ccarrolladams
Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2010
- Messages
- 1,451
WarnerConstCo. said:
People who live in places without 480v 3 phase service and want powerful motors have no choice except using step-up transformers and phase converters. However, please be aware turning 220v 1 phase into 480v 3 phase will about double the KW you need to pay for and almost always the rate per KW for residential 1 phase service is far higher than industrial 480v 3 phase service.
Let me discuss my experience with wonderful and large sliding table saws relative to using Festool TS55/TS75 and guide rails:
Prior to building my current almost 20,000 sq foot shop in an industrial zone with 480v 3 phase service (1500 KVA) I had owned an Altendorf F45 with a 12' slider. I sold that and my other fixed shop equipment because I no longer had the time to run my cabinet business along with my other businesses. I liked the Altendorf, but honestly without a helper it was not very effective to handle full 4x8 or 4x10 sheets of 18mm cabinet plywood. Cross cuts could also be difficult depending on the size.
Between then and 2010 Pressure Beam saws were marketed for shop use, especially by Holzma, which is another division of Holmag Group, which also owns Altendorf, Weeki, Schmaltz and a lot of other European manufacturers. Except for Schmalz vacuum lifts in the USA they are sold by another division called Stiles.
The advantage of the Beam Saw, which is CNC controlled, is that the saw moves through and under the sheet material. In my case a single Schmalz lift easily lets a single person place sheets on either the saw or the nearby CNC nested router. Both machines can handle 5x12' material. The beam saw makes marvelous quality cuts to 0.1mm accuracy very fast: seldom more than 90 seconds to break down a 4x10 sheet into a lot of parts. My beam saw can cut 3 shhet stack at a time if we need a whole lot of identical parts. That is the way beam saws are usually used in factories and some can cut 5 sheets at once. We rarely cut more than one sheet at a time because we don't need so many parts. The downside is the beam saw cannot bevel nor is it efficient doing miter cuts. But it cannot be beat when all corners are right angles, which I find is 90+% of my cabinet case work.
For my new shop I tried a new Martin slider with a 10' table. Then I tried a Felder Format 4 Kappa 550 E-Motion. To me that is the most effective such saw on the market. Mine has CNC control of the rip fence as well as the stop on the cross cut, and of course blade speed, elevation and bevel angle. Still, it is awkward for breaking down sheet material. I had expected to use it for the odd angle miters and bevels I could not do on the beam saw. It is located next to the beam saw but cannot share the Schmalz lift. I do still appreciate the Kappa 550. Where it is outstanding is working with heavy solid hardwood planks. Those can be clamped to the long sliding table. With a 15hp motor and a 550mm rip blade cutting a thick plank is like butter.
We keep the Kappa 550 so busy turning hardwood into frames and door planks we returned to using guide rails as long as 5000mm with TS55 to do all the odd angle and bevel jobs. We built a 4x18' cutting table which is positioned so it can share the Schmalz lift. Once the sheet of 4x8 or 4x10 is on the cutting table, easily and safely done by one person, one cabinet maker can position the guide rails and make the cuts alone with the TS55. We do have a massive protractor on the cutting table. It is made for slider saws and is very accurate. To me the advantage is that the Festool TS55 is being moved through the work, so I am pushing the saw and not a heavy sheet. Also, like the beam saw, since the work stays stationary while being cut, there is a lot less risk of scratching delicate surfaces. Remember, with a sliding table, one part of the cut is actually moving on a stationary table.
Probably it would be hard to justify a large CNC nested router, a Beam Saw or a Kappa 550 in a small volume shop. Each needs a 25' square operating area, and the CNC router uses 40hp of vacuum for the hold down in addition to 15hp for the router. The beam saw only needs 10hp for the saw and scoring saw and a couple of hp for the air lift table. My Kappa 550 has a 15hp motor for the saw, a 2hp motor for the scoring unit, which we seldom use, and about 1 hp for the electronics. To collect chips and dust when both the CNC router and beam saw are in simultaneous operation, we need our 40 hp plant DC system.
