Cutting with my TS 55 Track Saw is alway 2 MM Out

[Hopkinsstevea]

No matter how I cut when I line up the splinter guard with the marks I'm always 2 mm out on my cuts. Do you have to take into account the blade width and add it onto the measurement? It doesn't matter if I'm cutting a full sheet or using my MFT I'm always 2 mm out ...confused must be doing something wrong.     

 

[peterboy]

The bit you want to keep should be under the rail.

 

[Hopkinsstevea]

It is but it doesn't matter how many times I measure I'm always 2 mm out on my cuts its getting very frustrating , I put the splinter guard exactly on the marks and the piece I want to keep is under the rail

 

[peterboy]

Sorry I cant help with that, other than the rail must be moving The saw can't cut shorter than the splinter guard on the rail or it'll just trim the guard.

 

[tjbnwi]

Are you 2mm large or small?

Try this;

Make marks on the board, place rail, place saw on rail so when you plunge the blade it will be above the mark, plunge saw so it just kisses the the board, do the same over the second mark.

If the blade kerf does not nick the mark you'll have to replace or reset the strip.

Tom

 

[Hopkinsstevea]

thanks for your suggestion I'm currently not home right now I'm overseas working. I will have to try that when I get back home at the end of the month,Is it possible to cut the splinter guard wrong it seems like a pretty straight forward operation. I would have to have cut it wrong on my other guide rails as well   

 

[tjbnwi]

thanks for your suggestion I'm currently not home right now I'm overseas working. I will have to try that when I get back home at the end of the month,Is it possible to cut the splinter guard wrong it seems like a pretty straight forward operation. I would have to have cut it wrong on my other guide rails as well 

Happy New Year, you should be in 2017. For you my info could be so last year [big grin] [big grin] [doh]

Something is off, we have to figure out what.

Check all your rails.

Tom

 

[Ironmantrev]

Pretty hard to cut the strip wrong. When you place the saw on the rail, plunge it down, the blade can only go where the saw will allow it, straight down. On the first cut with the saw on the rail, your strip will be cut, and the strip and the blade will then be directly beside each other (zero clearance). In this case, the edge of the strip can then be placed on the marks for future cuts because you know the left side of the blade will be touching the right side (outside) of the strip as it cuts. Sorry if it comes across that I am talking down to you, this is not my intention, just want to break things down in simple terms.

Maybe a couple of other things could be the culprit.

Have you changed blades at all. I am pretty sure that most of the festool blades have the same kerf (1.8 or 2.2mm I believe, someone will chime in and shed light on this I am sure). But maybe this could account for the outage some how???

Did you set the saw up to the track before making your first cut? There are two green knobs on the base of the saw. These adjust the base to the track so there is no slop at all, sideways movement. If you have not done this, it could certainly be the reason you are 2mm out each cut. Maybe the way you cut always pushes the saw against the rail in one way that you get consistent cuts that are out 2mm. Adjust these knob size to guide the saw down the rail with precision.

I recently have noticed my 3000mm rail is out when ripping sheet goods maybe 1/2mm on one end. I have not broken down too many sheets but for some reason my strip,is out. No way when I place the strip up against the marks I am continually out by 1/2mm on one end. I'm in the midst of adjusting my strip over.  Is it possible that your strip is out (2mm would be a lot mind you, it would likely look like you have no strip poking out past the edge of the guide rail). I know you are not at home, but when you get the chance, put the saw on the rail, plunge the saw down, and then look to see if there is a gap,between the strip and the saw blade at various points along the entire rail, especially the first 1-2 feet of the rail or where you would commonly place the rail to line up the marks on the ends of you material. Of course do this while the saw is not plugged in.

Hope this helps and you get things figured out. These saws really are great, and the cuts they make can be incredible in accuracy and smoothness. Just be patient.

 

[Corwin]

When you cut the splinter strip, your saw does not cut all the way on either end leaving the ends uncut. If you then index off of those areas, your cut will be a little shorter than intended.

If this is your issue, and you have additional guide rails, you could join rails and then make a cut to trim the splinter strip.

 

[demographic]

Was recently working with a lad who also has a Festool saw, we were using his guide and my saw and consistently got about a 2mm difference between the guideline and sawcut.

Either at some point he's damaged a blade to the point where it was slightly wobbly (hitting a nail would do the trick I guess) and its trimmed the guard while the blade was slightly wobbly or he's adjusted his a lot more for wear then y saw is different.

Just throwing this other one out there but you are cutting with the guard on the part of wood you want too keep are you?
If you set the saw up on the waste side there will be a 2.2mm discrepancy (width of the blade) between the guide position and the edge of the sawcut on the bit of wood you want to keep.

 

[ear3]

When you are finished with the cut, is the splinterguard flush with the cut line, or is the wood 2mm out to the right from the splinterguard?

 

[tjbnwi]

Was recently working with a lad who also has a Festool saw, we were using his guide and my saw and consistently got about a 2mm difference between the guideline and sawcut.

Either at some point he's damaged a blade to the point where it was slightly wobbly (hitting a nail would do the trick I guess) and its trimmed the guard while the blade was slightly wobbly or he's adjusted his a lot more for wear then y saw is different.

Just throwing this other one out there but you are cutting with the guard on the part of wood you want too keep are you?
If you set the saw up on the waste side there will be a 2.2mm discrepancy (width of the blade) between the guide position and the edge of the sawcut on the bit of wood you want to keep.

Unless the saws have been matched this can happen. Once matched the saws can be used on rails from the other matched saws and the cut will line up.

Tom

 

[sancho57]

Just put some tick marks on some ply, line the rail up lower the blade just to where if you were to cut the tick marks would be cut, blade to the unside, then check your measurement

 

[antss]

[member=182]Corwin[/member] - you're not setting up your rails correctly if you have uncut splinter guard ends.

[member=13611]Hopkinsstevea[/member] - does your saw have excessive play when sitting on the guide rail ?  If so, it's possible you're pushing outboard during the cut moving the cut off the line. Doubtful it'd be 2mm though.

Not being able to see your setup or watch you cut , I'm going to take a WAG and say that you might be cutting on the wrong side of your workpiece.  The part you want to keep (the measured side) must be under the guide rail with the offcut to the right of the blade.    If you measured from right to left, placed your tic mark, then placed guide rail to the left of the tic mark - your piece would be exactly 2mm shorter than you measured. Actually 2.2mm , but I doubt you could tell .2mm with a tape measure.

 

[peter halle]

[member=727]antss[/member]

Actually your comment to [member=182]Corwin[/member] is not entirely accurate.  If you set up the saw to have both adjusting wheels / nibs / whatever you want to call them on the rail when you start your cut and end your cut then you will have uncut areas on both ends.

If this is the incorrect method then you should probably spend some time and effort advising and re-training the Festool trainers who do it exactly this way.

Peter

Peter

 

[tjbnwi]

I have at least 6 rails with uncut ends. To lazy connect rails to finish the cuts.

Tom

 

[tjbnwi]

I think we need to wait until the OP (I don't know his name) gets back home so he can test some of the suggestion. Hopefully he'll find the solution using this thread as a guide.

Tom

 

[Hopkinsstevea]

I do appreciate everyone's response and suggestions I am currently not able to check the saw or guide rails until i get home at the  end of the month. All the cuts that I wanted to keep were under the rail and were lined up exactly with the edge of the splinter guard. Maybe I'm pushing on the saw which is causing the error ? When I was using the Festool Parallel guides when I wanted 768 mm I had to set them at 766 to get an accurate cut of 768 mm. Just to clarify I did change the blade to a Fine Tooth Saw Blade but it has the same kerf 2.2 mm as the regular Standard Saw Blade. what a great forum guy's thanks for everyone's input but I'm still perplexed as to what the problem is

 

[antss]

peter - then how does one join multiple guide rails together and what then happens to the fat ends when you do  - and cut through them anyway ?

I also have no idea what the trainers in the U.S. are doing here now , but I'm pretty certain I've been using FT guide rails longer than any of them have and leaving the ends fat was not the way that was being shown when the AT saws landed here with the single ribbed FS guides.

So I stand by comments.

 

[sancho57]

I have at least 6 rails with uncut ends. To lazy connect rails to finish the cuts.

Tom

Hey me to...what's up with that