Advice on purchase of plunge saws

[GhostFist]

Festool vacs? Well worth it imo. Quieter more efficient, hepa filter, your systainers attach to them. Well worth it.

 

[ccarrolladams]

Thanks Seth,

I do have a couple of cheap vacs. They are a necessary when using the Domino Joiner. Are the Festool vacs that much better. I actually use a shop vac every day on the job.

Please tell me how the longer guides are easier to position. I was going to get the 55" and the 106" but I am listening.

Walt
Onley Woodworking Co.

[welcome] to The FOG, Walt

The big advantages to the Festool dust extractors are: Excellent HEPA filtration, so none of the collected dust is returned to the room; the amount of collection is adjustable, which is vital when sanding, but the plunge saws and Domino work swell with maximum collection; generally the Festool vacs, even on maximum, make less noise than top quality vacs and far less than most shop vacs.

I own many TS55 and a couple of TS75. My business is making custom cabinets in my large shop, so I seldom need to cut solid lumber or anything beyond the capacity of the TS55. However, when the TS75 was introduced I did need its capacity several times a week. My suggestion is to buy a TS55 now, before the 1 February 2013 price increase, then if that is not always powerful enough, look for a deal on a used TS75.

I own most of the rails Festool makes. When I bought my first TS55, I did not have a truck. I was not working on sites, but instead I rented space in shops belonging to friends on a project by project basis. I bought 3 of the 55" (1400mm) rails with the saw. I would use the single rail for short cuts and to align the other 2 when I coupled them. This way I did not need to separate the coupled rails during a job, when often it is most effective to go from long to short cut.

As soon as I bought a truck with a lumber rack, I purchased the 106" (2700mm) rail because that was the longest which would fit in the spare bedroom of my condo. That is just long enough to make a full 8' cut using a TS55, because you need room on the rail to start the cut and also to finish the cut. A few days later, when I knew I would be renting space in a fairly large shop, I bought the 118" (3000mm) rail, which is so much easier to use making the 8' cuts on plywood. Back then I also used the 3000mm rail to 'straight-line" rip solid raw lumber. For than I used the TS75 and before that the ATF65 which was discontinued to be replaced by the TS75. One of my extravagances as part of building my 2010 large shop was the 5000mm rail. We use a lot of 4x10' prefinished plywood, for which the 118"(300mm) rail is not enough, but even on an angle the 5000mm rail makes such cuts easy.

My TS75s came with the 75" (1900mm) rail. Those are necessary to make 48" cuts with the TS75 and allow length for angle cuts. They are needed when making a 45 degree miter on 48" sheet material even with the TS55.

Back in the old days, Festool offered a 42" (1080mm) rail milled for the LR32 system, or as we at FOG say, a Holy Rail. Now they offer a 55" (1400) Holy Rail. Honestly, for most cabinet sides, I find the shorter Holy Rail more convenient, but the longer one works fine. There is a device for setting the 32mm spacing correctly when coupling Holy rails that was introduced in early 2011. Festool does make a 95" (2424mm) Holy Rail for tall pantries and book cases. I am very glad I bought one of those years ago.

Even in my large shop, with both a CNC pressure beam and CNC sliding table saw, I find the TS55 and guide rails often more convenient when making a combination miter and bevel in plywood. The beam saw only makes right angles. The slider can make those cuts, but it takes time to set up, meaning it cannot be used for other important tasks.

 

[ceddy]

I would second all of Bob's comments. I have the TS75 and a few shorter rails. Connecting rails is easy and its easier to carry shorter rails around, but if precision and time are of the essence, then I would go for the longer rails. You can easily bang connected rails out of square... next thing you know your 7 foot cut is off. You can of course avoid this by checking for square before each cut, but then you are back to the time = $$$.

The TS75 is a fair bit heavier than the TS55, Its only about depth of cut. Others made 2 good points to consider : cutting multiple sheets at the same time and making bevel cuts... the TS75 will obviously have more capacity for this.

All this is pointless as we all know you will get both

 

[peter halle]

Walt,

Seth is offline right now, but I think that when he said that the 75" and the 118" were easier to position he was referring the amount of track needed at the being and end of the cut to ensure straight lines.  With the 75" versus the 55" and the 118" versus the 106" you gain rail at beginning and end so you don't spend as much time positioning on your material.

Peter

 

[Bob Marino]

Thanks Seth,

I do have a couple of cheap vacs. They are a necessary when using the Domino Joiner. Are the Festool vacs that much better. I actually use a shop vac every day on the job.

Please tell me how the longer guides are easier to position. I was going to get the 55" and the 106" but I am listening.

Walt
Onley Woodworking Co.

As mentioned above and add to that, adjustable suction, included hose and cord storage, you can save 10% off the price of the vac, when ordering with the TS saw - or any other corded tool, BTW.

Single long rails vs connecting 2 shorter rails? Essentially, speed and accuracy, without any adjustments. Connecting 2 rails is simple and quick and is the way to go if storage, transportation  or price are considerations. If not the ease of just placing the one rail down and cutting is preferred.

Bob

 

[MrToolJunkie]

One thing to consider too is if you are cutting steel doors -- if so, the TS75 is the way to go.  If just processing sheet goods and other wood doors, then I think that the 55 will work.  I opted for the 75 since I also process a lot of hardwood and it works well on plywood too.  I think that the 55 is better suited to this task and I enjoyed using one in all of the Festool end-user training classes.  You really cannot go wrong with either choice and it depends on what you will use it for the bulk of the time.

Welcome to the Forum, BTW...

Scot

 

[semenza]

Walt,

Seth is offline right now, but I think that when he said that the 75" and the 118" were easier to position he was referring the amount of track needed at the being and end of the cut to ensure straight lines.  With the 75" versus the 55" and the 118" versus the 106" you gain rail at beginning and end so you don't spend as much time positioning on your material.

Peter

Yes, when the rails are just long enough you need to be more picky about the amount of extra rail  left on each end in order to not have the saw run off the track at the end of the cut.

The 118" is also nice when straight line ripping "eight foot" boards  that may be rough length.

Seth

 

[waltwood]

Thank you all. Obviously many talented and wealthy [big grin]folks on this site. i was not going to join the 2 55" rails together, I wanted to know why a 106" guide would not be long enough to rip an 8' piece of ply and I understand fully now.
You all are a bad influence with the suggestion of buying both, because I am very tempted when it comes to tool purchases. I am going to buy the TS55 .
I do bevel ply and the best of table saws does not guarantee a good job doing that and it sounds like this is the tool for it. I have made decent saw guides for many years and they do not work for beveling or they have to be just for beveling and not square cuts.

Walt