TS-55 vs TS-75 Dust Collection

[Coen]

Or use Festool 491750

Granted; not for angled cuts

 

[tjbnwi]

Judge for yourself.

TS 75


TS 55


Tom

 

[ScoFF]

I use a 35mm hose (a blue brand from Lowes) and I put a couple strips of blue tape over the side blade cover window which is for some reason left open...this boosted the dust collection a lot!  That open window on the side is odd to me, should be a slide down window to close it off.

 

[Holmz]

I've been debating back and forth between these two saws, and at the end of the day the pros and cons of each balance out for me.  Dust collection, however, is very important to me.  Does anyone have any experience on whether dust collection is better on one saw vs the other?  I prefer to use the 27mm hose, if that makes any difference.

Most of the track saws do pretty good for dust. Even the deWalt seems to do good. Maybe the deWalt gets 95% and the FT gets 97% (a proper test would be good to do.)
So I cannot see a compelling reason for a different hose, as the small one gets most of it.

The differences between tracks is more of a driver for most than the dust collection.

I generally 'feel' that dust collection is nice to have with a saw, and more of need with a sander. I can usually smell the wood a bit with a saw when outdoors without a vacuum, but with a sander the olfactory sensation is instant... So I think more dust is headed towards the snout.

It is also nice not to have a huge clean up session at the end of the sawing. It seems like a 1-2% of dust remains... Usually there is a puff at the end of the cut, and maybe at the beginning.

 

[Coen]

I use a 35mm hose (a blue brand from Lowes) and I put a couple strips of blue tape over the side blade cover window which is for some reason left open...this boosted the dust collection a lot!  That open window on the side is odd to me, should be a slide down window to close it off.

It is for some reason... so you can change the blade  [tongue]

 

[grbmds]

I use a 35mm hose (a blue brand from Lowes) and I put a couple strips of blue tape over the side blade cover window which is for some reason left open...this boosted the dust collection a lot!  That open window on the side is odd to me, should be a slide down window to close it off.

It is for some reason... so you can change the blade  [tongue]

My understanding is that the opening promotes dust collection; to provide air flow to help pull the dust out the port. I know others have reported chips exiting through the opening but I have never observed that. Has anyone asked Festool Service about the opening and the design reasons? I doubt it's an oversight.

 

[nickao]

I see a substantial difference using the 35mm hose. The guys that go to a foam piece underneath see a difference for certain cuts, it's those type of cuts where you will see the benefit of the 35mm hose. And I always tape that hole and I agree it helps, that open window doesn't aid anything. That open hole might appear to help on paper to the designers, but not in the real world. Close it up for dust collection