For posterity...
[Thanks [member=4404]Acrobat[/member] for sharing your workaround!]
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Source for 1st photo]
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Source for 2nd photo]
Alternatively, it seems like a simple matter to build a plywood CMS insert expressly designed to accept the Neutechnik table (the plastic table could be reinforced from underneath quite easily to counter concerns of stability & longevity) such to allow the professional user the huge advantages of both an overhead blade guard/guide and above and below-the-table dust collection. For inspiration:
And, to pickup on what an earlier poster pointed out, how disappointing is it to discover that although a company like (the original) Triton so elegantly (and decades ago!) solved the issue of a jigsaw blade wandering when mounted upside down in a table...
...companies like Festool (and Bosch/Wolfcraf, etc.) stubbornly persist in offering substandard jigsaw tables (that lack an overhead blade guide & above-the-table dust collection)? I mean, just look again at what the poor bloke in the above photo had to cobble together just to make his jigsaw module* safe and (therefore) usable!
Like the MFT/3, the CMS table features a beefy extrusion that runs right round its perimeter - a great place to clamp an overhead arm assembly akin to what was included in the Triton jigsaw kit (such an assembly could even clamp to three sides for added stability). But, alas, such a worthwhile accessory doesn't exist.
My disappointment over this glaring absence is not unlike what I feel having just stumbled upon the fact that a) there was an earlier iteration of the CMS system (called "
Basis") that b) featured not only t-slots on the face of at least three modules but c) a pull-saw module (!) that benefitted from proper knobs for raising, lowering and tilting the blade! Knowing this, how are the current CMS-TS modules (and the CMS base table itself) not a perfect example of devolution (rather than evolution)? Why are such worthwhile features missing from the CMS family? Anyone?
FWIW I am a (now somewhat disillusioned) owner of a CMS GE router table and a TS 75 module
and someone who thought long & hard over the Precisio(s) and Mafell Erika (pull saws) before ultimately deciding on the CMS. And, similar to other dedicated CMS-TS owners, I've had to jury-rig a featherboard to the face of the miter gauge (the lack of even a single t-slot in the table unnecessarily complicates the addition of this obligatory safety feature), live without the safety benefits and added utility of a pull saw and fiddle around with setting blade angles. Plus, I've also decided against adding the CMS jigsaw module (and what would have been a new PS 300 EQ-Plus jigsaw) to my existing Festool collection. I'll stick to my Bosch, thank you very much, and devise something to incorporate a Neutechnik table into my CMS (building upon the former's blade guard/guide and above and below-the-table allowance for dust collection).
