Styrofoam and plunge saw cuts...

[upscale]

I've got my new and as yet, unused TS55 here. It seems that many people use Styrofoam (and sometimes mdf) as an underlayment when they're cutting their sheet goods. I have a question about the Styrofoam part of the practice and some abject fears about it.

First, my fear about using Styrofoam is strongly related to my abhorrence of Styrofoam peanuts frequently used for packing products for shipping. They get everywhere, they stick to everything and they're a real pain to clean up. As far as I'm concerned they're a pestilence made by man to torture himself.

Don't you get a similar problem using Styrofoam as an underlayment when cutting your sheet goods? Do you experience Styrofoam dust when cutting? How about clean up? Do you get small bits of Styrofoam sticking to the underside of your sheet goods and then transferring to everything within eyesight?

Please, someone tell me how you can use Styrofoam as an underlayment and not go to bed at night fearing that you'll have nightmares about being consigned to oblivion in a Styrofoam hell.

 

[Chuck Kiser]

It is not Styrofoam. Most of the guys use the pink foam insulation boards. It may be related from a chemical standpoint, but it is NOT the compressed, tiny beads that cups are made of. It is a closed cell foam. HTH 

 

[chrisrosenb]

I use 1 1/2" thick extruded blue insullaion board. I chose that because I had some on hand.
I use a dust extractor when when I use it,so I have never had a problem with styrofoam dust.
When I use the styrofoam I only cut into the styrofoam about 1/8". Cutting at that depth, I do not believe the styrofoam
dust would be a problem even if I did not use a dust extractor. 

 

[Sparktrician]

As others have noted, when you set the plunge depth of the TS55 to a shade deeper than the material you're cutting, you'll get minimal tearing of the insulation board.  If you get good at it, the insulation board should last you for several months, if not years, of cutting.  You'll also save some trees from an untimely passing. 

 

[upscale]

Guess I'm in the market for pink (or blue) insulation board. Does it have a tendency to melt at all? On a guess I'd say that depth of cut has a lot to do with that, but I'll be watching for it. As a habit, I often use Lee Valley's resin remover to clean my blades.
[thanks]

 

[DANIELKARL]

I have had the same pink sheet for 6 months. What it does for me, is further enhance the best feature of Festool, DUST PICKUP. Because it is zero clearance there is no dust blow out from the bottom of the plywood. I have used this setup in a church with nothing but a drop cloth and had wonderful results.
I have almost no pink dust, probably because it is so light that the vac just picks it all up. I do however worry that it may be increasing the wear on the blade.

 

[Sparktrician]

I have had the same pink sheet for 6 months. What it does for me, is further enhance the best feature of Festool, DUST PICKUP. Because it is zero clearance there is no dust blow out from the bottom of the plywood. I have used this setup in a church with nothing but a drop cloth and had wonderful results.
I have almost no pink dust, probably because it is so light that the vac just picks it all up. I do however worry that it may be increasing the wear on the blade.

That begs the question - which would you rather do, clean up the dust after every job or change the blade once in a while?   [wink]  

 

[upscale]

That begs the question - which would you rather do, clean up the dust after every job or change the blade once in a while?   [wink]  

In other words, you mean 'sharpen' the blade a little more often, if needed.

 

[Sparktrician]

That begs the question - which would you rather do, clean up the dust after every job or change the blade once in a while?   [wink]  

In other words, you mean 'sharpen' the blade a little more often, if needed.

Exactly.  It takes far less time to switch a blade to a newly-sharpened one than it does to repeatedly clean up customers' premises.  Some contract saw-sharpening services have a pick up/drop off service on a weekly basis right at your shop. 

 

[ccarrolladams]

Exactly.  It takes far less time to switch a blade to a newly-sharpened one than it does to repeatedly clean up customers' premises.  Some contract saw-sharpening services have a pick up/drop off service on a weekly basis right at your shop. 

One key reason I bought the building I did for my shop is that the city of Burbank is close to the homes of many talented cabinet makers. LA Grinding, an excellent sharpening service, is less than 5 minutes away from my shop. Under my contract with them their driver picks up dull blades when I call and then brings back sharpened blades once they are ready, all for less than what I paid before I opened my shop and was bringing a blade at a time to their place. Currently I am paying USA$18.50 for sharpening of the 48 tooth fine TS55 blade. The work is the best I have experienced from any grinding service.

I find my dust collection is as good when I use smooth plywood as the sacrificial surface. My experience is that so long as the sacrificial surface is flat, MDF, insulation and plywood work equally well. My reasoning about plywood is that a few times a year mixed in with excellent sheets there will be one that is stained or has cosmetic blemishes. I transfer those to a special stack for use making parts where the blemish is no problem. Then when I need another plywood sacrificial sheet I pull it from that stack. However, my CNC nested router uses vacuum to hold the work in place. For that MDF is more porus. Although I do not use much MDF I keep the remainder of a unit in stock for the purpose. I do not use any insulation board and my primary cabinet plywood and solid lumber wholesaler does not supply insulation, so for me the plywood costs less.

 

[bonesbr549]

I use the thick 2" stuff that you can stand on (non foil).  I can stand on it with all my weight (all 190lbs) and it stands up just fine.  I see no dust but then I have my saw connected to a CT33e so never gave it much thought.    Secondly, I don't penetrate but a few mills into the surface so I'm not really disturbing it.  I also use the MFT3 that has it's top made out of MDF and no difference.  Dont sweat it and enjoy the new saw you will absolutely love it!  have a good one! ;D

 

[tbellemare]

Some contract saw-sharpening services have a pick up/drop off service on a weekly basis right at your shop.

Sparktrician:

Do you have a good sharpening service near DC? I have a customer there who is looking for one.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

In addition to using the insulation as a sheet under goods being cut I recently had the need to cut up some sheets of 2" insulation into smaller pieces and used the TS55 and CT22 to collect virtually all the sawdust from cutting the sheets.  I did this indoors and was very pleased with the resulting cuts and the lack of a mess at the end.

Best,
Todd

 

[JeromeM]

I've got my new and as yet, unused TS55 here. It seems that many people use Styrofoam (and sometimes mdf) as an underlayment when they're cutting their sheet goods. I have a question about the Styrofoam part of the practice and some abject fears about it.

First, my fear about using Styrofoam is strongly related to my abhorrence of Styrofoam peanuts frequently used for packing products for shipping. They get everywhere, they stick to everything and they're a real pain to clean up. As far as I'm concerned they're a pestilence made by man to torture himself.

Don't you get a similar problem using Styrofoam as an underlayment when cutting your sheet goods? Do you experience Styrofoam dust when cutting? How about clean up? Do you get small bits of Styrofoam sticking to the underside of your sheet goods and then transferring to everything within eyesight?

Please, someone tell me how you can use Styrofoam as an underlayment and not go to bed at night fearing that you'll have nightmares about being consigned to oblivion in a Styrofoam hell.

I use Expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam to Americans) as an underlay/cutting base all the time

[attachthumb=1]

Some dust in the saw cuts but thats it

No polystyrene dust that I ever notice. I guess the CT22 gets it all.
No polystyrene sticking to the work though the fact that I don't have Air-conditioning means I never have low humidity

[attachthumb=2]

I did no cleanup before this Pic and as you can see no polystyrene dust

 

[Sparktrician]

Some contract saw-sharpening services have a pick up/drop off service on a weekly basis right at your shop.

Sparktrician:

Do you have a good sharpening service near DC? I have a customer there who is looking for one.

Thanks,

Tom

Tom,
    There are a number of sharpening outfits near DC, most of which are in Maryland.  One close to DC is Eversharp Machinery LLC, 4814 Hollywood Rd., College Park, MD, 20740-1657, 301-345-6189.  A good source for finding sharpening services is MacRae's Blue Book - http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/company.cfm?company=1173814.  A Google search showed a bunch of sharpening services, most of which were in or near Baltimore.  Your customer can pick the one that suits their need best.  Good luck!  

Sparktrician