Festool Precisio CS 70 Review

[MikkelF]

Hi Henrik,

I have been looking at the CS 70 for some time now due to limited space in my shop - I asked some question about it some time back, but still would really like to hear your feedback on it - I have some questions below you might be able to address?:

When you write "...the CS70 it is a saw that is neither here nor there for me at the moment. It has nowhere near the precision or processing power, capacity and repeatability of the shop saw..." does that mean the fence is moving while sawing or just hard to set at a precise measurement or?

What about the sliding table - is that capable or just a gadget in your opinion?

How about dust control? Does that compare to their track saws or is it less effective?

 

[sebcbien]

Hello,
I've had 3 CS70 table saw.
I have to say, as much as I "love" Festool tools, the CS70 is not a very precise table.
First, the motor/blade is mounted on a plastic mount with 3 points that slides on steel rails. the whole assembly is not rigid and worse it pivot slightly when cutting.
The blade is usually not parallel to the table (I suggest everyone with a CS 70 to take two squares and verify the squareness of the borders of the table vs the blade...)
Adjustments to the fence has to be made (I had the LA fence) to be parallel to the blade, but then it's not square to the table.
So, when you use the sliding table or the mobile fence attached to another side of the table, it's not 90°.
All in all, I took time to try fix this, bought two other second hand CS70 that where a little better, but at the end .. I bought a Dewalt DWE7492 and I'm very happy.
It take less space, cost 1/2 the price, do not need expensive extension tables and can be adjusted to make perfect cuts.
I'm from Belgium, where CS 70 is more easily available than in US (I think so ?) and in the US, where you have other tables that are very good like the sawstop... I think I would not buy a CS70.

the CS70, with the extension tables takes a lot of space and removing them takes times... so t the end, it's always "expanded".
That's one big point for the dewalt, more cut width available than the CS 70 with the extension table and down to a small table in 5 seconds.
CS70 dust collection is ok, like almost all festools tools
CS70 sliding table is ok, but in my opinion, more to cross cut laminated parquet than large stocks

 

[mikkelfilskov]

Sorry for the late reply, but I couldn't post my reply for some strange reason.
Your reply answered all my questions and the CS 70 has now been removed from the list. Any suggestion for a compact  tablesaw that has effective dust control, precise fence and t-slots?

 

[sancho57]

[member=37874]sebcbien[/member]

Very nce review. I have found similar issues with the TS 75 module i the CMS. I have been tempted to sell it along with TS 75 as I have a TS 55 that I use for well just about everything I do. I have been looking at getting a old Makita table saw, the old green one 2308 (I think) The old ones were work horses and very good on site.

Still kicking it around. I really dont know what or how much to sell the module with side extension and fence for.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I can totally not find myself in sebcbien's review of the CS70.

I can cut perfect 90 or 45 degree corners, or anything else. First time I got my saw, which I also bought used, I took some time to adjust everything to my liking. There are a lot of adjustment screws all over the table and extensions and it does take some fiddling to get it right. But since then it always worked perfectly, and I haven't done any adjusting since. The saw carriage always runs fine over it's bars, there's no play there whatsoever. Make sure the felt tips are in good shape. Or installed at all.

Only the CS 70 LA fence isn't that marvelous, I prefer to use the standard fence.   

 

[sebcbien]

Hi Alex, we are neighbours  [smile]
Maybe you have luck with yours... or I have bad luck with my second hands buy's ... I had 3 CS70, I've tested like 3 others (second hand), and none where perfectly square.. the sellers where surprised...

The problem is that, if the blade is not square to the table, then you cannot adjust it, there is no way to correct the alignment, not a single screw....
As for "play", indeed, there was no play in mine too, I should have used the word "flexible"; With just one finger I was able to move the blade when pushing laterally at the back of the blade, it's way more flexible than many other tables I've tested, like Mafel erika, robland, and the dewalt I bought. When pushing "too hard" MDF stock for example, and with no cover on the blade I could clearly see that the blade was under cutting because I received more dust in my face... hence the flexibility.

Of course the LA 70 fence can be adjusted to be parallel to the blade and my cuts where straight.

Can you test yours with two squares against the left edge of the table? I usually had at least 1mm gap trough the length of the blade. The rear of the blade was under-cutting the wood and slightly pushing away the stock from the fence. on all my CS 70 .. I even tought at a moment that it was intentional to no pinch the stock to the fence and avoid kick back..

I do not say that all CS 70 are like mine, your can be perfectly square, I do just encourage buyers to take their squares with them when buying a CS 70. It's a pitty that I do not had taken pictures, and now they are gone.

Now that I 'm writing I also remember that the surface of the table was not flat near the right of the blade, and when cutting narrow pieces the cut was not 90° vertically because of that.

As positive I have to say that the splinterguard is effective if you do not want to change the blade from rough cut to finish cut. easier to change that than to change the blade. The motor was powerfull and the speed adjust can be a selling point.

I really do like Festool tools, I have almost all my tools in Festool and they perform great and way better than other brands..

Here is one small video where I explained how to "joint" on my CS 70 (my way  [cool])
It's in french, but you can select English closed captions

 

[sebcbien]

I was doing like this to check the blade alignment to the table and the fence. (Here on my dewalt)

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