eanewton

My Festool 75 drop saw, guide rails, & MFT-3 tables eliminated the need for several saws. The Festool system is well engineered and very precise. The saw will produce a glue ready joint. From sheet goods to furniture parts to raising panels, the Festool 75 system is superb.

My Rigid contractor's table saw is an excellent supplement to it. The fence stays true. I'm able to cut tenons with accuracy on the Rigid using a Rockler crosscut sled
in combination with the fence.

More on Festool 75 drop saw: The saw handles sheet goods
with no problem; cuts straight & true using the guide rails.
Guide rails can be joined together lengthwise for longer cuts.
I anchor my workpiece to the MFT3 sacrificial top, set the
depth to 1/32 or 1/16 below the workpiece, and make very clean cuts without tearout. This system virtually eliminates danger of kickback encountered with a table saw. The blade produces
glue ready joints. I can cut rough stock to 6" size, resaw
on my stationary Delta 16" bandsaw (using a low tension blade),
joint it on my Ridgid jointer on wheels, parallel the surfaces
on my DeWalt planer, and true the edges and ends as described earlier. I still have a big learning curve on using the power jointer. I've discovered that all power tools can turn into a WMD when used wrong.

Most recent purchase: a Makita electric chainsaw. I use this for cutting long, heavy rough stock to manageable lengths. It's less than 10 percent of the cost of a portable bandsaw mill. I use it with a $90 attachable jig
I bought at the WoodCraft Store in Birmingham AL to make
long rip cuts. You set the saw & jig on a 2x6 nailed to the rough stock lengthwise, then make your cut using the straight
edge of the 2x6 for reference. Beware cheap imitation electric chainsaws with plastic gears.

I'm a beginner, having built a shaker table with a drawer at Kelly Mehler's school in Berea KY a year ago. That was my introduction to woodworking and it was excellent. Then took several classes with Mike Gray in Selmer TN at his Old English Fine Furniture shop. I've built another shaker table, a tabletop desk, a dozen doors with raised panels, and a bench.

My Festool model 75 drop saw & guide rails eliminate the need for a miter saw. My two Festool MFT3 tables joined lengthwise offer broad flexibility in securing workpieces for jointing, planing, layout, gluing, clamping, etc. A few examples: I anchor a workpiece on top of a true piece of scrap, turn my Veritas Low Angle Jack Plane on its side, and can quickly square an edge. For squaring ends, I use a shooting board. Using a MFT3 top secured vertically to the legs of my MFT3 table, I can use my Festool 75 saw to raise panels. I anchor my guide rail to the horizontal surface
and angle my blade in 17.5 degrees and make my cuts.

My benchtop router table is very handy, temporarily anchored to my MFT3 table. I have a Ridgid contractor's table saw on wheels. I roll it out of my 17x22' shop onto the covered porch, turn on a 42" fan for dust control, and make my cuts outdoors.

I have a Delta mortiser (great price-$150 worth of bits come with the machine) clamped onto a stationary router table.

My DeWalt 13" planer rolls easily out onto the porch on a
$50 tool cart I bought at Home Depot. Beware: buy your DeWalt planer at Lowes for $100 more than Home Depot. Reason why: You absolutely must have the infeed & outfeed tables + dust control hose. If you do not have the tables you will destroy your workpieces with snipe. The package of the accessories costs exactly $100 from Amazon, which is what I had to do. The planer works extremely well with those attachments. Without them it is a weapon of mass destruction.