Actual Speeds for Festool

[John Langevin]

I think it would be very useful if Festool would provide a chart (a stick-on label would be even better!) listing the actual r.p.m. or strokes per minute for the TS saws, Trion, and routers. Oftentimes a material manufacturer or cutting tool supplier will recommend a safe maximum speed for a tool. Festool offers their wonderful variable speed technology but neglects to give us any idea what speed "1" is on a 1010 thus severely limiting the usefulness to trial and error.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

John,
Maybe we can develop such a guide right here in the forum?  Does anyone know where we might start to create this?
Matthew

 

[brandon.nickel]

Actually, part of my day job is to monitor the health of a lot of mechanical equipment.  Part of my gear includes a vibration monitoring system that could easily take these readings.  I'd just need to clamp/magnet/attach it to a tool and take a reading at each indicated speed.  However, I've only got the OF1400, so I'd be limited to providing data on that.  The box is off to WA for calibration right now, but if anyone's interested, I could probably get this info next week.

Also, if anyone wanted to ship me a OF1010 for a couple of days, I could have a run at that one too.

edit:  Actually, the adjustable equipment I have includes the TS55, OF1400, RO150E, and Trion.  I'm not sure of the utility of readings on the non-routers.  Do jigsaw blades have maximum speeds?  I've always adjusted them by feel for how they're cutting anyway.  Same with the TS.  Thoughts?

 

[John Langevin]

Brandon, good point. I have never seen a maximum speed listed for jigsaw blades. The Lenox (formerly American Saw now Rubbermaid-Newell) factory is about 5 miles from my house, I will try to contact them to ask that question. I will also ask how they determine the optimum speed fro a particular blade/material/thickneess combination. If anyone out there has a portable tachometer then they could chart the speeds of the TS saws and OF routers.

 

[brandon.nickel]

Aha, that might be an even simpler answer.  I also have a calibrated strobe light that I use for inspecting rotating equipment.  Using that would be much simpler than mucking about with the vibration spectrum.  It has a digital  readout in Hz, so it'd be a quick speed reading.

 

[John Langevin]

Could we get Christian O. to weigh in on this? Surely someone at Festool knows the answers to this. I would think that at some point in their quality assurance process they would actually verify that each tool performed within a specified tolerance at each indicated speed, afterall they "suggest"  a specific range of speeds for different blades/cutters and materials.