Here is my video review of the Festool TS-75 tracksaw.  I'm posting a playlist link here as the video is broken up into two parts.  Besides the saw, I try to cover some things I find it particularly adept at doing that isn't easily accomplished with other tools.

I hope even experienced users will find something useful here

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D71E5CBDEC776478

Another great review Paul.  You are now 4 for 4. 

I have had the TS75 for a long time but I still learned two things from the video.  (1) How to make the splinter guard useful with this larger saw.  (2) How to use the saw to substitute for a jointer (something I will defiantely take advantage of at Pellow's Camp).

Bob looks like one of the extras in Resident Evil in those photos, hope he cleans up a bit better in person.

Bill

P.S PM, if you want to swap for something a little lighter and easier to handle let me know... I'm sure we could work something out....

Self removing sticker that is hillarius

Very nice reveiw

I'm betting Bob's looking a little ragged this week after the reconditioned promo.

Your signature line revealed your identity


I actually wanted to do an edge-joint demo or at least talk about it in the video with a link to Bob's video, but once the camera turned on, my brain drained.

When I film the next video, I'll make a small clip of the door guide-rail mount.  That was an idea I found here and I honestly can't remember from who.  Whoever posted it originally, thank you.  I blogged about it here. (and others here seemed to have found it; since this vide, it's page views went nuts).

Oh, I missed that.  Thanks for pointing that out.  I can't find it, but I remember getting an email (SysNotes?) that listed the old part numbers and new parts numbers along with their respective kerf sizes.  I swore I saw the TS-75 blades in that list.  Bummer if they aren't.

I'll research this further; if that was wrong in the video, maybe I'll rerender it with a call-out pointing out that they are only for the 55 so far.

Paul, wonderful videos you make...thx...

I am curious...   your system of edge jointing is excellent, and as you correctly mention, its actually better than a jointer, as no jointer has beds as long as 9ft guide rail.   Once you have one straight edge, a parallel guide can cut the other... perfect....

But what about the face?   How do you get your wood flat without a jointer?    If your video mentioned this, I may have missed it...thx in advance...

In fact, besides re-built classic joiners there are several currently made joiners with very long beds and fences. A good friend of mine owns a monster Martin joiner. IIRC that one has a 14' bed. My 20" wide joiner is a Felder with an 11' bed and fence.

Unfortunately you do need significant space for these kinds of machines and they are far more expensive than Festool plunge saws and guide rails. My friend and I have the best of both worlds. Each of us owns virtually every Festool sold in the USA, and a few we each have brought back from trips elsewhere.

Thanks for the compliments, JSands... especially for the first video I shot, back when the little red light made me forget everything

I'd have to re-watch it to see what exactly I said, but it should have been that I feel it is superior for edge jointing.  With S2S stock, it is easy to place the rail exactly where you want the edge and run it.  Usually this is the one time I use the clamps since taking, say, half a kerf off the side of hard maple does try to pull the rail along with the saw to the outside of the cut.  In my case, I usually then hit the edge with a plane to clean any machine marks off.  Maybe that process isn't faster for a shorter board, but I'm thinking aircraft carrier jointers to joint a 6'+ board require at least 12' front to back clearance.  That's a boatload of space.

I read your question earlier, but thought to post a picture or two to explain the other benefit of the tracksaw for edge jointing.  Here's a piece of QS Wenge I got this week for a project:



Notice the QS grain doesn't go parallel the edge at all.  Sure you could edge joint this to get a straight edge, but it does nothing to the skew of the grain.  For this project, I need the grain dead straight to the edges.  Here, the straight edge shows the angle I'd put the guide rail to rip a straight jointed edge parallel to the grain.  That I think would be tricky on a jointer, even by hand planes.




The jointer is still hugely beneficial for face jointing boards to make that S2S stock in the first place.  In my case, for bad stuff, I use a planer sled.  Other stock gets hit with the Jack plane until the bottom face would fully register on my planer bed, then I run it on the planer to get the top face flat, flip repeat (truthfully, I flip the board often skip planing down to keep the moisture equalized, eh, details)

Oh, definitely... either planer sled to get the top surface flat or hand planes to get one side to reference flat on the planer bed to again run it through and get the top surface flat.  Once you have that one flat, flip and plane again to get parallel surfaces.  My comment about flipping more often is because I tend to do it by skip planing, but same end result.