Soon to be new Festool owner

[gippy]

Hi all. New member here, a Brit living in Thailand. My first Festools will be delivered in 2 days, a TS55 and CTL Midi. Earlier this year we finished building quite a large out building for my new workshop in the NE of Thailand. The TS55 will earn it's keep breaking down sheet goods to build the all workshop cabinets and then a full set of built-ins for 2 houses, ours and the in-laws over the next couple of years.
Here in Thailand the prices for Festool are really quite high (being polite here!) but sometimes the good stuff is worth the extra. After 2 emergency surgeries in December I decided life is too short to spend it using my old sub par tools and methods! The high price was cushioned by the distributors Hafele agreeing to give me 30% discount on their entire range, that will be quite a saving on all the furniture hardware such as drawer slides I will be buying through them.
The Makita track saw in Thailand is not a regularly stocked item and any spare parts would take 3 months to arrive, with Festool they will do on site repair.

Next on my wish list is the parallel guides for the guide rails and at some point a Domino 500, if I have any luck selling some of my furniture. I will also pick up the Makita guide rail adaptor so I can run my 3612BR router on the Festool rail.

 

[Stephen B]

[size=12pt]

Welcome to the FOG Gippy.

Looking fwd to photographs of some of your projects.

 

[VW mick]

Welcome gippy

Ts 55 is obviously best place to start

I've never really been sold on the parallel guides .cant see the point .a decent tape and pencil works for me

I think as your buying a ct as well. the money would be better spent on a sander .

 

[gippy]

Welcome gippy

Ts 55 is obviously best place to start

I've never really been sold on the parallel guides .cant see the point .a decent tape and pencil works for me

I think as your buying a ct as well. the money would be better spent on a sander .

I will certainly try the tape and pencil first, then perhaps a home made version of the guides based on those I saw in a German magazine. I would rather put the money towards a Domino for sure if I am getting good results. I will buy some adaptors to hook up the Midi to my Bosch and Makita sanders to start with. If / when they die or fall in a bucket of water then I will look at a Festool ROS.
I have a small workshop here in Bangkok with a Makita bench top table saw, impossible to break down sheet goods on it so the TS55 was the logical choice for me. I have already made a few storage items for the shop, drill press table, mobile cart from ShopNotes, Norms router table and then some furniture for our rented house. We will be building a new house next year maybe and I will be doing all the furniture and trim for the house.

 

[wow]

First, [welcome] to the FOG!

You're gonna love that TS. It will change the way you work!

Be sure to post pictures of your projects so we can live vicariously through you.

 

[gippy]

Tools arrived today! Delivered by a young lady wearing a Festool miniskirt. I certainly don't remember seeing that in the catalogue. I only have time to make sure everything fires up today which it did. Only slight annoyance is that the power port on the Midi uses round pins. All the power tools sold in Thailand come with flat pins so I won't be able to use the auto start feature on the Midi with my other tools until I get an adaptor or change all the plugs. I will probably change all the plugs as I can get some European made high quality ones from one hardware store. On the plus side the round pins will stop me accidentally plugging my 110V tools into the Midi and blowing them sky high (Thailand is 220V).

 

[VW mick]

sorry gippy

young lady festool miniskirt .i didnt read any more lol

 

[gippy]

So, I dug out my piece of nasty plywood, the stuff I got when I forgot to check what they were loading on my truck. I never managed to get a remotely clean cut on this stuff, I think the veneer is the thinest ever and held on with spit. Plonked the track down, cross cut with the TS55, beautiful cut. So happy.

 

[Gregory Stoddard]

Hello Gippy, My situation is almost the opposite of yours. I purchased my first Festool in 2004, once you get past the price, there are no regrets. I have most things and use them daily in my work, except for dropping a sander from an 8 ft ladder, they work perfectly.
I bought the 55 saw like you did and for the same reason. I realized that I could rip a straight edge on hardwood boards to start dimensioning rough lumber, what an incredible difference! I added the 75 to make it easier.
I will be moving to Chiang Mei next year, and have tried to decide what Festool to bring. Mine are USA 110v. I will be applying for a retirement visa and will not be able to work for money, only for fun. Any suggestions?
Welcome to Festool
Gregory