TS 75 Cutting Ferrous Metal

[Jamestoolie]

Hello,

  I was wondering if anyone has had experience cutting ferrous Metals with the TS 75. I have watched the festool usa youtube video of a TS75 cutting Stainless steel.  I noticed that a ferrous blade is offered for the 75 and only a non ferrous blade for the 55.  Any personal experience would be appreciated. 

 

[rst]

I don't use my 75 or 55 to cut steel, but I do use my PC 6 1/2" corded and In the last two years I have used a 6 7/8" cordless steel cutting 18V Milwaukee.  I use these for steel cutting primarily for commercial steel door lite retro fitting but have cut up to 1/4" sheet.  The blade and a slower speed will give you results that you can almost run your finger over safetly.  When I use my PC, I plug it into a 15 amp router speed controller to reduce the RPMs.  I used to remove the doors and place them on saw horses to cut but now with the cordless I cut them while still hung...LOVE cordless lithium ion.  The cordless does not have dust collection but the shroud catches most of tiny chips, I use my Milwaukee vac with the PC.

 

[Svar]

It does not really answer your question (no experience with TS75) but cutting steel with circular saw is pretty easy:

Starting from 12:20 is particularly impressive. It's all in the blade, not the saw.

 

[peter halle]

I have no experience cutting steel doors with the Festool TS saws.  If you decide to go this route and use dust extraction there is a spark trap available as an option.  A hot spark in a dust collector can be the start of a very bad day.

Peter

 

[Jamestoolie]

I have no experience cutting steel doors with the Festool TS saws.  If you decide to go this route and use dust extraction there is a spark trap available as an option.  A hot spark in a dust collector can be the start of a very bad day.

Peter

I would be cutting narrow gauge steel sheet.  I liked the idea of having track saw accuracy for cutting metal sheet.  Sure a circular saw would work but i would be missing the track.

 

[Cheese]

Jamestoolie,
I've used my TS 55 to cut 1/4" thick aluminum plate a few times to get out of a jamb and it did a good job.
However having said that, I purchased the Milwaukee 6370-21 reviewed above and it's fantastic. It just didn't make sense to me to use the TS 55 continually for cutting metal. The TS has an aluminum shoe while the Milwaukee shoe is stainless and also has containment for the metal chips. Sliding the TS aluminum shoe over the steel while cutting it, will scuff it pretty badly over time and then there's the problem of those metal chips finding their way between the metal substrate and the aluminum shoe.
If you're serious about cutting metal with the TS, I'd suggest you may want to put some self-adhesive HDPE on the bottom of the TS. Of course that will affect the height settings on the TS because the HDPE is approx. .028" (.7mm) thick.

 

[rst]

Another consideration is that chips may wear your guide rails splinter guard badly.  I either free hand or clamp an aluminum extrusion to the part...usually a piece of 8020 2012.  This extrusion is .5" x 2" with two slots.