Hi Steve - My board has a grid of 200mm square thread inserts into plywood. They are M8 wouldn't use smaller. They are timber inserts not T nuts. Advantage is if I need to put one in because of some reason I can place it straight from the top. But the original grid could be T nuts, just good to have some inserts in the kit. They do fill up with sawdust so I put masking tape over the ones not in use. I make my clamps from 40x20 pine and they are very good because you can add a hole or slot quick to adjust them. They get chewed occasionally so they start long and get shorter. If your using mdf make it thick enough to give clearance to the T nuts.
T nuts and inserts are $$$ in OZ. e bay buy 100 and they are 15c each. Peter