New TS 55 R Video

[Kev]

I like how they promote the "intelligent" riving knife.  [big grin]

Does it do math?  [blink]

No - it's so smart it out sources the math to India.

 

[jmbfestool]

I like how they promote the "intelligent" riving knife.  [big grin]

Does it do math?  [blink]

Haahaaa I thought the same thing with riving knife when I first watched it!

    It's cus they have hardly added any new major features so they gotta make every feature they have added stand out and make it feel like its a special feature. 

The shadow groove is another one they are over selling they are making it look like a big deal even though your only gaining a few mm from the old one.  To me a shadow groove is 3mm now if it did that I would be impressed.

The only major improvements on this saw is depth adjustment and bevel settings that's it.

Jmb

 

[RONWEN]

Go ahead, Ron.  NJ is allowing you to shoot at the GEICO pigs as the sound is irritating.  Weeeeeeeeee!!!!
Luckily no license is required.  Just make sure you bring home the bacon.

I think some commercials try to get your attention by annoying and irritating you -- That pig is definitely one of them.  [eek]

 

[Nigel]

What a bunch of whingers these last posts are.I can see the 'intelligent' riving knife being really useful to line up the rail on long lenghths.I often have to move rails along when cutting a 4m + length.I know a 5m rail would be best but look at the price!

I think the new saw has some good new features and if I was after a new saw I'd be very happy with it . Especially seeing as the competition seems to have abandoned the riving knife altogether!

A stronger motor and it would have blown them out of the water.

If I'm not misundrstanding the "variable offset", wouldn't that screw up the rail guide strip somehow? I'm sure they thought of this but how would it work?

In the video the variable offset is used with the saw off the rail  against a wall and variable from 12 to 46 mm. Like an inverse parallel guide.

I like how they promote the "intelligent" riving knife.  [big grin]

Does it do math?  [blink]

Haahaaa I thought the same thing with riving knife when I first watched it!

    It's cus they have hardly added any new major features so they gotta make every feature they have added stand out and make it feel like its a special feature. 

The shadow groove is another one they are over selling they are making it look like a big deal even though your only gaining a few mm from the old one.  To me a shadow groove is 3mm now if it did that I would be impressed.

The only major improvements on this saw is depth adjustment and bevel settings that's it.

Jmb

What 'shadow groove'?

 

[b_m_hart]

Yeah, feeling pretty underwhelmed by this... I assume that they're going to roll these features up into the 75 as well.  Not like us NA folks have to worry about this for a year or two anyway...

 

[festooldude]

i really wonder if i can rebuild my 'old' ts55 for the newer version.. seems to me that the baseplate and all is just the same. Only bladhousing and
bevelsetting stuff is different as far as i can see.. so.. maybe 150/175 bucks?? haha

 

[ifit]

I saw one today at a show and was very impressed with the new features, i will replace my old ts55 if i can get a decent price for it.

the fine adjust dial is to zero in your blade to the scale not fine adjust the depth of cut

 

[GhostFist]

I saw one today at a show and was very impressed with the new features, i will replace my old ts55 if i can get a decent price for it.

the fine adjust dial is to zero in your blade to the scale not fine adjust the depth of cut

Wait, what??

 

[Alan m]

I saw one today at a show and was very impressed with the new features, i will replace my old ts55 if i can get a decent price for it.

the fine adjust dial is to zero in your blade to the scale not fine adjust the depth of cut

from what a guess from that. you set the depth of cut to the material thickness and use the screw to set how much bellow that you want to cut,so you could set it to just barely cut the sheet but not whats under it. sounds good

 

[waynelang2001]

I saw one today at a show and was very impressed with the new features, i will replace my old ts55 if i can get a decent price for it.

the fine adjust dial is to zero in your blade to the scale not fine adjust the depth of cut

This almost sounds like a scoring cut feature ???

 

[GhostFist]

no it sounds to me like you're moving the scale and not the blade, not sure that i like that. Of course keeping your scale accurate is important especially when using different blades but  I would much rather a micro adjust for the blade itself. perhaps I'm misreading.

 

[EWTHeckman]

The current TS 55 has a micro-adjustment for the depth setting which adjusts the stop with it's indicator relative to the notches. The effect is that you can adjust the cutting depth in fractions of a mm. But you have to use an allen key to do it.

It sounds like that just replaced that with a thumbscrew version of the same thing for the TS 55R.

 

[Deansocial]

no it sounds to me like you're moving the scale and not the blade, not sure that i like that. Of course keeping your scale accurate is important especially when using different blades but  I would much rather a micro adjust for the blade itself. perhaps I'm misreading.

But surely they are the same thing..
you adjust the scale half a mm the the blade will drop half a mm no?

 

[ifit]

Now im not so sure about what i said about the depth adjust
the rep told me it was for when you change blades or have blades sharpened so you can dial the blade in to the gauge but that seems pointless as the gauge only clicks in to the mm, it would make more sense that it is a fine adjuster.

ive just looked at the leaflet he gave me and that seems to indicate that it is a fine adjuster so looks like the rep was wrong, sorry for the confusion [tongue]

 

[GhostFist]

no it sounds to me like you're moving the scale and not the blade, not sure that i like that. Of course keeping your scale accurate is important especially when using different blades but  I would much rather a micro adjust for the blade itself. perhaps I'm misreading.

But surely they are the same thing..
you adjust the scale half a mm the the blade will drop half a mm no?

The way I understood it, was that you would be resetting your scale to your blade as you might adjust the scale on your table saw for different kerf thicknesses. In other words moving the scale without actually adjusting the depth of cut. Looks as though this has been corrected though and it is indeed a micro adjust for cut depth, I hope.

 

[ifit]

yes now i have thought about it as you plunge the saw it stops on the black knob of the fine adjuster so it defiantly fine adjusts the plunge depth - i just took what the rep said and didn't really think about it

 

[Captainwrinkles]

I, Like some others, see no need to immediatley replace my "old" TS55 with the new TS55R. Its a little work horse and will continue to be so.
However, If the new features are brought out in a new TS75R, (i don't own the current TS75) I'm sure i could find a reason to buy it  [smile]

EDIT    i have a reason now  [big grin]

 

[EWTHeckman]

The way I understood it, was that you would be resetting your scale to your blade as you might adjust the scale on your table saw for different kerf thicknesses. In other words moving the scale without actually adjusting the depth of cut. Looks as though this has been corrected though and it is indeed a micro adjust for cut depth, I hope.

On the TS 55, the depth stop and indicator are a single piece. So when you use the micro-adjustment, it changes both the pointer relative to the scale and the actual depth of cut.

I just took a closer look at the video. The stop actually hits the top of the thumb screw. So it could go either way. The depth of cut could be adjusted relative to the scale without moving the pointer if the thumbscrew is attached only to the pointer. If there's a second adjustment screw it's quite possible that the reference and actual cut depth could be adjusted (relatively) independently. They show an adjustment of the thumbscrew during the video but it's hard to tell if the scale moves with the thumbscrew or not.

It didn't really strike me before, but the flat housing does more than simply let you cut close to the wall. How close you can cut is also adjustable. Going from 1/2" / 12 mm to 1 3/16" / 46 mm. That's nice!

 

[Ocram]

http://www.festool.pl/O_nas/Nowosci/Pages/Ts55R.aspx

Festool poland has it on it's site.

 

[GhostFist]

the polish site is showing a knob just above the splinter guard on the saw. What's that for?