TS55 Accessories

[Steve F]

I hope this is the proper forum for this question, but I want to buy a TS55 and am really confused about which accessories I need to be able to do what I want.  I realize that the MFT would answer the question, but was hoping for a less costly solution.

To explain my questions, assume that I have a length of 8/4 lumber that is 3" wide:

1.  If I want to rip a 1" strip, how do I secure the board when only 2" will be under the track?  Can I do that, or is there a minimum width required to be able to rip the board without the MFT?

2.  If I want to crosscut a 12" piece of the board, what is the best accessory to be able to make sure that my cut is perfectly square?  There seem to be several attachments that do this, but I'm really not sure what the options are.

Thanks for the help

Steve

 

[robtonya]

Steve you can place a scrap piece under the rail that would be the same thickness as the piece you cut for narrow stock. As far as square crosscuts, I use Dewalts T bracket made for their rails, but work well on Festool rails too. I found an image of it for you.

 

[Corwin]

1,  There really isn't any 'minimum width' requirement.  But these type setups can get tricky to setup.  As Rob said, it is best to have another piece of material the same thickness to help support the guide rail.  You can either choose to have the ~2" waste under the rail as you mentioned, or have the 1" keeper under the rail with the waste to the right of the cut.  These narrow setups are easier when you are cutting sheet goods, and also easier to explain...  But cutting 8/4 material into 1" strips is doable.

2,  To align the guide rail to 90 degrees, another option to the DeWalt T Bracket that Rob has shown above is to use a carpenter's triangle (speed square).  The square needs to be offset from the intended cut line by the width of the guide rail, so rather than attempt to measure the difference you can instead make a simple jig from scrap to accomplish this -- align a good (or freshly cut) edge of some scrap with the back side of the guide rail and cut the piece to width.  Now you can place one side of this scrap (or jig) to your cut mark and set the square against the other side.  Remove the jig and place the guide rail in its place against the square.  To make this 'jig' even easier to use, add a piece to the bottom to act as a fence that would but up against the edge of your material -- this makes it easier to hold the jig in place while you place the square against it.

 

[sw1211]

If you're going to be cutting a lot of 8/4 lumber you may want to consider the 75 vs the 55.

Keep an eye out here for a new 90 degree cross cutting jig, last I saw Qwas was working on a prototype.

 

[PaulMarcel]

My only concern for ripping 1" strips off 3" stock would be securing the stock and rail.  All rips would touch just the last grip tape that's under the cut line, but that's not a lot.  Even balancing it with other stock wouldn't correct that problem especially since you'll have to give a decent push for that rip.

 

[mouppe]

How about using the parallel guide? If use place similar thickness material under the guide rail, and clamp it well, the parallel guide will stop the thin material that you want to rip from moving away from you.

Richard.

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[Steve F]

Thanks for the suggestions.

It seems that ripping and crosscutting narrow boards would both be much easier with the Eurekazone Bridge, but I don't want the Eurekazone system - I want the Festool.  Is it possible to use the front and rear support brackets (from the MFT) to make a simple squaring jig along the lines of the Eurekazone bridge?

While I am convinced that the Festool system is superior to the Eurekazone one in many ways, I really like their concept of the bridge, which is one of the many features built into the MFT.  But, I am just an amateur trying to make straight and square cuts without buying a table saw and would prefer not to spend the extra $500 on an MFT.  It seems that something like the Eurekazone bridge would make my thin rips cuts and square cuts "idiot proof,"  so I just want a stripped down MFT that will do the same thing.

I definitely like the simplicity (and price) of the Dewalt squaring jig, but am concerned that it is not as idiot-proof.

Making a home-made squaring jig is possible, but I'm not sure I can make an accurate squaring jig before I have a squaring jig.  Kind of like trying to build a workbench before having one.
 
Thanks again,

Steve

 

[fshanno]

It seems that ripping and crosscutting narrow boards would both be much easier with the Eurekazone Bridge, but I don't want the Eurekazone system - I want the Festool.  Is it possible to use the front and rear support brackets (from the MFT) to make a simple squaring jig along the lines of the Eurekazone bridge?

Steve

Steve,

There are any number of ways to achieve the things you see Dino doing.  I made a very effective ripping platform from and old piece of cheap 3/4 ply that was collecting dust and some 1/4" MDF and a few screws.

Basically it's just a formal version of the technique others have outlined.  Here's a diagram of the concept.

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You screw down the little mdf fence so the outside edge sticks out past the guide with the guide butted up against the back.  Then, with the guide flat against the back you cut it.  That establishes the baseline or zero width rip.

Frankly, I get better results on this than on the table saw but it does entail setup and breakdown time and individual cycles are a bit longer.  You mentioned thin rips from thin stock.  Well here you go...

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The result.

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It wasn't quite parallel.  I goofed up a little.  Here's one end......

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.... and the other end ......

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I wasn't shooting for any particular width, just a parallel rip for demo purposes.  2 thousandths off, pretty good for me, way better than I get at the table saw.  This was an 8' rip of a piece that STARTED OUT at a little over 1/2" wide.  You tell me, isn't this at least as good as what Dino shows in his demos?actually pushing a saw.  This was not sheet goods, it was 3/4 beech.

You don't even need an MFT to do what the EZ Bridge does, just some ingenuity and scrap plywood.  I'll talk about crosscutting in another post.

 

[Steve F]

Thank you!  That's very promising.  The only issue I have is that the precision of the rip depends on how perfect the stops are, but I suppose that's something I could manage.

I am very interested in seeing your cross-cutting solution.

Steve

 

[fshanno]

Thank you!  That's very promising.  The only issue I have is that the precision of the rip depends on how perfect the stops are, but I suppose that's something I could manage.

I am very interested in seeing your cross-cutting solution.

Steve

Many cross cutting solutions have been discussed in threads on the FOG.  Mine may be the strangest of the lot but here it is.

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I made it as a mock up of something that could be made by a manufacturer not intending to actually use it.  It was an illustration for an idea in a post for a thread in the Wish List Forum.  The mfg version would be aluminum or plastic and fixed up nice.  But then I went ahead and used it and found that it works just fine.

I've got the DeWalt square, the Festool Angle Unit and the FS-PA parallel guide.  And I've tinkered together several jigs patterned after ideas I've seen. But this goofy looking thing blows them all out of the water for crosscuts.  Hands down, no comparison.

1. Better tear out protection on both sides of the cut than the Festool guide and green saw attachment provide.

2. Easier and more accurate placement.
 - no friction tape fighting against you
 - no need to tilt the guide as you set it so it won't skew, set down on the work piece, wang it up against the reference edge and tap it till you are on your mark.
 - sighting the kerf seems a bit more accurate than sighting on the rubber strip on the guide.  It is a bit tedious to find your mark in the thin window the kerf provides.
 - no wiggle at guide attachment points

3. Will handle material down to 7/32" thick COMPLETELY ON TOP OF A SOLID WORK SURFACE.  This probably doesn't mean much to you but trust me, it's a tremendous advantage.

4. Theoretically it never needs adjustment.  We'll see what summer humidity does to it.

It needs low friction tape on top and bottom.  On top so the saw will to slide better and on bottom to protect prefinished surfaces.  Also, the width to the right of the blade needs to be increase a bit so it can be clamped if desired.  Another quick and inexpensive improvement would be an aluminum or steel or even plastic guide bar.   By the way, that bar is 1/4" x 5/8" and the saw fits perfectly.  I go back and fourth with no need to adjus saw tracking.

The EZ square thing with the handle is $130.  You can guess what mine cost.  

As final note on value I offer a comparison.  The new EZ SuperPower Bench costs $1500.  Based on what you can do with it and how safe and effective it is I'd say it is value priced.  It is a fabulous dedicated cutting platform but it  has no other utility that I can see.  You can buy an MFT/3 and an MFT/3 basic and hook them together for a total of $1079.  This configuration is also a fabulous cutting platform but it need not be dedicated strictly to cutting.  Cutting is just the beginning of it's utility.  

 

[bhendrix]

Ingenious!!

To improve alignment visibility, drill a 1/2" hole at the start of the plunge cut so you can see your cutting mark and the edge of your board.  You could counterbore or countersink the hole to improve line of sight to the mark.

 

[fshanno]

Ingenious!!

To improve alignment visibility, drill a 1/2" hole at the start of the plunge cut so you can see your cutting mark and the edge of your board.  You could counterbore or countersink the hole to improve line of sight to the mark.

I though about a plastic insert that you could just plunge through to establish the kerf line and still have tear out protection.  In fact it might not hurt if the whole thing was some kind of translucent plastic.