The AT65E was an older saw. It was discontinued around the same time Festool changed their name from Festo to Festool. There are some differences between the older saw and the current Festool plunge saws.
The saw base is plated steel instead of the alloy used on the current saws. The steel was very well formed, stiff, and flat. Since it's the zink plated steel festool uses alot you'll probably need to wax it occasionally to prevent rust and insure it rides smoothly on the tracks.
To adjust the saw to the tracks you need to use a hex wrench. The saw came out before Festool had designed the knob adjusment system.
The saw doesn't lock in the plunged position, so you either need to keep it pushed down when changing blades, or rig something.
The saw uses 190mm x 30mm blades. These still seem to be available from some festool dealers and may still be avsilable from Festool. There are also blade manufacturers that make the size because it was and I believe still is used by a number of European tool manufacturers.
The AT65E was also heavier than the newer saws. The saw is listed as 14.8 lbs. whereas the current larger TS75 EQ is listed as 13.4 lbs., and the TS55 REQ is listed at 9.9 lbs.
No PlugIt cord.
The dust port is an integral part of the blade guard casting. To deflect saw dust when using the saw without dust collection, there is/was a snall rubber piece that fit on the cast port, that could be stowed on the saw when not in use. You need the Festool rubber dust end, or an adaptor to use the saw with a vacuum dust hose. I'm not sure the situation with the new festool dust collector hose ends.
The saw has a 1500w motor. The current TS75EQ has a 1600w motor, and the TS55REQ has a 1200w motor. The saw does have variable speed.
The rip fence used an older single rod design similar to the ones made for a lot of lower cost circular saws, rather than the dual rod type that comes with the current Festool saws. I believe I've still seen these listed for sale.
There was an attachment that attached to the blade side of the saw base to hel provide support when making bevelled cuts.
There was no plastic anti-splinter insert for the AT65E.
I've checked on replacement blade flange lock nuts. The older design is for some reason sort of expensive compared with the one for the current TS75EQ saws. I'm not sure why, since both saws use 30mm arbor blades.
The riving knife didn't retract when doing plunge cuts, so it would need to be removed for plunge cuts.
According to the Festool 2005 catalogue, the AT65E sold for $525. I believe when Festool discontinued and clearanced the saws the price was around $420.
