Knocked my TS55 off the bench, now it's jammed, any thoughts...

[Neal W]

Over the weekend, I knocked my TS55 off my wokrbench onto the drive way. now the green release lever is stuck and it appears the metal safety tab is jammed. 

I don't want to force things.  Any thoughts or ideas about how to repair this on my own? or should I just send it in?

thanks.

 

[Brice Burrell]

It sounds like you are referring to the safety that prevents the saw from plunging.  If so, I would guess the base of the saw might be bent and that is jamming the safety pin.  I'd start by looking at the base.  If that's the issue, I don't think you can fix that without a new base.  The problem is there could be other damaged parts in addition.  It might be best to send it in if basic trouble shooting doesn't get it sorted out.   

 

[ear3]

That sucks, sorry. 

Replacing the base on one's on is possible, but there's apparently some finnicky work involved with setting the toe-in correctly (though people do do this on their own when, for example, they set up multiple saws to have the same offset on their rails).  I once dropped my TSC55 on the concrete floor of my shop and cracked the base.  I sent it in and they swapped out for a new one, easy peasy.  That's what I would do if I were in your shoes, especially since there might be additional parts that sustained damage.

 

[Birdhunter]

I totally agree with ear3. A damaged saw can be very dangerous. My saw, I'd gladly pay Festool to get it back to like new.

 

[tjbnwi]

One of my guys knocked one of the 55’s onto the floor from 4’. Same issue, saw would not unlock to plunge. Base was fine so that was a blessing. Toe held it’s alignment.

I did fix it. Was a matter of disassembling the handle, resetting various parts and springs. Unless your absolutely sure of your ability, send it in to be serviced.

Tom

 

[Neal W]

Thanks to everyone.  I'll send it in.

 

[sancho57]

Yah send it in. Other wise taking it apart and trying to figure out wat parts ya need to replace might turn into something like taking yer car into a midnight auto repair.

I dropped mine only a couple of ft the other day in the middle of a project. Noticed the cuts were splintering. Ax Don at Andersons what he thought, he said to adjust the toe in. I did and its better.

Lots of adjustments I just let lapse adj the saw on the rail was another adj I needed to do.

Anyway when ya get the saw back it will be like new. They have a pretty fast turn around to

 

[tallgrass]

Don has a very good handle on things.

 

[sancho57]

[member=2242]tallgrass[/member]

Yah Don is awesome. Now with Allen there those 2 make Anderson about the most knowledgable deal around. Plus they have a very good selection of tools and spares.

I got to take a trip to Ca maybe next week. Gonna stop by and see them.

 

[tallgrass]

That is so true. I remember when I would have to show Allen the Festool stuff, now, he has become Karnak. It will be good to get the S African accent back there. Now if we can get Ben back there.

 

[REMODELBOY1]

Also dropped my TS55.  When I went to use it, it would not plunge and the thumb safety would not move.  Found this thread on FOG and decided to undo a few screws to see how bad it was.

1)Undid the 5 silver torx screws holding the face of the blade guard. 2)Undid the 4 black Phillips screws holding the other half of the blade guard to the chassis of the saw. 3) removed the small spring that helped retract the riving knife.

This was enough to allow a bit of wiggle between the blade cover and the chassis of the saw.  Gently wiggled the gap between the blade guard and chassis and the stuck part easily popped back into place.  Reversed the process to put everything back together and the saw works perfectly.

This worked for me, but please use your own judgement on whether to try this or not.  One a 1-10 level of difficulty, I would give this fix about a 2 (provided you don't lose any screws).