Festool TKS ..Mafell Erica

[FestitaMakool]

You may still have this option, for CS 70 - it may fit the TKS:https://www.toolmax.nl/cs-70-st-sch...ource=tradetracker_4312&utm_medium=affiliate#

And Germany:
https://www.festool.de/zubehoer/488059---cs-70-st#Übersicht

Or KA-KS CS 50/70It will fit any Festool work station or saw, including CS 50 and TKS)
https://www.festool.de/zubehoer/488063---cs-70-ka#Übersicht

The slider mention on top here has support feet. Straight out it’s meant for CS 70 - with some tweaking it may be adapted to the CS 50 or TKS - no guarantees though.
I’ve been thinking of making a gliding support ala the ones you find on bigger sliders to support longer and more heavy stock. But, it’s not an priority for me right now, as I’m have another saw with supported slider that handles larger stock.

That said, I use my slider quite a lot in fact. I’ve cut a lot of 12”/30cm/300mm wide boards that are 2m in length instead of using the Kapex. Results even with use of the small slider and protractor as guide and holding the rest of the stock slightly above my MFT/3 with the other hand has worked well. The cuts have been square.On a note, this has not been extremely critical work. I do use the pull functionality quite often too. So all in all, most rip cuts, but it is nearly 1/3 of each method.

 

[urowho]

Massive favour to ask, can anyone do a short video of the TKS 80 cross cutting something the size of a 30-40cm shelf on the sliding table (along with what the tear out looks like) and someone else do a quick video of the Erika doing the same video with the push/pull saw?

It would be great to eyeball the safety, quality and ergonomics of those two. All I can see on youtube are people sliding brand new saw parts backwards and forwards or slicing sausages (festool) or that nice Scottish chippy doing suicidal cuts with huge bits of ply in his back garden, others cutting 2x2 (Erika). I find it impossible to part with this amount of money for either without seeing what they are actually like and a combo of covid and poor availablity makes this impossible. Probably going to cross post on the Mafell site too.

It's just I want it for furniture, shelves etc rather than construction. Not interested in ripping much as I'll do that with tracksaw or bandsaw.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

Massive favour to ask, can anyone do a short video of the TKS 80 cross cutting something the size of a 30-40cm shelf on the sliding table (along with what the tear out looks like) and someone else do a quick video of the Erika doing the same video with the push/pull saw?

It would be great to eyeball the safety, quality and ergonomics of those two. All I can see on youtube are people sliding brand new saw parts backwards and forwards or slicing sausages (festool) or that nice Scottish chippy doing suicidal cuts with huge bits of ply in his back garden, others cutting 2x2 (Erika). I find it impossible to part with this amount of money for either without seeing what they are actually like and a combo of covid and poor availablity makes this impossible. Probably going to cross post on the Mafell site too.

It's just I want it for furniture, shelves etc rather than construction. Not interested in ripping much as I'll do that with tracksaw or bandsaw.

Thanks in advance.

I'd suggest that you'd be better served crosscutting shelving with a track saw paired with a short (~600mm) section of track attached to a TSO GRS square. Particularly if you're cutting melamine, then you can make a scoring cut then a through-cut with minimal tear-out. This is my preferred method, using a MT55cc.

Depending on the length of shelving material you're cutting, you're potentially violating the "take the small thing to the big thing" principal.

Crosscutting longer stock on the ERIKA, you'll want some kind of separate support. I cut down the legs of my MFT tables so they're ~5mm lower than my ERIKA and it works great.

 

[urowho]

Well that's saved me £2800-3500 then! I have all that already but hate unplugging the saw after cutting the 8x4 with the guide rails, moving across the room etc, plugging it back in again on the MFT. The short 800 with the TSO has a tendency to 'fall off' at the end of the cross cut on a 30cm shelf if I freestyle it, unless I use the connected folding guide rail, then there's the fact is never auto sets itself to the correct height - and then oh look its not quite seat itself square etc!

All low level irritation and was hoping to just make it smoother and more productive. Maybe the answer is go cordless and put up with it.

 

[urowho]

In terms of lateral support for longer pieces I'd imagined using thishttps://www.sautershop.com/mafell-telescopic-rod-with-support-maf-038309?c=16027 likely to topple over if cutting 1200 x 300 ply into 2 or 3?

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

The telescopic element is great for extending the length of using the flip stop, but the support tab is intended to support the material enough to engage the flip stop, and should not be relied upon to support heavy stock.

It may seem a little counterintuitive, but I usually use my track saw to break down sheets and/or larger pieces, and use the ERIKA to make those final, precise cuts on pieces too small to safely/efficiently process with the track saw.

If you want something to process larger pieces in a table saw format, you should really look at a full-size (9'+ slider) sliding table saw from SCM or Felder/Hammer.....