TS 55 REQ Doesn't Retract Fully

[jcoby]

I bought a TS 55 REQ during the last refurb sale. It has the green "G" sticker so I assume it's had the recall performed.

Recently I've noticed that after cutting with the track it doesn't retract fully until I remove it from the track. It doesn't matter if the track is clamped or not. I have two 1400 tracks and it happens on both. It gets stuck with about 3-5mm of the blade sticking out (pretty much one tooth's worth). It doesn't really seem to matter if I push to the left or the right or center during the cut.

Playing around with it the only way I can reproduce is if I push the riving knife away from the saw with very light pressure. It takes almost no pressure at all. Let go and it snaps back to fully retracted. The riving knife wiggles side to side a bit.

I've double checked the free play adjustment on the track sliders and have made sure that the saw base plate isn't in a bind.

The saw cuts great otherwise. It's just a little annoying to have it pop every time I pick it up off the track.

 

[Brent Shively]

Jcoby,
I'm sure that the saw has had the recall preformed by our service department before it was sold in the reconditioned sale.  I would recommend contacting the service department for the issues you are currently having.  Their number is listed below.

Brent.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Just to make it clear, this is not related to the recall. That would be at a different depth, not 3-5 mm.

Before sending it in, you may want to look in the blade housing for obstruction. You could have ingested a sliver of scrap wood that is binding up the riving knife and preventing it (and the saw) from retracting. The same could be true with impacted dust.

Make sure to unplug the saw! Then remove the blade. Then remove the 5 screws that hold the front blade housing on, and remove the housing. Plunge the saw and see if there is anything interfering with the riving knife mechanism. Look around the sawblade arbor and see if there is any impacted sawdust or debris interfering with the arbor.

 

[Gary in Texas]

I while back I purchased a used track saw (~6 months old) that acted similar to what you've described.  I checked for debris same as Rick suggested above, found the housing to be full of some plastic the previous owner had cut and left bird nested in the housing.  A good cleaning and the saw worked perfectly.  Definitely worth checking before you send it in to service.

Gary

 

[tjbnwi]

I know someone who had the same hang up issue. It was a pice of wood that ended up causing the problem. He had to pull the cover to clear it.

(As Rick said) Make sure to saw is unplugged before servicing it.

Tom

 

[jcoby]

Thanks for the feedback. I just checked the saw and there doesn't appear to be any debris or anything preventing the retraction.

One side of the riving knife shows wear on the slot where it's rubbing against the retaining screw. Riving knife seems to be inline with the blade and parallel so i'm not really sure why it's getting pushed out.

Two pics show the wear and a simulation of  how it sticks. I'll contact service today or tomorrow.

 

[xtrememtnbiker]

Tom is mostly correct. It was a piece of wood causing the issue but I didn't have to pull the cover to fix the issue. I did pull the cover though chasing the issue. Tom sent me photos of what his saw looked like with the cover off and I was able to figure out what the difference was. I traced it to a piece of the wood lattice I was cutting that had somehow ended up landing on the saw underneath the handle while I was cutting.

When I stopped the cut and let the saw come up, it wasn't able to fully return because it was hitting a 1/4" scrap of lattice. You may or may not be having the same issue but if you are, just check under the handle of the saw and make sure there is nothing there prohibiting the saw from coming all the way back up from being plunged.

 

[jcoby]

Well I emailed Festool through the site 10 days ago and haven't received a response beyond the "we got your question" email. The warranty expires in 3 days.  [unsure]

 

[Brent Shively]

Well I emailed Festool through the site 10 days ago and haven't received a response beyond the "we got your question" email. The warranty expires in 3 days.  [unsure]

Jacob,
Please PM your number and i will have the service department contact you.

Brent

 

[jcoby]

Well I emailed Festool through the site 10 days ago and haven't received a response beyond the "we got your question" email. The warranty expires in 3 days.  [unsure]

Jacob,
Please PM your number and i will have the service department contact you.

Brent

Brent,

Thanks. Lester contacted me within a few minutes of your response via phone and email and recommended I send the tool for repair. I've started on that process now.

 

[Cheese]

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this whole thing, but the question needs to be asked as to why if the OP has already contacted the appropriate Festool conduit 10 days ago and consequently he doesn't receive a response, why is it when he finally pushes the issue on the FOG that he receives an answer within a "few minutes" from Festool. That seems to me to be an endemic problem with the chain of command. Educate me...I'm not a smart guy. Through my peepers, a 48 hour turn-around time to repair a tool is the Festool norm, however a minimum of a 240 hours turn-around time to answer a simple inquiry is also the Festool norm. Guess I'll just order the parts and fix it myself.

 

[Gwerner]

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this whole thing, but the question needs to be asked as to why if the OP has already contacted the appropriate Festool conduit 10 days ago and consequently he doesn't receive a response, why is it when he finally pushes the issue on the FOG that he receives an answer within a "few minutes" from Festool. That seems to me to be an endemic problem with the chain of command. Educate me...I'm not a smart guy. Through my peepers, a 48 hour turn-around time to repair a tool is the Festool norm, however a minimum of a 240 hours turn-around time to answer a simple inquiry is also the Festool norm. Guess I'll just order the parts and fix it myself.

Well said.

 

[Brent Shively]

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this whole thing, but the question needs to be asked as to why if the OP has already contacted the appropriate Festool conduit 10 days ago and consequently he doesn't receive a response, why is it when he finally pushes the issue on the FOG that he receives an answer within a "few minutes" from Festool. That seems to me to be an endemic problem with the chain of command. Educate me...I'm not a smart guy. Through my peepers, a 48 hour turn-around time to repair a tool is the Festool norm, however a minimum of a 240 hours turn-around time to answer a simple inquiry is also the Festool norm. Guess I'll just order the parts and fix it myself.

Cheese,
Jcoby posted about his issue on June 10th and I responded the same day requesting that he contact the service center.  He then posted yesterday that he had not received a response to an email he sent in 10 days earlier.  I checked with our service department and the last email that they had received from him was in January of this year regarding a different tool.  Our service department manager called and emailed Jcoby within an hour of his post about the email. 

Brent

 

[Cheese]

[member=47173]Brent Shively[/member]
Thanks for clearing up the issue...seems like there is probably more than enough humble pie to go around on this one, myself included.

 

[jcoby]

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this whole thing, but the question needs to be asked as to why if the OP has already contacted the appropriate Festool conduit 10 days ago and consequently he doesn't receive a response, why is it when he finally pushes the issue on the FOG that he receives an answer within a "few minutes" from Festool. That seems to me to be an endemic problem with the chain of command. Educate me...I'm not a smart guy. Through my peepers, a 48 hour turn-around time to repair a tool is the Festool norm, however a minimum of a 240 hours turn-around time to answer a simple inquiry is also the Festool norm. Guess I'll just order the parts and fix it myself.

Cheese,
Jcoby posted about his issue on June 10th and I responded the same day requesting that he contact the service center.  He then posted yesterday that he had not received a response to an email he sent in 10 days earlier.  I checked with our service department and the last email that they had received from him was in January of this year regarding a different tool.  Our service department manager called and emailed Jcoby within an hour of his post about the email. 

Brent

Brent,

If that's the case then there is something wrong internally at Festool. I used the same form that I used earlier in the year about my OF1010 having issues with the depth adjustment. I used the same email address as before. I don't know why you can't find it in your system.

Yes I waited nearly a month to contact Festool after I started this thread. It's not a major problem, I finished up my project, and I just had a kid so it's not been on the top of my priority list.

I posted back in this thread after 10 days since the email I received from Festool does not give a way to check on the request status hoping someone here could look into it. Email is the easiest way for me to handle these sorts of things since my day job is with computers.

I submitted the request through the website on Aug 7. I received an automated response at Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:15:18 -0700 (PDT) according to the mail headers. I expected to wait until at least the 11-12th to get a response as the 7th was a Friday.

Here are the relevant mail headers:

Date: 7 Aug 2015 13:15:00 -0400
Subject: We received your message
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Return-Path: noreply@festoolusa.com
Message-ID:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Aug 2015 17:15:00.0443 (UTC) FILETIME=[97869AB0:01D0D134]

 

[Brent Shively]

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this whole thing, but the question needs to be asked as to why if the OP has already contacted the appropriate Festool conduit 10 days ago and consequently he doesn't receive a response, why is it when he finally pushes the issue on the FOG that he receives an answer within a "few minutes" from Festool. That seems to me to be an endemic problem with the chain of command. Educate me...I'm not a smart guy. Through my peepers, a 48 hour turn-around time to repair a tool is the Festool norm, however a minimum of a 240 hours turn-around time to answer a simple inquiry is also the Festool norm. Guess I'll just order the parts and fix it myself.

Cheese,
Jcoby posted about his issue on June 10th and I responded the same day requesting that he contact the service center.  He then posted yesterday that he had not received a response to an email he sent in 10 days earlier.  I checked with our service department and the last email that they had received from him was in January of this year regarding a different tool.  Our service department manager called and emailed Jcoby within an hour of his post about the email. 

Brent

Brent,

If that's the case then there is something wrong internally at Festool. I used the same form that I used earlier in the year about my OF1010 having issues with the depth adjustment. I used the same email address as before. I don't know why you can't find it in your system.

Yes I waited nearly a month to contact Festool after I started this thread. It's not a major problem, I finished up my project, and I just had a kid so it's not been on the top of my priority list.

I posted back in this thread after 10 days since the email I received from Festool does not give a way to check on the request status hoping someone here could look into it. Email is the easiest way for me to handle these sorts of things since my day job is with computers.

I submitted the request through the website on Aug 7. I received an automated response at Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:15:18 -0700 (PDT) according to the mail headers. I expected to wait until at least the 11-12th to get a response as the 7th was a Friday.

Here are the relevant mail headers:

Date: 7 Aug 2015 13:15:00 -0400
Subject: We received your message
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Return-Path: noreply@festoolusa.com
Message-ID:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Aug 2015 17:15:00.0443 (UTC) FILETIME=[97869AB0:01D0D134]

Jacob,
First off, Congratulations on the  new addition to your family!
I have forwarded this information to our IT person so they can look into if further.  In the future if you have delayed response contacting our service department or Festool in general you can contact me directly at Bsh@festoolusa.com. 

Brent

 

[jcoby]

Jacob,
First off, Congratulations on the  new addition to your family!
I have forwarded this information to our IT person so they can look into if further.  In the future if you have delayed response contacting our service department or Festool in general you can contact me directly at Bsh@festoolusa.com. 

Brent

Thanks. If the IT person needs any more info please let me know. I can forward the whole email to you or the IT person as well if you'd like.

Just to be clear I'm not upset in any way. Other than this hiccup with the support form the Festool support has been great.