HI my name is Tom and I just bought a festool plunge saw.
She was purchased fri morn and I had to wait until sat to fire her up, it was a long wait. I brought her over to my friends shop to finish a little project i did for him.
Two tops, alder 1.75" thick, he needed two iscoeles  triangles, six cuts total. After a bit of layout I find that the 2 long legs are 54.875" lust at the range of my stock length rail. I knew I would have a little wobble upon entrance and exit, but I am a cabinet maker of some 17 years exp and feel confidant.
MY friend, the shop owner, stood by as cut this large expensive glued up piece of wood.
Wow-really wow no bogging, no burning(it is alder), and the cut barley needed polishing, light hand sanding thats all.
Frankly this saw is the nicest piece of machinery I currently own(I like it better than my 1969 Kawasaki two-stroke triple).
I'm bringing it into my shop(not mine -work) monday morn will consider using it instead of the holz-her 1265 vert panel saw we use(it is almost useless as a production tool). This saw is very close to a cabinet shop in a box.
Any ways I just found your forum and signed up, it looks like a great place.
Cheers
Tom

Welcome to the FOG. I sense someone is about to slide down that green slippery slope!

Did you have a dust collector or shop vacuum hooked up to it? That's impressive also.

I've had the TS-55 for 18 months and I'm still impressed with it. Nest, you need the MFT/3 work table and some clamps to go with it.

Good luck with the Festools and happy cutting.

I just made the first cuts with my new TS 55 also.  I had glued up some boards to make raised panels and squared off the ends to the sides with the saw.  I was wearing ear plugs and had the CT 22 on, but on the first cut I had to look down to make sure it was cutting - I couldn't hear it.  Like the others have said, the cut was very smooth.

One thing I did notice though was that when I squared the back edge of the rail to the board side the cut wasn't perfectly square.  To get the cuts square I had to draw a pencil line square to the board side and lay the rubber strip of the guide on the line.  I guess the rubber strip and the back edge of the guide rail aren't perfectly parallel.

I can imagine how much easier and faster it would have been with the MFT 3.  Maybe next year I'll have the space for one.

Tom.

I think you should try it again, becasue the back edge of the rails should be absolutely parallel to the cutting edge.

Eiji

Welcome Tom

Good morning

It seems there are 2 different toms here(I,m the one with out the mft).

Thanks for the welcome, I had a feeling this would be a welcoming place for a old woodbutcher with a new electric hatchet.

Qwas and Poto in answer to your question-no I've got no other festool stuff. I am pretty sure I will buy the ct22, and I am a tightwad, but a quality vacume can help keep clients happy-and we all need happy clients. 

As for the slippery slope, I will invest in more rails, a couple of systainers, and maybe the mft.  I have 17 years of tools, this is my 5th or 6th hand held saw( the old ones will be very lonely soon-Maybe some new dragsters for the powertool races(think of it, 13amps of skill 77 hurtling down the wooden track on saw blade wheels)), wonder when I find my self needing the 75, hah!

My new saw has a bout the nicest biuld quality i have seen and quality,heft and feel are just about every thing when choosing a tool to use- Lie-neilson vs stanley when scribing with a block plane.
But $800 for a router, $400 for a jig saw(yes a have the old bosch that cost me $250 16yrs ago), even with the euro what it is come on, The systainer 4 is like $62(pennies for plastic, a couple hundred grand for injection dies, come on profit on these thing has goto be around 80-90% with shipping).

Don't get me wrong I don't mind paying for quality but replacing a trusty old tool( when wornout) with one that costs 2 to 4 times as much is difficult I work hard for my money-but I really love good tools( heh heh I am describing probably every person who will read this post).

I have used the $375 1/2 sheet sander and yes it is really nice but I just will not pay that for a sander.

All that being said- if the wife says yes- I'll probably have more of the black and green  tooling bouncing along in my kit, I am just a complete sucker for nice machinery.

Bondo, caulk, and paint make me the cabinet maker I ain't.
Tom
   

Hi Tom, and welcome.

The TS55 was also my first Festool purchase about four years ago (wasn't my last ) and I haven't found myself needing a TS75 - yet! What has surprised me is how much I use it for cleaning up the edges of boards - where previously I would have used a power plane, the TS55 gives such a clean finish I find I can skip this step completely.



No, Festool isn't cheap, but then again your 1992-era $250 now has the same buying power as $386 today, thanks to inflation - here - so in that context, Festool's $400 price-tag doesn't seem so bad now, does it, all things considered?

Cheers, Pete.

Hey Tvgordon

You can't really use a framing square for this application-it's just not accurate enough. You can set them though.
Check your rail-cut a 12" long piece of 3/4 at one end. Then lay the cut piece on the other end and feel is it flush on both sides? If it is then your really expensive piece of extruded metal is true, if not you're in trouble!

I used the saw in anger today and man I don't know how I got along with out it!- No joke-I cut a .25x.375x27.5 groove, I cut 2 27" miters that only need tape to close well, and I am defiantly getting the 22.

This Little saw is inspiring, I can't wait to do some install. I see a mft in my future.
Tom

You need to clamp the workpiece on the waste side otherwise it may become unpredictable

Dan Clermont

Tom,

As all the others have said, welcome - I too have the TS-55 and it is one sweet machine.  But they all missed the other important part of your first post - the Kawi!  I just love the old triple two strokes - they were the hottest ticket in their day!  Good luck with your new saw and definitely go for the CT-22, you won't regret it.

What sort of cabinets do you make with solder?   

I had a friend and co-worker who race prepped and then weekend raced his 750 triple. His fellow racers gave him all sorts of grief about how that thing would wobble and flex going down the track. They just didn't design those things for that kind of abuse even with a bunch of welded gussets. It sounded interesting and it was fast by 1982 standards. I ride a 93 Ducati 900SS myself and I'm even using some of my Fein and Festool stuff to restore the paint :-) Oh, and by the way my TS55 is still my favorite Festool.

I believe it's undoing was a mid straight impact with another bike's footpeg  that caused a large hole in the transmission case. The rider became aware as the oil all over the back tire sent him into the hay bails.