New TS 55R would not cut 44mm 1/2 hour fire door

[bigsully77]

Hi newbie here, ihave been wanting a plunge saw for sometime now , and after lots of research i choose the ts 55r , i almost went with mafell but the festool 55r flush cut for under cutting doors when still on hinges , and 55 mm cut made my mind up......
I also bought the midi at the same time for dust extraction ...
First cut with saw was 40mm laminated worktop it was great . Cut about 3meteres in total through this material withh it , no probs
then went to other job and cut about 30m of 10mm wet wall again no probs.
I am aware that laminated produts take there toll on the blades....however was very disapointed to find out that the ts ......would not...... Cut through 44mm  fire doors .....
The door is made up of 6mm ply on front and back and 32mm of mirante in middle..... So basically i was ripping 32 mm mirante and 12 mm of ply over adistance of 926mm....
The ts is only a few weeks old with a atleast an ok blade,  it would not even look at doing this job.....was i expecting  to much from the 1200w motor .
I tried this cut in speed setting 4 , 5 , and 6  and on the rail aswell as of it .. But still would not look at it ....
I gave up with festool and went back to my dewalt 1050w motor saw and it done this job no problem with an ok blade in it.....

Has anyone else had this problem ?
Am i expecting to much from this tool ?

Any advise and help would be appreciated thanks

[ converted to sentence case from all upper case - Shane ]

 

[kev carpenter]

i have old ts55, i had a problem cutting oak with a blunt blade when i got mine but i now ave 4 blades 6 blades now 2 of which is rough blade and try to keep snap blade on rough and clean cut, cutting laminates before stuff like that isn't going to help. festal is mainly for fine woodworking not really so much for construction (well thats what i think)
but a rough blade would have done the job or maybe should have went with ts75, i was talking to the old manager of the saw centre and he said door guys buy the ts75 so they don't have to change blades, but its pretty heavy compared to 55. but the mafell saws look good too.

 

[green fever]

TRY the panther blade  i have the 55 and 75 , i have no problem with either but the 75 is a beast , try the panther blade on the 55 you will not be disappointed , look around on the net you should pay roughly £35. get your other blade looked at as it should eat the materials you mentioned.  green . ( WELCOME TO THE FOG ) could you clarify wet wall please .

 

[bigsully77]

Thanks for the quick reply , i bought this saw at the saw centre so i will go back to them and get a rough blade... then try again ... spoke to my mate who does kitchen fitting .. he said the blade was most likey the problem... he said he manages to cut through 40 mm oak worktops with it.... so it should do the job ....
i got a spare blade with it but think it might be a fine cut as well....
Think you are right it seems to be more of a workshop tool  for fine finishing work than a site tool.
I watched a you tube clip there on the FOG site with some going through what looked like 25mm mahogany with the ts 55r .
So you are probably right about the blade all the laminate probably was not great for it .....
thanks again and will post again .... after i try the rough blade ...cheers

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

I was just about to ask, what is "10mm Wet Wall".....???????

Tim.

 

[bigsully77]

thank green fever for the reply .will look out for the panther blade and give them a try ....a dont think it is actually called wetwall , thats just what we were calling it.. its basically a glossed laminated  panel with, moisture resistant MDF in the middle and lamineted on the back ,in total about 10mm thick for use in wet rooms .... We got it at a laminates specialist company called rearo... think a still prefere tile though...

 

[semenza]

Google didn't seem to want to tell me so I have to ask  ..... what is mirante?

And if you are using the 48 tooth Fine blade that comes with the saw  , then that will definitely have trouble cutting the fire door.

Also .... Welcome to the FOG!  [smile]

Seth

 

[Deansocial]

Mercantile is a red hardwood

 

[Deansocial]

Bloody auto correct meranti

 

[Timtool]

As noted if you were using the standard blade that came with it then it's normal the saw couldn't make it.
The standard blade is meant for cutting sheet goods, or cross cutting solid wood. But for a door or deep cuts you need a blade with much less teeth. There is just way to little room between the teeth for the sawdust when cutting that deep which bogs down the saw.

Festool should probably do a better job at educating customers with simple images or diagrams as in the leaflet that was supplied with my domino 500 that explains what it can do and how. The manuals usually don't contain anything but the obvious info, it's only from reading on the forum that i knew i had to get a second blade together with my TS55R when i bought it. I might have been falsely deceived as you were if i hadn't got that second blade.

 

[bigsully77]

hi Seth thank for the advise , i spelt it wrong its meranti
hi Dean thanks for sorting that out for me
hi Tim thanks for the advise , i was using the 48 t blade .. i thought  my dewalt also had a 48t blade but i just went out and checked its only 24t... and it is a fairly new new blade , did hit a couple of old nails in floor boards with it though.

think i will change the name of this thread to season pro makes school boy error lol
will use different blade from now on when ripping stuff .

Tim i see u have the portible work station as your profile pic ...did you design and make this ... i seen it on you tube looks very good
I have had the gravity rise from bosch and wasnt to impressed and the festool ug mitre saw table is just to pricey ....

i was thinking of trying to make this portible table at some point this year if i get the chance porbably not to the standar of yours but i fancy giving it ago.

thanks again guys for the advise

 

[semenza]

I'm betting the DW blade has a tooth design for use as a combination blade (Universal in Festool speak)  as opposed to the crosscut tooth layout on the 48T Fine blade too  [wink]

Seth

 

[kev carpenter]

a bit of advise when cutting hollow doors with rough blade as the staple knock hell out the teeth.

 

[bigsully77]

yeah Seth i think  you are right , got it about 6ths ago, its a bosch blade think it is one of there universal blades .... not used it much tho.. it goes through 22mm t&G flooring , 44mm fire doors oh and 100yr old steel nails no probs though  [laughing]

 

[bigsully77]

I know kev, its always when you think  it will be a breeze  because it a hollow door yo the staple... and blunt the saw ....
Kev do you get your ts55 blades shapened or do you just buy new...cheers

 

[ajones]

This is a problem that comes up regularly on the fog,I think that as the saw comes with a 48 tooth blade people assume its the standard blade,maybe
a clear blade brochure outlining the different blades and their suitability for particular uses in the box along with the saw would be a great help to a lot of users.

 

[Mavrik]

I used the "standard" blade that came with the TS55 for everything when I got it.

EDIT: The blade that comes with the saw is not the "standard" blade.

Was delighted by the fine crosscuts.
And was mortified by how bad it was for ripping.
Until I got the Panther blade.
Holy cow - what a different experience. It ate through wood!

My only complaint at the time was that my Panther blade had a wider kerf, so it cut a bit more off my rubber strip.
I understand the latest Panther blades have the same kerf width.

So. Definitely have fun with different blades.

 

[bigsully77]

Thats right , festoolfootstool ... it should be a bit clearer, i thought it was a kind of universal blade that came with machine ..but i should have checked myself the spare blade i got with it is also 48t.... well we live and learn as they say. cheers

 

[semenza]

And just for the sake of clarity ...... Festool has a blade called the Standard Blade. Which is not the blade that comes with either the TS55 or TS75 (55 comes with Fine blade , 75 comes with Universal blade) so when discussing be careful in the use of the term "standard" in order to avoid additional confusion.

Ex- the standard blade that comes with the saw.  ???

Seth

 

[bigsully77]

Ok Seth thank... Mavrik thanks for that info was going to order one online there but think i will buy one from my local tool shop , just to make sure the kerf is the same. thanks