T55 problems with 8/4 Maple

[Michael Kellough]

That being said, do all Festool 2.2mm kerf blades share the same plate thickness? If not they would hit the splinter guard differently even though they have the same cut kerf.

Just checked my blades plate thickness (in thousandths of an inch);

48 tooth-0.0645"

28 tooth-0.066"

12 tooth-0.065"

Pretty close to the same.

Tom

Yes, pretty close, as is the kerf between 2.2 and 2.4mm.... in inches the difference is 0.00787", and that's the total kerf, not the difference in splinter guard clearance which will be even less depending on the plate thickness changes. I'm not disagreeing that using the same kerf is best, rather just running the numbers to understand what hairs we're trying to split here.

You're on the right track, it's not just nominal kerf but disk thickness as well.

I bought a Forrest blade made for the Festool 55 and when I realized the kerf was 2.7mm
I expected it would cut my splinter guard down. In reality the teeth missed the splinter guard entirely
because the the disk is thicker and the offset between disk and tooth edge is the same or less.

This is less important when you get to the long flexible tooth blades like Universal and especially Panther.

 

[JamieMcGannon]

Great advice guys, I really appreciate your expertise and input.

I've purchased the parallel guide set with the extensions as well as the Panther blade. I havent been in the shop to try it out yet but hopefully in the next couple of days I will.

So i have 8/4 maple that I need to dimension it to 1.75"x1.187"x28", is it possible or advisable to dimension the strips on two edges?

 

[JamieMcGannon]

When ripping small and narrow pieces, what do you guys find is the best way to clamp the workpiece while using the PGs and securing the track?