Festool CSC SYS 50 Tablesaw

Sounds good.  Just a quick check, everyone's sliding table is flat using a ruler check edge to edge?  The thinner bevel side of mine seems to be flared up a tiny bit.
 
luvmytoolz said:
I really like that in the email today announcing the unveiling of this new saw to the OZ market, one of the features is that it's more precise than a yard stick!

That follows with the old joke of "How long is a piece of string?"
It's rhetorical and irrelevant at the same time.

and "It speaks your language" is even funnier. It doesn't "speak" at all.
How about "It is language adjustable"?  not so hard to be accurate and still succinct.
 
woodferret said:
ElectricFeet said:
Edit to add: there’s no way I’m going to experiment with mine though. That’d be a pretty big warranty-voiding act [eek]
I got antsy and disassembled mine.
[member=72072]woodferret[/member] Very grateful for this. Out of curiosity, is everything you disassembled in line with what the manual says you can touch/do?

It’s surprising that they didn’t include a way to calibrate this part. When I completely stripped down my OF CMS router fence, I was impressed by just how perfectly orthogonal, straight and parallel I could get it to be (though I wasn’t impressed that it wasn’t like that when I bought it  ::) ). I don’t see why they couldn’t have done this here. 

I’m intrigued by those plastic / risers / plates or “wedges” as Ekat describes them (under which you placed your shims). The bolts are easily accessible without dismantling anything, yet the manual makes no reference to them. Any clues as to what they are and why they are not used for adjusting the front / back tilt?
[attachimg=1]
 

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ElectricFeet said:
woodferret said:
ElectricFeet said:
Edit to add: there’s no way I’m going to experiment with mine though. That’d be a pretty big warranty-voiding act [eek]
I got antsy and disassembled mine.
[member=72072]woodferret[/member] Very grateful for this. Out of curiosity, is everything you disassembled in line with what the manual says you can touch/do?

It’s surprising that they didn’t include a way to calibrate this part. When I completely stripped down my OF CMS router fence, I was impressed by just how perfectly orthogonal, straight and parallel I could get it to be (though I wasn’t impressed that it wasn’t like that when I bought it  ::) ). I don’t see why they couldn’t have done this here. 

I’m intrigued by those plastic / risers / plates or “wedges” as Ekat describes them (under which you placed your shims). The bolts are easily accessible without dismantling anything, yet the manual makes no reference to them. Any clues as to what they are and why they are not used for adjusting the front / back tilt?
[attachimg=1]

Ya, it got me that there was no adjustment considering they've been normally pretty good at that.  If there is, it seems to be hidden in the top assembly, which wouldn't make much sense.

The plastic wedges and screws is referenced in the section titled "12.2 Adjusting the sliding table height [18]"  They can be totally used for front-back tilt.  Xere and my issue was lateral tilt (because the underbody is formed tilted ever so minutely in our case).

I'm sure new revisions of this SKU will just throw in a pack of various shim plates like the DF500 does with the flappers.

* and yes, the manual actually seems correct.  Although it makes it seem like the front and back caps come off easily, which as Xere mentioned, tends to break.  I already broke one of them.  Not needed unless you want to touch the eccentric screw.
 
woodferret said:
The plastic wedges and screws is referenced in the section titled "12.2 Adjusting the sliding table height [18]"  They can be totally used for front-back tilt.  Xeres and my issue was lateral tilt (because the underbody is formed tilted ever so minutely in our case).
Ah, missed that. Thanks.

So which screws did you remove to disassemble down to the wedges?
 
ElectricFeet said:
So which screws did you remove to disassemble down to the wedges?

The ones under the caps 18-1, 18-2.  Don't know what EKAT part no they were.
 
Should be 63 and 50 according to below ekat. Very easy (one silver screw second one black screw not the same screwdriver for each of them) to do and then access to the part 12 to insert the shim under.

I had Festool FR on the phone explained them the process to fix it, they understand it and will check with Factory and engineering if something more "professional" can be done but so far it worked for me.

Please note that the caps 1 on ekat are easy to break when removing, this sounds to be on purpose by Festool, but no need to touch them. They will send me a pair of replacement as I broke one.





woodferret said:
ElectricFeet said:
So which screws did you remove to disassemble down to the wedges?

The ones under the caps 18-1, 18-2.  Don't know what EKAT part no they were.
 
[member=72072]woodferret[/member] @xeres Thanks to both of you. This is really helpful.

Interesting that the most easily-breakable part is number 1 on the spare parts list  ;D
 
I should point out that the black one is a small torx bit. It's far enough down that I thought it was a hex until I got it out.
 
woodferret said:
I should point out that the black one is a small torx bit. It's far enough down that I thought it was a hex until I got it out.

I understand that Torx and Hex have different applications, and thus may be used in different places on a given piece of equipment, but I call down a pox on any engineer who mixes them on the same product. 

To wit, I was a bit aggravated when BMW Motorrad decided to switch from Hex to Torx on their bikes because I had built up a fair number of hex tools for my '99, but they at least did so fairly uniformly on the entire bike, so you didn't need to guess which was which when you were working on something.
 
Ok I finally got my 2 table aligned without the 0.3° angle.  [big grin]

Now my issue is more with the 45° angle. I measure my blade at 90° exactly my table at 0° then I put the saw at 45° and the measured angle is 45°7  [scared] [eek]
Where those 0.7° come from...


 
The discrepancy could come either or both of the inclinometer (which has a tolerance) and the table saw (which also has a tolerance).

I suggest that you make some cuts (at 90* and at 45*) with some flat scraps, and check the results with a trusted combo square or measuring tool.
 
I’m just confused as to why there is a reason to tear apart a brand new saw?
Is festool selling an inferior product ? Is this a saw that can’t be used right out of the box ?
 
Xere said:
Where those 0.7° come from...

Teeth set.  Not much space for a digital angle reader so it's very likely riding on a tooth.  I think a combo square would be more accurate than these things.
 
What woodferret said!

Also, measuring the blade angle is only the starting point. What counts is the actual cut angle.

In addition to the tooth affecting the blade reading the blade blank itself is only mostly flat. Rotating the blade can result in a different reading although the difference will be less than the resolution of the inclinometer. 1/10th degree is not as small as you think.
 
Also, remove that label, which will not be doing you any favours while levelling. It can be re-stuck on the inside of the systainer.
 
Vondawg said:
I’m just confused as to why there is a reason to tear apart a brand new saw?
Is festool selling an inferior product ? Is this a saw that can’t be used right out of the box ?
I’ve been using it for months and it’s great.

It’s a jobsite saw and the accuracy is great for that — and out of the box.

After a while, you bump into a project that demands extreme accuracy and you may need to tinker to get this. Should you need/want to, the manual explains how to change the height of the sliding table and how to adjust any front/back tilt.

The manual doesn’t, however, explain how to adjust any left/right tilt at the front or back of the sliding table (or both).

The good news that [member=72072]woodferret[/member] has given us in this thread is that you can do this fairly easily and by using screws that the manual indicates are there for user adjustments.

It’s not really tearing the saw apart, it’s just unscrewing the sliding table and adding shims underneath. I’m thrilled I can do this myself without sending it in for service.
 
[member=80651]Xere[/member] As others have said, with this saw and the standard blade, you can’t use a digital angle gauge, as it hits the teeth. You could try putting it on the riving knife if you want a little more accuracy.

However, on the subject of digital angle gauges / inclinometers, remember also:

1) While the resolution of the gauge is generally 0.1 degree, they often only have an accuracy of =/- 0.2 degrees (check your manual)
2) Cheap ones are often inconsistent and rarely read the same measurement twice
2) Measuring a tilted blade is different than measuring 90. The gauge must be attached perfectly orthogonal to the up/down axis of the blade. Difficult to explain in words; here’s a picture:
[attachimg=1]

In the first pic, I did my best to get the gauge orthogonal. In the second, I deliberately tilted it backwards to show how the angle changes.

For getting the 90-degree measurement, don’t use a digital angle gauge. Use a good-quality, known-good square, making sure you place it between the teeth. As for the 45-degree measurement, if the 90 degree measurement is good, then trust Festool to do the rest. I’m 99.8% sure(*) that their tilt mechanism is better than any of our digital gauges.

(*) to +/- 0.2 accuracy
 

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Vondawg said:
I’m just confused as to why there is a reason to tear apart a brand new saw?
Is festool selling an inferior product ? Is this a saw that can’t be used right out of the box ?

I've only had my saw just shy of 1 month, and I haven't put it to a lot of use so far. I didn't notice that my sliding table ran slightly higher than the saw deck until I specifically looked. I adjusted mine using the instructions in the manual and I think that fully took care of things without resorting to shims and disassembly.
But even when it was off, it made perfect miter cuts with the blade tilted at 45° straight out of the box. On mine the table being a bit off has had no affect on the what I've used it for.

It has some shortcomings, and some things to "get used to", as do all other machine tools. I'm not regretting buying it, even at the price it comes for. If I were, I'd be hauling back to my dealer to send it back, and picking up a Saw Stop.
 
If the teeth get in the way, raise the inclinometer above the teeth by placing a flat magnet on the blade. Check the magnet (disc or bar) for eveness/parallelism first.
 
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