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The T15 and Kitchen Installs
A Match made in Heaven
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I was pretty excited to try the T15 for the kitchen install. There can be a wide range of drilling and driving tasks in this kind of work, driving long screws to hang the cabinets, drilling and screwing hardwood face frames together, attaching small hardware, not mention trying to get into hard to reach places. I anticipated putting the T15's chucks to good use and it compact size should be ideally suited for this job.
This kitchen was a low end custom line of frameless cabinets with panel doors. This is a moderate sized kitchen with eighteen cabinets. We always start by laying out all the cabinet locations on the walls to make sure everything is figured correctly. Then we set the lower cabinets. We started with the corner cabinet, it's the cabinet you see on the previous page with the white panel. It was 18" by 48" with a blind corner, narrow panel and then a door/draw opening. I had to squeeze into the cabinet to screw into the wall. It was a tight fit and dark in there. Which brings me to one of my very few complaints I have about the T15-no LED light. While this is by no means a deal breaker it would a nice feature to have.
When hanging cabinets I find myself going back and forth between drilling and driving constantly. Although I prefer to use two drills, one to drill and another to drive screws, some people like a quick bit changing system. In general I'm not a fan of quick change systems (but the Festool's Centrotec is the best one I've used). I always pre-drill holes for cabinet screws because I don't want to risk the bit slipping off the screw and scratching the inside of a cabinet. I first drill through the cabinet back while it's on the ground and then again through the pilot hole to pre-drill into the framing in the wall once the cabinet is in place. This means for the upper cabinets one guy holds the cabinet and one guy pre-drills and drives the screws. The guy with the drill needs to move fast so the other guy doesn't tire and allow the cabinet to move out of position. The Centrotec system can earn its keep here if you're only using one drill.
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Changing bits is straight forward; the green collar releases the ball-detent lock. The technique is different than other systems but it didn't take long for it to become second nature. I should point out that the Centrotec chuck only fits Festool's proprietary bits. Regular ¼" hex shank bits will not lock into the Centrotec chuck. Festool does have a Centrotec bit holder that fits and locks ¼" hex shank ball-detent bits, BHS 65MM . This adds some length but it allows you to use existing collection of ball-detent bits.
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The BHS has a locking collar that will lock ball-detent and wire-detent bits. As you can see from the picture on the left there isn’t much difference in length between when using the BHS bit holder compared to the keyless chuck.
Like almost all ball-detent locking systems there is some slop in the fit allowing the bit to wob-ble some. I like using the keyless chuck over the BHS and Centrotec chuck for ball-detent bits like the spade bits seen here. While you give up the quick change capability of the BHS/Centrotec chuck there is no appreciable runout using the keyless chuck.
As I said, I prefer using two drills when I need to both drill and drive instead of using quick change bits systems. When using two drills isn't practical, the Centrotec system is the next best thing. For me the value of the Centrotec system lies in the accessories. The quality and variety of bits offered is outstanding and I'll be showing you a few of my favorites shortly.
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It didn't take long for the eccentric chuck to find some use. On the lower cabinets I could have just drilled and installed screw on an angle to reach the stud, but I wanted to try out this chuck. It could in handy on a couple of upper cabinets where you wouldn't want to risk scuff-ing the finish with regular keyless chuck on other drills. Overall I found the eccentric chuck to be the least used of the chucks but there were a couple of times it came in handy.
On the other hand, the right angle chuck was used a lot more than I expected and it turned out to be invaluable on this project. A few years ago I bought an inexpensive right angle drill at-tachment for my cordless drills. It took two hands to operate; one on the drill and the other to keep the attachment from flopping around. It would usually get the job done but I was never satisfied with that product. The Festool right angle chuck affixes solidly at any position around the drill with no flopping. Earlier it proved to be able to handle drilling with a 1" auger bit and now its best asset would come to the forefront, getting into tight spaces.
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I had two situations come up where the T15 and right angle drill got me out of a bind. The first problem was a misaligned slide on pull out spice rack. One of the slides in the cabinet needed to be adjusted. The problem was the spice rack cabinet is only about 6" wide on the inside. Not much room to get tools in there. The right angle chuck, Centrotec chuck/bit extension and wire-detent bit is about 5" long. With the right angle chuck and keyless chuck it’s 6 ½ and as little as 3" with a wire-detent bit inserted directly into the right angle chuck. The problem the right angle chuck solved was moving slides in a vanity. The client wanted the small drawers on the side of the vanity rearranged. She wanted the deep drawer moved from the bottom to the top. Of course she was oblivious to the challenge she presented, but I just smiled and said no problem. While it wasn't easy moving the slides inside this tight space, the right angle chuck made it easier than it would have been with my old setup.
Here, I'm standing on a ladder attaching the molding on the top of the cabinets. The architect specified no visible fasteners on the molding so I'm screwing the molding in from the backside. What you can't see are the lights mounted on top of the cabinets and against the wall leaving very little room for a drill. Again the right angle chuck was used because there wasn't much space between the lights and blocking to attach the molding to.
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In the photo above are two Centrotec bits that I happen to really like. On the left, the 3.5 mm countersink with depth stop and the 5 mm self-centering drill bit on the right.
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The countersinks are available in two different sized pilot bits; I've got the 3.5 mm version. The pilot bit’s depth is adjustable as is the depth of the countersink. This thing drills clean holes and it's nice to be able to set it to work with most small and medium sized screws. It would be nice to use with colored screws to hang the cabinets or attach face frames. Once countersunk flush, the screws heads would be barely visible.
I use the 5 mm self-centering drill bit for system screws used in euro style cabinet hardware. A great feature of this bit is being able to set the depth of the bit so you don't drill through your panel. The bit is a nice wood (brad point) bit so the holes are cleanly drilled. I was able to drill some shelf pin holes on in one of the pantry units to lower a shelf.
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I used the Centrotec wood bit set to drill holes for various things in the kitchen with the 4 mm bit getting the most use drilling for cabinets handles. The doors and drawer faces were a veneered particle board. The 4 mm drill bit was still very sharp after drilling nearly one hundred holes in the veneered particle board of the doors and drawer faces. The seven piece set has 3-8 mm and 10 mm brad point bits, and a plastic box to store them in. This set has been discontinued in the US. Festool now offers an Imperial wood bit set (1/8", 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", 7/16", 1/2" and single flute counter sink bit in a carrying case). Imperial wood bit set.
The T15's compact size makes for getting into drawers and inside cabinets a little easier. Also the torque is easy to control with good sense of "feel" for the correct amount of torque needed for the job without over doing it. This was perfect for the pocket screws I used to at-tach the panels to enclose the dishwasher and refrigerator spaces. I was able to make use of the clutch for some of the small screws you'll find in kitchen hardware. I even used the T15 to adjust the hinges to align the door and drawers that I'd normally use a hand screwdriver for.
Continued on the next page.
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