Well, I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and got the TS55 saw and MFT last week from Uncle Bob. I had to get about 700 sq of laminate flooring installed prior to my shoulder surgery yesterday morning (painful to even type today, except I am on morphine pills). The TS55 worked great and I used it in my living room with my Fein. Almost no dust, expecially when compared to my shop downstairs where my buddy did not have the chop saw connected to dust collection - heavy coat of dust on everything. My wife later remarked about the 'haze' when she walked into the garage (I had to stay over at work). Some friends came over and wowed about my tools. Definitely a slippery slope, once you get past the price tag (my wife commented about how a cruise ship could have taken her and my 3 kids on a great vacation for what I am spending. She mentioned $4K, after agreeing to give me the money in savings if I did all the painting and flooring myself. So I have some other stuff in the works!). She was ecstactic about the floors though.
The MFT worked great too, but I had a couple of questions.
First, Did all of you tear the underside of the rail's sticky strip on the guide rail support tab (the one that you cam the rail into slightly? It took me a while to get it set up and figure out how to use. I was pushing it over too far and tore the rubber. Also, I noticed that the saw wasn't always cutting the depth of cut to saw the flooring in half. It was like the rail was bowed a bit in the middle. I still haven't quite figured out the off side support.
The bigger problem I noted was that the Miter fence wasn't dead on when set up. In fact, every time I moved it and then went back to 90 degrees, I had to get out my Starrett to square it up perfectly. Off by 1/2 to 1 degree if I just used the indexed stop, as there was some flex. Have you guys had to do this too? Like when you move it to the 22.5 degree stop, you have to throw on a protractor to make sure that it's 22.5 as opposed to 23.1 or something? I also noticed that if I set it up with the Miter fence at the end of the miter head, I couldn't get the thing to swing more that about 10 degrees without hitting the miter fence on the guide rail. Should I mount the miter head an extra set of holes to the left? Seems like Jerry Work's article mentioned something about this.
I got a nasty blood blister when I slid my workpiece across the table and my forefinger was slightly in a hole. Very sharp round holes! I found that the table worked best if I held the workpiece down with the clamps. If I get the vac and boom arm, have you guys found that the pair negates the need for the little guide rail deflector at the end?
I'm probably going to get the CT33 and OF1400 next month. Dread the cost, but love the 'system'. My wife thinks that I need to start taking on side jobs to pay for my tool addiction!
Thanks,
Rod
The MFT worked great too, but I had a couple of questions.
First, Did all of you tear the underside of the rail's sticky strip on the guide rail support tab (the one that you cam the rail into slightly? It took me a while to get it set up and figure out how to use. I was pushing it over too far and tore the rubber. Also, I noticed that the saw wasn't always cutting the depth of cut to saw the flooring in half. It was like the rail was bowed a bit in the middle. I still haven't quite figured out the off side support.
The bigger problem I noted was that the Miter fence wasn't dead on when set up. In fact, every time I moved it and then went back to 90 degrees, I had to get out my Starrett to square it up perfectly. Off by 1/2 to 1 degree if I just used the indexed stop, as there was some flex. Have you guys had to do this too? Like when you move it to the 22.5 degree stop, you have to throw on a protractor to make sure that it's 22.5 as opposed to 23.1 or something? I also noticed that if I set it up with the Miter fence at the end of the miter head, I couldn't get the thing to swing more that about 10 degrees without hitting the miter fence on the guide rail. Should I mount the miter head an extra set of holes to the left? Seems like Jerry Work's article mentioned something about this.
I got a nasty blood blister when I slid my workpiece across the table and my forefinger was slightly in a hole. Very sharp round holes! I found that the table worked best if I held the workpiece down with the clamps. If I get the vac and boom arm, have you guys found that the pair negates the need for the little guide rail deflector at the end?
I'm probably going to get the CT33 and OF1400 next month. Dread the cost, but love the 'system'. My wife thinks that I need to start taking on side jobs to pay for my tool addiction!
Thanks,
Rod
