A rather interesting review of cordless track saws

[Cheese]

This is very interesting.

It makes me want to trade in the MT 55 and the TSC 55 for a singular saw...
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001IjBl...9PUcSY4l91AJ8Gi6IV-qu_j7D21hby0yE0NenRanRLQ==

 

[aloysius]

Must admit that the MT55 does it for me:  best cuts, (second) best performance.

The fact that it also runs the best battery system available anywhere (now available in 10.0 AH) is just a bonus.

 

[mkasdin]

I just spoke to Timberwolf today asking about the erika and there were 4 tools that got lowered prices, mt-55, jigsaw, duo-doweller and ? It’s a shame the erika is so pricey I would buy a push pull saw otherwise and the Erika 70 was discontinued. We went over the track saw and this video validates what he said. One thing I find interesting is that Mafell uses a  thinner blade 1.9mm kerf and FT uses a thicker 2.2 mm. I’m wondering if it’s to counteract any vibrations from the FT motor. The arbor sizes are the same, so the blades should be interchangeable, but the depth gauge would be off with the ts-55. It would be interesting to see the cut quality of the Mafell mt-55 but I’m pretty much married into the Festool line.  Not that it would be hard to sell the Festool track and saw on eBay? My biggest issue with Festool is getting a good fit between two tracks. The extrususions are not always identical between manufacturing runs and even he same machine can have variances. Longer tracks takes care of the issue. The longest track with Mafell is 5.2 feet so your mostly joining tracks with anything over a Four foot cut. The extrusion process is not 100% so I wondering how that effects the straightness of cut with Mafell? I’m skeptical from using other brands....

 

[Lincoln]

Mafell tracks go up to 3.1 metres.

 

[Svar]

I'm not surprised by the results of comparison.
Also, good job with setting the experiment. Not sure how many replications they did, obviously resources are limited. However, theirs definitely went beyond the usual arm waving and confirmation bias that you see so often.

 

[Michael Kellough]

A surprisingly good review.

The different rail designs, Festool vs. Mafell, make the Mafell much less affected by variations in extrusion. The Festool guide spine is about 5 times wider then the Mafell spine so a difference of .1mm in the Festool would be a barely discernible .02mm on the Mafell. Also, the end caps on Mafell rails make it easy to keep a fatter rail at the beginning of a pair of rails if there is a difference.

 

[Cheese]

The different rail designs, Festool vs. Mafell, make the Mafell much less affected by variations in extrusion. The Festool guide spine is about 5 times wider than the Mafell spine so a difference of .1mm in the Festool would be a barely discernible .02mm on the Mafell.

Michael, I just measured both rails and the Mafell spine is .093" while the Festool spine is .633", so the Festool is actually 6.8 times wider than the Mafell. So that .02 mm variation on the Mafell just went down to .014 mm or .0005"...barely discernible indeed.  [smile]

A very nice feature not usually mentioned is that the rail adjustment knobs on the Mafell have detents that allow for extremely fine & fast adjustment. Just like a gun scope, open it up a click or close it down a click.

 

[Svar]

Mafell/Bosch have greater friction riding on the rails. I wonder how that affected the performance test with the same pulling force being applied to all saws.

 

[Cheese]

Mafell/Bosch have greater friction riding on the rails. I wonder how that affected the performance test with the same pulling force being applied to all saws.

Probably significantly as the other saws were in the 5-10 second range while the Mafell & Bosch were 15-17 seconds.

 

[mkasdin]

Mafell tracks go up to 3.1 metres.

not in the USA 5.2 feet is the longest before you start joining? Not sure about the Bosch tracks...

 

[Birdhunter]

My only experience with Mafell is with their doweling machine and with Timberwolf, the distributors. Both are exceptional.

I already have a TS55 and a bunch of their rails. If I ever needed a cordless track saw, I’d probably try the Mafell.

I always have my TS55 hooked to a vac so cordless is not an advantage to me.

 

[DeformedTree]

The Mafell was very tempting (corded version that is), before I bought my TS55.  The lack of riving knife was one of my big concerns.  Also at the time I was planning on going with Festools LR32 system someday, with that scratched, someday I very well will get the Mafell.  The angle adjustment/lock mess of the TS55 really killed the saw for me, the Mafell just looks so much more solid.

I wish Mafell had longer rails here. I love having a 3m rail.  Obviously you can run the mafell on the festool rails.

 

[Cheese]

For anyone wanting a more in-depth dive into the track saw comparison, here is the web site version of the video. They do go into a more detailed analysis of what they tested and how they tested.
https://www.toolboxbuzz.com/head-to-head/best-cordless-track-saw/

[member=15585]Svar[/member] per your latest comment, in the web site review they state "We set each saw about 7/8″ blade depth, set similar track friction settings, attached a fully charged battery, and set the saw to its top rpm setting.

I wonder how that was done? Possibly by tweaking the drag on the rail with the rail adjusters and then measuring the force needed for forward movement with a force gauge?

 

[Bohdan]

I wonder how that was done? Possibly by tweaking the drag on the rail with the rail adjusters and then measuring the force needed for forward movement with a force gauge?

From their website "We made sure that all of the saws had fully charged batteries and that each was mounted on its track with the same friction settings for sliding along the tracks"

 

[Cheese]

1. The lack of riving knife was one of my big concerns. 

2. The angle adjustment/lock mess of the TS55 really killed the saw for me, the Mafell just looks so much more solid.

3. I wish Mafell had longer rails here. I love having a 3m rail.  Obviously you can run the mafell on the festool rails.

1. I was also nervous about that issue but after using it for awhile it's no longer a concern at all.

2. The one knob adjustment is really sweet...loosen it, move the saw, tighten it. So easy.

3. One issue to consider is that the Mafell saw rail guide adjuster for the Mafell rail and the Festool rail are back-to-back. So if you tighten it for the Mafell rail you are at the same time loosening it for the Festool rail. Here's a shot of the bottom of the MT 55. The wide Festool slot is on the bottom and the narrow Mafell slot is above it. That black plastic lever adjusts the fit of the rail.

[attachimg=1]

I've kind of done a work-around for that issue. I keep a Festool rail with a TSO square attached for general rough crosscutting, meaning that the Mafell saw is not tightly riding on the Festool rail as any precision crosscutting I will do will be done on the Kapex.

The Mafell saw however, is tightly riding on the Mafell rail so that any ripping I perform will be accurate and it will have very few saw blade marks. That process has worked out fine...the ease to break things down to approximate lengths while the rip cuts are primo.

On another note, I suspect that Hans at TSO is probably working on a rail square for the Mafell rail as there is a large market that would drive that and it'd be a great addition to his product line. At that point he'd have every rail manufacturer covered.  [cool]

 

[Cheese]

From their website "We made sure that all of the saws had fully charged batteries and that each was mounted on its track with the same friction settings for sliding along the tracks"

One of the first things I noticed is that the MT 55 on a Festool rail is a lot easier to push than the MT 55 on a Mafell rail. Neither the Bosch or Mafell rails have glide strips. In the case of the Mafell saw, it's a painted base sliding along an aluminum rail, and in the case of the Bosch saw, it's an aluminum base sliding along an aluminum rail. There is a noticeable difference and as Svar questioned, how did this frictional difference impact the cutting times when all were driven by the same constant 11# force.

 

[Michael Kellough]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] said,

2. The one knob adjustment is really sweet...loosen it, move the saw, tighten it. So easy.

But is it adequate. The idea of only clamping the front trunion makes me cringe.

In the video all the saws are pulled by a weight. Should be a constant force as you say but it looks to me like the saws all slow down about 3/4 of the way down the track. Just a result of the camera position/perspective?

 

[Cheese]

But is it adequate. The idea of only clamping the front trunion makes me cringe.

In the video all the saws are pulled by a weight. Should be a constant force as you say but it looks to me like the saws all slow down about 3/4 of the way down the track. Just a result of the camera position/perspective?

Ya Michael because the front trunnion is attached through a small linkage arm to the rear trunnion so both are tightened and loosened at the same time.  [cool]

 

[Michael Kellough]

But is it adequate. The idea of only clamping the front trunion makes me cringe.

In the video all the saws are pulled by a weight. Should be a constant force as you say but it looks to me like the saws all slow down about 3/4 of the way down the track. Just a result of the camera position/perspective?

Ya Michael because the front trunnion is attached through a small linkage arm to the rear trunnion so both are tightened and loosened at the same time.  [cool]

Wow! Didn’t know that.

 

[Cheese]

Wow! Didn’t know that.

Just finished up reading the website evaluation, pretty interesting. The TSC came in very close to the Makita. It just missed out on a couple of small issues. So despite the large differences in cost between the Makita & the Festool it was close. Ergonomics & features is a large part of the Festool package and we're all aware of that from the CXS to the Kapex. A $300 difference in price is tough to make up.

Here's the round MT 55 linkage to the front trunnion.

[attachimg=1]

And the same linkage continuing on to the rear trunnion.

[attachimg=2]