Ken Nagrod said:
If you don't mind my curiousity and from having worked in a cabinet shop that had a laser guided saw for sheet goods like I believe you have, what are you using the FS5000 rail for?
Our Holzma HPP 250 pressure beam saw does have a laser for certain purposes, but actually positions the material under computer control. The computer also controls the depth of cut, speed of rotation and speed of cutting, as well as use or not of the scoring saw. When the main saw blade is changed and the s/n of the new blade is entered, the systen adjusts the kerf of the scoring blade to be appropriate.
As far as I know, no available pressure beam saw can make bevel cuts. Only in theory is it possible to manually position material for miter cuts. The job of the beam saw is to make Festool-quality glue ready cuts in sheet goods at right angles. The first step is to make a clean-up rip. The laser helps the saw measure the straightness of the factory edge so as to remove the minimum amount of material. From then on all rips are measured by the saw relative to the cleaned edge. The saw can and does calculate to 0.1mm on either side of the blade. Once the rips are made, the pieces are rotated 90 degrees. While being cut they are forced against a very long fence. Each ripped piece is cleaned up with the aid of the laser.
Our Felder Format 4 Kappa 550 E-Motion sliding table saw was selected to produce miter and bevel cuts in sheet goods, as well as handling all the rips and some cross-cuts in solid lumber. All adjustments of the arbor and rotation speed, as well as use of the scoring unit, are under computer control when desired. So is the position of the rip fence. Setting of the various miter fences is manual by choice on our Kappa 550.
Once we installed the Kappa 550 very quickly our specialist in face frames found it ultra effective on the expensive solid woods he uses. All of us in my shop are very experienced with Kapex. I own 2 and he owns one. Our specialist in installation owns another Kapex. As our shop methods evolved, many of the miter and bevel cross-cuts we expected to do on the Kappa 550 are done more efficiently on a Kapex. Still, we do so much precision ripping on the Kappa 550 we looked for alternatives when sheet goods needed miter and bevel cuts. Again, all of us who specialize in constructing cabinet cases have years of experience with a variety of table saws as well as Felder plunge saws with guide rails.
We use a lot of 4x10' stock. We have work tables drilled with 20mm holes on 96mm centers like giant MFT. We also have a coupled pair of MFT with a 1900mm rail mounted on the long side, so when a part is small enough we can use the angle unit to work as expected with a MFT.
For larger parts, we bought a second Felder miter unit identical to the one on our Kappa 550. That is attached to a very long work table with the MFT-style holes. Our 5000mm rail is normally used with the guide parts from a MFT. That work table as the longest sections of the MFT/3 extrusions mounted as if it were an actual MFT. The Felder miter unit positions the work relative to the very long guide rail. With the long, long rail there is no problem supporting the TS55 or TS75 at either end of the cut. With practice and experience we can and do make these cuts as accurately and efficiently as on the big slider saw. The advantage to the work table is only one cabinet maker is needed to set the miter unit. One of our vacuum lifts aids positioning sheet goods without needing a second cabinet maker. That same vacuum lift also serves the Kappa 550 when needed. Another vacuum lift serves the beam saw and a Weeke 512 3700mm (147.5") x 1550mm (61.0") CNC nested router.
We have several other work tables, all with sacrificial tops, all with the 20mm holes on 96mm centers, all produced on our CNC router during slack periods, all made from 19mm plywood that for one reason or another had cosmetic flaws. We use our 2700mm and 3000mm rails on those tables when needed to produce parts, especially while in the prototype stage. Once happy with the results we take measurements and program those into the beam saw for later production.
I believe strongly it is vital to have experience with TS saws and guide rails before learning to program computer assisted saws, just as you need extensive manual router experience to program a CNC router.
My current shop is possible because of the efficiency of my Festools from 2006 until early 2010.
