Quiet saws please

[Blouis79]

Why do the saw gearboxes have to have horribly noisy backlash? Surely gearboxes can be designed with less backlash and less noise. Car manufacturers manage it using helical gears. From the company that gave us the lovely quiet helical cutting planer, please can we have lovely quiet circular saws...please??

 

[Steve Jones]

TS saws don't have gearboxes - that noise usually occurs during no-load conditions, it's the electronic speed control switching on and off very rapidly to maintain whatever speed you set.

I think the noise actually is mechanical, I guess the bearings get rattled with the on and off application of drive - it's normal and does not get any worse over time (well, after cutting sheet goods for several hundred kitchen cabinets it hasn't so far)

 

[Blouis79]

Yes it is a mechanical noise. The Festool supplementary manual says it is caused by gear backlash. The backlash is evident if one wiggles the blade on axis. The gears shift the rotational axis of the blade away from the axis of the motor to permit a deeper cut. There may be a reduction gear.

ELU and Elektra Beckum/Metabo induction saws are lovely and quiet (like a bench grinder).

 

[Woodenfish]

FWIW, my Elu joiner makes the same noise as my TS 55. I've been using the joiner for 15 years or so and she's still going strong so my guess it's proven technology?

 

[bruegf]

If gear backlash noise is the biggest complaint we have about the TS55 it must be a damn good product  

Fred

 

[Dave Ronyak]

TS saws don't have gearboxes - that noise usually occurs during no-load conditions, it's the electronic speed control switching on and off very rapidly to maintain whatever speed you set.

I think the noise actually is mechanical, I guess the bearings get rattled with the on and off application of drive - it's normal and does not get any worse over time (well, after cutting sheet goods for several hundred kitchen cabinets it hasn't so far)

Maybe not a gearbox as you use that term, but surely at least one stage of gear reduction, with some play necessarily between those meshing gear teeth.  Otherwise the blade arbor would be spinning at the much higher RPM of the motor armature shaft.  Helical gears aren't necessarily quiet.  I have a commercial rated angle grinder with helical gears, and its much noisier in idle mode than my TS 55.

Dave R.

 

[Steve Jones]

Point taken Dave, I still wouldn't call it a gearbox, but there is (as Blouis79 pointed out) a pair of gears to provide offset to get the center of the blade shaft lower than the center of the motor shaft, which does presumably have a reduction built in.