Festool Precisio CS 70 Review

[MichaelW2014]

Michael: I am surprised at your troubles with the CS70. I had one with all accessories for a couple of years and once set up it was very accurate and solid. Are you running the LA rip fence? It is a must have (I think) and it was only lack of space in my smaller work shop that caused me to sell the CS70. The projects I ran on that saw always came out great regardless of size timber or panel. Set up took a few hours but once set up all the add ons could be removed and reinserted with no loss of accuracy.
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I always liked the Erica 70/85 but the weight puts me off a little - as it did with the CS70.

We have a large format saw at the larger shop so I didn't really need the CS70 (nor the Erika) and with all the bells and whistles it was too heavy for on site work. I replaced it with a Bosch XC10 which did a good job too - but I no longer have it, I don't haul that size saw around anymore. If I had a medium sized shop and could not fit a larger saw I would still be very happy with the CS70, and in a pinch, the XC10.

i was surprised too. some of my issues might be related to myself being somewhat of a novice but there is no mistaking the fence being misaligned, which i think is horrendous and inexcusable for such an expensive tool.

btw, i mostly make picture frames and furniture. i just started to get into joinery. so small mistakes, small inaccuracies are often big problems to me.

that bosch gets a lot of talk. my friend has one too. waiting to hear how he likes it.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Michael, have you succeeded in contacting Festool germany already? Did they give you an answer?

If you have trouble with the fence, perhaps it could be solved if they send you a new one.

 

[MichaelW2014]

Michael, have you succeeded in contacting Festool germany already? Did they give you an answer?

If you have trouble with the fence, perhaps it could be solved if they send you a new one.

Hi Alex. I am still trying to contact festool. so far my retailer and the local greek rep. have been resistent to helping me. my german retailer wants me to bring the machine to my technician, which i cannot do as i do not have a car nor a truck. and it is obvious that the problem is the fence so why must i bring the entire machine across the city?

or i can send it to germany festool hq. so neither is possible.

i sent a message to festool international on friday. hopefully they will get back to me soon. all i want is a new miter fence. hopefully the next one will be better. the actual fence part of the miter gauge is not tall enough, by about 2 mm.

thanks for your follow up alex. i appreciate it.

 

[rizzoa13]

Well i wouldn't just want to send you a new fence either if i were them. What if the fence isn't the actual problem what if its how the fence is mounting or something of that nature. It's only fair that if you want them to fix it you let them look at it. The issue may be obvious to you but haven't not seen it how can your festool rep know the issue?

How do you get around town with such an expensive machine? You must have some way of getting it places.

 

[MichaelW2014]

Well i wouldn't just want to send you a new fence either if i were them. What if the fence isn't the actual problem what if its how the fence is mounting or something of that nature. It's only fair that if you want them to fix it you let them look at it. The issue may be obvious to you but haven't not seen it how can your festool rep know the issue?

How do you get around town with such an expensive machine? You must have some way of getting it places.

Yeah, ok, they have reason to be skeptical, but on the other hand, the technician agreed with me. And I think the tech should have come to my house and seen the machine in person. It's their responsibility to see that my machine works as it is supposed to--that is the deal we agreed to when i paid them $2,500 or whatnot.

i don't get around town with this machine. i don't own a car. i live in athens, we have a great metro system here.

 

[AlexThePalex]

my german retailer wants me to bring the machine to my technician, which i cannot do as i do not have a car nor a truck. and it is obvious that the problem is the fence so why must i bring the entire machine across the city?

That saw is a €2000 investment, I strongly suggest you bring it in. It is logical that your Festool retailer wants to see the whole saw and not just the fence.

You don't have car, but Greece has public transport, right? I don't have a car either, I've taken the bus with my CS70. Heck, I've driven the CS70 with a cart behind my bicycle. Get a cab, or ask a neigbour to drive you. There are many ways to get around the "no car" problem.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I don't think your problem can be fixed with just a new fence; when mine was off, it was off the same amount with the standard fence; my mft3 fence, and the CS70LA fence.

My guess was that the origin of the problem was the saw itself developped som kind of twist caused by lots of transport and not always being on an even surface. (Never found out though; and in your case the transport cannot be the issue  [wink])

 

[MichaelW2014]

my german retailer wants me to bring the machine to my technician, which i cannot do as i do not have a car nor a truck. and it is obvious that the problem is the fence so why must i bring the entire machine across the city?

That saw is a €2000 investment, I strongly suggest you bring it in. It is logical that your Festool retailer wants to see the whole saw and not just the fence.

You don't have car, but Greece has public transport, right? I don't have a car either, I've taken the bus with my CS70. Heck, I've driven the CS70 with a cart behind my bicycle. Get a cab, or ask a neigbour to drive you. There are many ways to get around the "no car" problem.

Yes, yes, it must be sorted out. It seems like my rep is talking with festool and i think they are nearly willing to send me a new fence. Honestly, i can't take it on the metro. That would be too crazy, even for me. I have taken all kinds of ridiculous things on the metro, but this is too much. I don't have any friends to call on to move my saw for me in this city that is largely new to me.

You are more brave than me ("cart behind my bicycle")!

 

[wrightwoodwork]

Just a thought I not 100% sure how the fence mounts on the pressio saw as I don't have. I can't imagine it being that radically different to the erika. Is the surface that fence clamps to square. If not that might be your problem area

 

[Frank-Jan]

The cs70 has the same V-groove sideprofile as the cms and the mft3. (the upper part of the mft3  profile, so without the bottom T-slot)

(googled image, shows the cms and the mft)

(btw, I like your youtube videos about the mafell tools)

 

[MichaelW2014]

i'm not a fan of this v groove attachment type. seems to me that festool created this awkward system just to keep out competitors and force customers to buy more of their products (add-ons).

 

[greg mann]

i'm not a fan of this v groove attachment type. seems to me that festool created this awkward system just to keep out competitors and force customers to buy more of their products (add-ons).

I see it differently. The v-groove allows for quick and easy placement and removal of attachments and far better repeatability than a t-slot. Many users have come up with their own adaptations to the grooves that are quite ingenious. The v-grooves have been around for quite a long time on some of the tools, including the CS70, and were added to the MFT more recently. This has created more continuity and consistency to the product line, not less. As an example miter saw extensions can be attached to the router table or the MFT for support when you are working on long stock. Is this good for Festool? Sure, but it is good for us too.

 

[AlexThePalex]

With the V-groove anything you add is laying directly on the table instead of hanging on the side. Makes more sense to me because the extension is now both supported and referenced by the table.   

 

[MichaelW2014]

from what i have seen, the attachment of the miter fence onto the v groove is sloppy. if it were precise then maybe i would feel differently about the v groove design. i'd bet it could be precise, but it isn't in my case. i like that you can attach the miter fence any part of the edge of the machine. but i don't like it at the cost of precision. i'd prefer a t-slot that borders the entire machine and accepts third party parts. that would be ideal.

i have also heard, from other users, that the rip fence for the cs 70 is crappy, difficult to adjust. if the outer attachment slot had incremental stop positions then it would be awesome.

so the third negative is that it is not a universal system. sure, you can always figure out a way to build you own add-ons, but i am not a machinist and i don't want to spend my time building tools, or paying to have them built, unless absolutely necessary. incra has a beautifully designed t-track system and fence with incredible repositioning actions. the v groove is nothing close to this despite the probably enormous manufacturing capabilities of Festool. The CS 70 kind of seems like an after thought. They can probably afford to make the most precise and intelligent mini table saw. Why don't they?

so i'm really not impressed with the design of the v groove. it's not so intelligent. maybe it needs another few evolutionary steps to get it to it's full potential--it seems half-baked to me.

i can't comment on other aspects of the v-groove system.

 

[DJW]

I don't understand why everyone hates the rip fence. It works great in my opinion, big knob sets it parallel to the blade, lever locks it front and back, with a simple but effective micro adjust, plus the sub fence which can be brought forward for rips in timber. Easy, accurate and solid.

 

[greg mann]

I don't understand why everyone hates the rip fence. It works great in my opinion, big knob sets it parallel to the blade, lever locks it front and back, with a simple but effective micro adjust, plus the sub fence which can be brought forward for rips in timber. Easy, accurate and solid.

You just described how mine works.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I don't hate the ripfence, I used it extensively this afternoon when cutting rebates.

I rarely use it because it's a bit of a hassle to mount and take off.
With the V-groove and the coarse thread on the knob you can quickly install  and reïnstall the standard fence to switch from ripping to crosscutting.

Due to the micro-adjust, you have to slide the ripfence in from the side (extra hassle if the sidetable is installed) The extra long auxiliary fence on it is nice, but if you don't have the rear extension installed, (so the blade is in the middle position for ripping) and you don't want it extending past the center of the blade, it sticks out quite a bit towards you.

A lot of people say the standard fence is "crap, garbage,etc." and the CSLA is a musthave; because you can bend the standard fence out of allignment if you push hard enough. But... in most cases you don't need to push that hard towards the fence, just guide it smoothly along.

If I'm ripping stuff that's a bit unwieldy I'm glad I have CSLA; but the microadjust isn't so usefull that I would install the CSLA if I didn't need the extra sturdyness. (It's not like the precision of a rack and pinion adjust as on a stationary saw, more like the microadjust on the edgeguide for the routers)

I want to add a paragraph about what else I like about the system with the V-groove, but I'm way too tired and it's way past my bedtime.

 

[MichaelW2014]

I think I am going to buy the rip fence CS LA. Maybe I will be able to make intricate cuts on small pieces of wood for picture frames. Any comments on this, please?

 

[AlexThePalex]

I don't hate the rip fence, but it does have its flaws in my opinion. One knob to lock it in front and back, that's the theory, but when I do that, mine isn't straight. I always have to make sure both the front and back are aligned properly. When I tighten the knob, I can see the fence move slightly under the pressure. Maybe my fence has developed a flaw over time others don't have. It has been used by a contractor in its previous life.

I found the micro adjust totally unnecessary and interfere with smooth operation of the fence so I removed it completely.

I always go for the standard fence if I can because it works great for me, but when I really need the rip fence I use it without hesitation. Just remember to align it thoroughly and off I go.

 

[MichaelW2014]

"but when I do that, mine isn't straight." Eh, yuck. Now I am totally put off on the fence.

If we all could agree on some of the fundamental problems with the fence(s) then we could sign a petition or some kind of letter that we could jointly send to Festool to let them know we want a better fence for the CS machines. They might actually take notice.