me,
because now these folding legs,
they're not really the most stable way to do this work,
and of course you have empty space underneath this,
that's completely unused when the legs are folded out.
So I wanted to come up with something
that really utilizes the space,
stabilizes the MFT, and gives me something that
well it's just overdue, it's it's a lot of storage
than I needed, and I think it's gonna be great.
Now if you aren't a Festival MFT owner,
that's okay, there's a lot to offer with this project.
You've got general carcass constructions,
jewel construction, as well as something that could serve
as a really nice mobile assembly table,
or some kind of a mobile workbench or
raise the height a little bit
and you got yourself a nice outfit table cabinet
that you can utilize.
So whatever you do with it,
hopefully you'll find it useful,
let me give you the quick tour,
and show you some of the features
that I've included in this.
The MFT sits right on top,
with room for the saw on the right.
The front has sustainer storage on the left,
a pullout tray for the saws,
a big drawer for stuff and things,
and the big compartment for the CT vac.
The whole thing is on casters,
so it's pretty easy to move.
On the backside we have lots of additional storage space,
and a post for managing the hose and the power cord.
The casters are the locking variety,
and to add additional stability,
I modified some toggle clamps
to help lock the unit in position.
Baltic birch is the material of choice,
and we cut it down on the floor,
using the tracks on some insulation boards.
I usually only cut to rough size on the floor.
The final dimensions are cut at the table saw.
Keep in mind that you don't wanna cut the partition pieces
to final size just yet,
those are cut to fit later.
The main case joinery will be dadoes and rabbets,
so I set up my dado stack,
and do a test cut to get a nice slip fit.
The locations of all these dadoes and rabbets,
are laid out in the free plans.
The top and bottom receive dadoes
for the dividers, and rabbets for the sides.
The dividers and sides received dadoes for the partitions.
On bigger panels, it's super helpful
to have some sort of hold down near the fence.
Otherwise the panel has a tendency to raise up,
resulting in a shallow dado.
It also helps to use a push pad,
right over the blade area.
Just try not to think about the spinning wheel
of death under your hand.
The trickiest thing is cutting the rabbets.
Again hold downs to the rescue.
I'm also using a sacrificial fence here,
so that the blade can cut right up
against the edge of the panel.
To reinforce the joints, we'll use screws.
The easiest way to locate the screws
is to pre-drill a pilot hole from the inside of the joint.
Then we can use a countersink on the show face.
With the partitions in place,
we'll continue drilling the pilot holes.
If you don't do this,
there's a real good chance that the screws
will split the plywood,
or at the very least cause it to bulge,
and no one likes bulging plywood.
Now we drop some glue into the dadoes
and secure the dividers with screws.
Inch and a quarter should do the trick.
Always check for square,
and if it's off, use some square clamping blocks
to force it square, while the glue dries.
Now we'll attach the sides using the same methodology.
A plywood is bowing slightly,
so I clamped some boards to the outside,
that flattens it and allows me to get
a more accurate measurement for the partitions.
Once the fit is perfect,
we can glue and screw the partitions in place.
Notice that the partitions are cut a little bit short
in height, because they're not actually dadoed
into the top and the bottom.
And now we can attach the top.
If you cut the dadoes is accurately
and everything is nice and square,
it shouldn't be too hard to get this thing together.
If you cut the data's inaccurately,
and you're out of square, good luck.
So at this point, you've got a choice to make.
You have plywood edges here,
and it's just shop furniture,
so it doesn't have to look gorgeous,
but it's not a bad idea to protect these
with some kind of solid wood,
so it can take a beating, all right?
Now I've got some interesting stuff here,
this is Brazilian cherry flooring scraps.
My neighbor had some beautiful floors put in,
and knows that I'm a woodworker,
so he gave me the scraps and I can repurpose these,
I've got them in all different sizes,
but it's pretty much useless,
for anything else other than really small projects,
or in this case, cutting into solid wood strips,
to trim out my MFT card, which is kind of ridiculous,
but this stuff has been sitting around for over a year now
and I think it's time that we started to use some of it.
So I think this is the perfect application.
It's also incredibly hard stuff,
so it's really the perfect material,
for aligning plywood edges for the sake of durability.
It's gonna look cool too.
I've mentioned my neighbor Jim in the past,
he's a real nice guy.
If you don't have a neighbor Jim,
I highly recommend getting one,
that's your choice.
The strips are attached to the case using glue and clamps.
These little three point clamps
are pretty awesome for attaching edge banding.
But after attaching the top strip with the clamps,
I decided that was stupid,
and just used my brad nailer for the remaining strips.
Ain't nobody got time for that.
The brad nail holes are then filled with putty,
and the outsides are flushed up.
I only use the sander,
after the trim is scraped mostly flush,
too much sanding and you're likely to burn
through your veneer layer.
The casters are attached to the four corners of the case,
and I'd like a little bit more support there,
so I glue on some scrap plywood squares.
Now I can counter sink and drill four bolts.
Bent with the knees, bent with the knees, and rest.
Now I can confirm that my measurements were accurate.
Everything seems to fit.
So let's make the solid tray.
Once again, I'll use some of that Brazilian cherry,
to trim it out.
The trim actually provides a good deal of support
for the tray as well.
The front piece of trim will overhang the sides,
in order to hide the drawer slides,
we'll get to that hardware later.
So now we need to make up all the drawers.
I'll use rabbets and grooves for the joinery,
and we'll cut some quarter inch ply for the bottoms.
If you plan on putting some heavy stuff in these drawers,
consider upgrading to half inch stock, for the bottom panel.
Assembly here is with glue and screws.
Always check the drawers for square,
and if they're off, use a clamp on the diagonal,
to make slight adjustments.
Next, now for the slides.
With everything sitting on a flat surface,
it's pretty easy to locate and install the slide,
onto the tray and drawers.
Inside the case, I'll use a piece of scrap,
to hold the slides at the correct height,
as I drill and drive the screws.
The drawer boxes get the same treatment.
With a drawer boxes installed,
we can make the drawer fronts.
Each front will be trimmed with the same Brazilian cherry.
I start by installing two strips at a time.
Once those dry, they're flushed up in preparation
for the second set of strips.
I actually like to use this simple clamping technique,
quite often, stretching blue tape over the edging
to hold it in place.
Each front gets drilled for some simple pull hardware,
but I don't install the hardware just yet.
I can drop the fronts in place,
using spacers for alignment and temporarily,
attach the front with screws through those hardware holes.
Now I can pull each drawer out,
and drive permanent screws from the inside,
locking the front into its position.
I can then remove the front screws,
drill all the way through and attach the hardware.
On this back section,
I'm reserving the space for future expensive gadgets,
like this handy tracks all square.
I bought these little rubber feet,
and attached them to a pretty standard toggle clamp,
then attached the clamp, to the back corners of the card.
Next, I install a post on the back right,
to help with hose management.
I'm doing my very best not to make a joke,
about managing your hose.
I've had this big garage organizer,
hook thinking, hanging around the shop for years,
so I thought I'd finally put it to use as a hose hook.
Now I fill all the screw holes with putty,
because putty is your buddy, and then apply some finish.
What's the best finish for shop furniture?
The one you wanna get rid of,
or the one you want some practice with.
And now we can load it up.
Something I might consider in the future
is removing the MFT legs altogether.
This will make for a nice easy access shelf,
right under the table.
And if you're concerned about the MFT moving,
you can install some strips
that hold the rubber feet in place.
I haven't found that necessary yet.
So really nothing too complicated with this build,
just the simple plywood structure,
a couple of drawers and trays,
it's fun to do projects like this
where you could really refine
your shop space and get it custom made,
for exactly what you need it to do,
and I can't wait to put this thing to work.
Thanks for watching, everybody.