New track saw, now from Grizzly.

[fshanno]

I wonder if there is a down side to that anti-tip feature?  It looks like something I wish I had.

 

[Corwin]

I would think there is a down side to those guide rails with both t-slots facing down.  Glad Festool  rails aren't like that.  [blink]

 

[GregBradley]

It might help popularize track saw use in US. Serious users are going to find the defects and step up to a better unit. I know when my old Festool Track Saw disappeared, I couldn't resist a Makita that was on sale at a bunch less than the Festool TS55. After using it for a while, I took it to work for employee use and bought a TS55 for myself.

I know someone that bought the same basic saw as a Sheppach from McFeeleys, which was defective, replaced by another defective unit, which was replaced by another defective unit. He gave up before trying #4.

My european tool dealer friend says similar saws are being sold in EU under the names of:
Scheppach
Woodstar
Bela
Holzmann
Bernador
Sauter
Batavia

He said there were basically zero people posting on forums that were really satisfied but some saying they were reasonable for the price. Grizzly looks like a step up since it has a single 55" track available and a 48 tooth blade. I know a lot of people are reasonably happy with Grizzly big machines even though they have a bunch of issues. They do have the customer service reputation to get the problems worked out. I have only bought some small items from Grizzly like bench griders, sanders, etc. and they were pretty poor. It is one thing to be happy at the end after dealing with problems on a table saw that saved you $500. It becomes less interesting to spend a bunch of times getting issues resolved on a bench grinder where you saved $20.

 

[Timtool]

He said there were basically zero people posting on forums that were really satisfied but some saying they were reasonable for the price. Grizzly looks like a step up since it has a single 55" track available and a 48 tooth blade. I know a lot of people are reasonably happy with Grizzly big machines even though they have a bunch of issues. They do have the customer service reputation to get the problems worked out. I have only bought some small items from Grizzly like bench griders, sanders, etc. and they were pretty poor. It is one thing to be happy at the end after dealing with problems on a table saw that saved you $500. It becomes less interesting to spend a bunch of times getting issues resolved on a bench grinder where you saved $20.

Actually on a Dutch speaking woodworking forum i am also active on, a handful  of users bought one of these under the Scheppach name and were generally pleased with the quality for the money. But note that for most of them it was their first use of a track saw and none were professionals i think.

Does Grizzly still make tools themselves? Yesterday i took a look at their site because we were discussing American table saws and how they never switched to sliders and saw they finally had sliding panel saws on their site. Only to notice these were re badged imported chinese brands, and this track saw is nothing different. Grizzly just distributes them under their own name, they have probably nothing to do at all with the design and development.

 

[Svar]

“Note in the video that when using the saw as a "regular" circular saw the blade is locked in exposed position and lacks the retractable shield to protect it! You wanna watch who's around when using the saw and also where you put it down!”

    - I actually wish Festool had that, seems like obvious feature to me. Then you would not need those silly and bulky extras for locking depth when mounted in CMS module.

“I would think there is a down side to those guide rails with both t-slots facing down. Glad Festool rails aren't like that.”

    - You can still attach stops and such on top due to the special shape (lips) on the t-slot. Both t-slots on the bottom are actually handy when connecting rails. You don’t need to flip it between tightening connectors. I wish they copied Mafell rail instead. It has second t-slot close to the cutting edge – much better when cutting narrow stock.

 

[atlr]

I was wondering about track compatibility and found this recent comparison of Scheppach with TS55 that has photos of the tracks which shows they are incompatible designs.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47866
saw and track photos