The Woodentop said:
Oh and don't you just like the soft start motors? Pity Festool can't get around to making that improvement.
Am I missing something here? Doesn't the Festool saw have a soft start to it? As much as I've used it, I really can't say for sure that it does. Its not like a typical saw though, but do they consider it a soft start? Sure sounds and feels like it to me, but I've never actually read that any where. A soft start isn't really needed either way though. As long as the saw doesn't have that initial torque surge on start up like a Skil wormdrive has, then it's fine, IMO.
I don't care much for having an allegiance to any particular brand. The bottom line to me is whatever works best is what works best. I own tools from just about every major manufacturer except Ryobi (I can't believe that people actually think their tools are worth buying). Of all of the saws I've used, and its a lot of different saws, the Festool saw is easily the best I've used in this class of saw (the Skil wormdrive is the absolute best IMO, but its a totally different class of tool). If Makita ends up making a better one, then more power to them. If and when my Festool saw dies or gets stolen or whatever, I'll take a long look at the Makita. I'm a huge fan of their impact drivers, cordless drills and their miter saws, so I wouldn't shy away from them for any reason. However, they'd need to convince me that they are better.
Having said that, I don't see anything at all in the description that would lead me to believe this Makita saw is better than the TS series saws from Festool. I do think the anti-tip feature is a great idea and wish that was part of TS55 set up. Given the choice between the anti-tip and the riving knife though, I'd much rather have the retractable riving knife.
I think it was Dave who said that the $650 asking price for this is basically inline with what Festool is charging for the TS55. I'm not sure I get that though. Festool wants $440 (US) for the TS55 today and the US dollar is currently weaker than the Canadian dollar. So that $650 Canadian is what? Closer to $700 (US) for a copycat? No thanks. At a difference of ~$260, there's no question that the Festool is the better buy. I have to think that the stated price of $650 for that Makita saw is incorrect.
One thing that any manufacturer could do with these copycat saws to gain a leg up on Festool is to use a standard 5/8" arbor (well, that's the standard in the US anyway, I don't know about the rest of the world). Having the ability to buy very cheap blades to use as throw aways for certain operations would be a major plus to me. You can get the arbor hole enlarged, but its not worth it for a throw away blade. I didn't bother to read whether Makita has done this, but they certainly should. Festool should really offer some kind of bushing that would allow blades with a 5/8" arbor hole to work on their saw too. However, the overall size of the blade with the 55 would still be an issue. Not so much for the 75s. Being limited to only the blades that Festool offers is a very big drawback to their saw IMO. Obviously, it wasn't enough of one to stop me from buying it though. You couldn't get me to give it up either, so it really isn't much of an issue.
