Kerf differences for TS55

[CutsTwice]

For the fifth time in 5 or 6 years, I just ran a 2.5mm Kerf blade through my 1100mm rail that is set for my 2.2mm blades, and ruined the splinter guard! Does anyone else have daydreams about throttling the Festool engineer that decided to produce two kerfs for a rail saw?

I'm just venting here, but this infuriates me! My options are to play musical chairs with my blades and splinter guards, replace half of my blades, or just forget about accuracy. Does anyone have an explanation for why two kerfs are available? I'm extremely curious about how production decisions of this calibre are put into practice.  [mad]

 

[mouppe]

I sympathize with you...the same thing happened to me. It seems like some dealers are still running through 2.5mm old stock. I have not bought a new blade for a while, but when I do, I think I will change my splinterguard at the same time.

 

[Alan m]

i bought a ripping blade for my ts55 a while back. went into my local dealer to pick one up. there were 15+ blades for the ts55 there with 2.5mm kerfs. i had to explain to them about the change over [eek] and order one [mad]
i would say that most dealerships have 2.5mm blades for sale

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I had mine modified to the new kerf size for $11 each.

 

[CutsTwice]

Where did you send them Ken, that hadn't occurred to me. Would you think that any sharpening service could handle it?

Oh yeah, the only local sharpener that could handle a triple chip blade moved out of state. Where do you guys send your Festool's to be sharpened?

I've had this happen a couple of times over the years, so if the 2.2's just came out, maybe I've been dealing with a bent tooth every once in a while.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

So far, Jim Forrest has only been willing to do this for me and even then, it took a lot to convince him.  I don't know if in total it would be worth it for you, but I might be able to act like an intermediary of sorts - ship me the blade(s) and I'd bring them to him for grinding.  He told me there is no guarantee and if the plate of the blade has wobble, that will affect the kerf and he will not flatten and tune Festool/Leitz blades.  He gets odd like that sometimes.  Of course, you could always contact him directly, but for me, the convincing worked better in person and luckily he's in NJ.

 

[Nick C]

For what it's worth: Tenryu makes an excellent aftermarket blade for the TS55. (as well as other Festool saws, including Kapex). Their range includes rip, x-cut, combo, melamine, laminate flooring, and aluminum. All of these blades have a 2.2mm kerf. There is one exception: a special thin-kerf crosscut blade at 1.6mm. I'm not sure why you would use that... The link is www.tenryu.com. Look under Products>By Machine>Plunge Cut Saws for the 160mm x 20mm size.

 

[CutsTwice]

Thanks Nick, I'll look into it, and thank you Ken as well. I need to start paying more attention to what I'm buying,

 

[gkeas]

I have the tenryu blades, and I'm still quite happy with them. 

 

[stairman]

Fitters World out of Hiwaii hakes some excellent blades for the TS55 and 75.  in case you missed my promptly solved "issue"  I was having trouble cutting glueline quality miters in 5/4 white oak glue-up blanks  (12" wide  tops domino joined at a 90 deg corner...)  the problem was, I had never read the supplementary manual,  nor had I ever set my saw up properly.  and the previous owner had done just the OPPOSITE of "correct and proper"setup [unsure]

if you spend a half hour tonight reading and retaining

http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/ts_55_eq_us.pdf

next,  skim through once more while deciding what areas to begin with,  and tune your saw to perfection.

now I don't care if a blade is 1mm thick,  2mm,  5mm or 1-7/8" thick,  the flange on the arbor is where it is.  and it cares not either, how thick a blade is about to be tightened onto it.  the bearing from the guide rail register to the arbor flange (inner)    and the inner- kerf removed from splinterguard strip,  this is all the same.    (I suppose a thick dado might be a real mess and hope no one tries that!  as I was just being facetious [scared]  -of course you're all using Festool application specific blades, eh? ???

If you set your saw up RIGHT,  it will not matter whether you use a thin or thick kerf blade.    am I getting through with my point?  if this makes no sense,  feel free to PM me and I will break it down further,  and draw an illustraton if need be.

but bottom line is,  the wit=dth of the blades should never have any efect on your splinterguard,  -provided you have setup your saw or saws to perfection, according to the supplemental manual.

 

[Corwin]

Stairman,

With all due respect, I don't think you fully understand the issue.  Yes, you can adjust your saw to locate the left-hand edge of the kerf to be where you want.  The problem is that most will want to use more than one specific blade, and unless each blade they want to use has the same kerf and offset, one or more blades will mess up the splinter guard UNLESS they spend the time to reset their saw.  So, it really works best to have blades with the same kerf and offset so that you can change out blades as needed for each situation WITHOUT having to readjust your saw. 

 

[CutsTwice]

Stairman, Corwin just said the same thing that I would. I could set up each of my tools every day, but I'd rather not. IMO every one of the blades that are sold with this "SYSTEM" should interchange quickly and easily. When they do not, I'm less inclined to think of these tools as a system and more inclined to believe that I am being sold the consumable parts that are either available or more cost effective for this particular year. The option of performing a 15 or 30 minute chore every time I need a different blade isn't really an option, but a design and or supply oversight.

However, I have solved the issue. I purchased a Sawstop Professional table saw. Now I can leave a rip blade in the TS55 and use it only for unusual situations such as straight-lining lumber. The TS is a darned good specialized product, and it has been my one and only for many moons, but I am simply tiring of doing things the hard way.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Stairman, what Corwin said, OFFSET.

The only factor that determines how a blade affects the splinter guard is the offset of the teeth relative to the disk, on the left side.

If the offset on all blades is the same your rule is right, they'll all affect the splinter guard the same regardless of the kerf width.

I finally understood this when trying out a Forrest  blade made for the Festool 55. It had a slightly wider kerf that the Festool blades so I assumed it would cut the splinter guard but instead it missed the rubber by a half mm because the  teeth were scarcely offset from the thick disk. In this case, if the saw were set for the Forrest blade spacers could be added to the Festool blades to push them out to the Forrest tooth position.

 

[CutsTwice]

I had assumed that the carbide was centered on the body of a blade, and that it would therefore extend outward in both directions when the kerf is enlarged.  Is that not always the case?

 

[Michael Kellough]

I had assumed that the carbide was centered on the body of a blade, and that it would therefore extend outward in both directions when the kerf is enlarged.  Is that not always the case?

Maybe not in the case of this kind of saw.

But the carbide is centered on every blade I've seen (as far as I can tell). As regards the splinter guard only the left side offset matters.

Reading your question a little more closely, yes the kerf extends equally to both left and right of the disk centerline, but the left side of the blade is tightened against the arbor so the location of the kerf depends on the offset (left side) and combined overall tooth width.