Over the past couple of years I have come across some pretty savage criticism of the TKS 80 and I felt that my experience of the saw over the past three years might be useful. This was my first purchase of a Festool item and it was a significant investment in April 2021.
To give a bit of context, I am an enthusiastic amature woodworker, but I am capable of making reproduction antique hand-built furniture as well as shelving units, carving the odd decoy duck and throwing up a log store and summer house from scratch. I have a fairly small but well equipped workshop into which I have crammed a decent sized bandsaw, planer and thicknesser as well as a really good bench. My previous table saw was a fairly agricultural Ryobi site saw, but it stood me in good stead for a decade or more.
The three main reasons for the purchase were space, accuracy (for a site saw) and of course the sawstop technology, and I have been a very happy bunny with my decision.
I bought the full kit with the sliding table, big fence and the extensions and I have mounted the saw on a wheeled cabinet with storage underneath. this all slides under a rack that I use to store timber when not in use. I hooked it up to a CT26 dust extractor, purchased at the same time. the initial set-up took a couple of hours, adjusting the extension tables and large fence, but I have not had to touch them since. Detaching and attaching them happens once every couple of weeks or so and they have remained perfectly flush and level with the main table.
One of the main criticisms that I have noted is folks saying that their main table is not level and that the saw blade insert was sitting too low. this is not an issue on my saw. The table is perfect with a straight edge at all points of the compass and the blade insert is adjustable, so if mine had been out, 2 minutes with an allen key would have sorted it.
Other people have reported issues with fences being out. Mine are spot on, and building a small oak coffee table for my daughter this week, I had perfect alignment with the rails and legs, even though I used the small crosscut fence that comes as standard with the saw only package. I love that fence because it is so versatile and quick to adjust. One thing I have learnt to do is to push behind the wheeled carriage as well as closer to the blade when feeding a crosscut so that you don't flex the fence (which would result in an inaccurate and out of square cut). You also need to be careful to slide the fence far enough to the left so that it clears the blade. When I nicked my fence I found out what a loud bang the sawstop cartridge makes when it fires! An expensive mistake but a good lesson!
The only problem I have had in nearly three years of ownership has been the small plastic insert in the main table insert breaking a few times. In fact I ended up with few in stock because I was fed up ordering them. Then one day I knocked the main insert of the bench onto the floor and it broke where the plastic insert fitted. I ordered a replacement and guess what? Festool have done away with the annoying plastic bit and the insert is now in one piece. I can only suppose they were having some issues and decided on a redesign. Since the replacement insert, no problems at all (anyone want a bag of replacement plastic bits [big grin]).
Since my big purchase, I have gulped at the cost as I have added both Domino machines, an ETS 150 and Rotex 150 as well as another Midi dust extractor to my collection on the basis that you get what you pay for) and I would not have spent a lot more money with this company if I had any gripes or big problems with the most expensive tool I have ever bought.
I know that a site saw will never be as accurate as a big half-ton static with rail tracks for a carriage but let's get real. My saw is accurate to tiny fractions of a millimetre with sensible use and the bloody raw material shrinks and expands a huge amount more than that.
So to sum up, my experience has been a really good one and I hope that this will help anyone contemplating purchasing a TKS 80, currently I believe, the only option in the UK with the sawstop function.
To give a bit of context, I am an enthusiastic amature woodworker, but I am capable of making reproduction antique hand-built furniture as well as shelving units, carving the odd decoy duck and throwing up a log store and summer house from scratch. I have a fairly small but well equipped workshop into which I have crammed a decent sized bandsaw, planer and thicknesser as well as a really good bench. My previous table saw was a fairly agricultural Ryobi site saw, but it stood me in good stead for a decade or more.
The three main reasons for the purchase were space, accuracy (for a site saw) and of course the sawstop technology, and I have been a very happy bunny with my decision.
I bought the full kit with the sliding table, big fence and the extensions and I have mounted the saw on a wheeled cabinet with storage underneath. this all slides under a rack that I use to store timber when not in use. I hooked it up to a CT26 dust extractor, purchased at the same time. the initial set-up took a couple of hours, adjusting the extension tables and large fence, but I have not had to touch them since. Detaching and attaching them happens once every couple of weeks or so and they have remained perfectly flush and level with the main table.
One of the main criticisms that I have noted is folks saying that their main table is not level and that the saw blade insert was sitting too low. this is not an issue on my saw. The table is perfect with a straight edge at all points of the compass and the blade insert is adjustable, so if mine had been out, 2 minutes with an allen key would have sorted it.
Other people have reported issues with fences being out. Mine are spot on, and building a small oak coffee table for my daughter this week, I had perfect alignment with the rails and legs, even though I used the small crosscut fence that comes as standard with the saw only package. I love that fence because it is so versatile and quick to adjust. One thing I have learnt to do is to push behind the wheeled carriage as well as closer to the blade when feeding a crosscut so that you don't flex the fence (which would result in an inaccurate and out of square cut). You also need to be careful to slide the fence far enough to the left so that it clears the blade. When I nicked my fence I found out what a loud bang the sawstop cartridge makes when it fires! An expensive mistake but a good lesson!
The only problem I have had in nearly three years of ownership has been the small plastic insert in the main table insert breaking a few times. In fact I ended up with few in stock because I was fed up ordering them. Then one day I knocked the main insert of the bench onto the floor and it broke where the plastic insert fitted. I ordered a replacement and guess what? Festool have done away with the annoying plastic bit and the insert is now in one piece. I can only suppose they were having some issues and decided on a redesign. Since the replacement insert, no problems at all (anyone want a bag of replacement plastic bits [big grin]).
Since my big purchase, I have gulped at the cost as I have added both Domino machines, an ETS 150 and Rotex 150 as well as another Midi dust extractor to my collection on the basis that you get what you pay for) and I would not have spent a lot more money with this company if I had any gripes or big problems with the most expensive tool I have ever bought.
I know that a site saw will never be as accurate as a big half-ton static with rail tracks for a carriage but let's get real. My saw is accurate to tiny fractions of a millimetre with sensible use and the bloody raw material shrinks and expands a huge amount more than that.
So to sum up, my experience has been a really good one and I hope that this will help anyone contemplating purchasing a TKS 80, currently I believe, the only option in the UK with the sawstop function.