TS55 floppy hose connector

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Apr 25, 2021
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Derbyshire UK
It sucks. It really, really sucks. I get the fact that the swivel is probably useful for the handful of users using a boom, but for everyone else - having a hose which flops down and constantly snags is a total PITA.

I don’t know if these guys ship worldwide, but I just installed this rigid aftermarket part on my saw and it’s great in every way. For those who aspire to cut sheet goods without swearing all the time, I’d recommend it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Festool-...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
 
woodbutcherbower said:
It sucks. It really, really sucks. I get the fact that the swivel is probably useful for the handful of users using a boom, but for everyone else - having a hose which flops down and constantly snags is a total PITA.

I don’t know if these guys ship worldwide, but I just installed this rigid aftermarket part on my saw and it’s great in every way. For those who aspire to cut sheet goods without swearing all the time, I’d recommend it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Festool-...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
And here was me thinking what someone might do wit a Floppy (disc) and a TS 55. :D

You can also get a spare Festool version and glue it, or possibly glue the one which came with saw and get a spare only if it bothers you. Putting in double-tape inside works too.

In any case, $15 for a 3d printed piece like this is a proper rip-off.
 
I either use that thing on the end of the rail or I put the hose and cord over my shoulder. Never had a problem with that dustport swiveling.

But what is with the ads for this thing? Recently we had someone register just to spam that thing.
 
Coen said:
I either use that thing on the end of the rail or I put the hose and cord over my shoulder. Never had a problem with that dustport swiveling.

But what is with the ads for this thing? Recently we had someone register just to spam that thing.

It’s not an ad. It’s a fellow member suggesting an effective, 30-second solution to an issue which has driven him crazy. I see plenty of users on here recommending products from TSO and similar (and very good they are, too). Are those ads, too?
 
mino said:
woodbutcherbower said:
It sucks. It really, really sucks. I get the fact that the swivel is probably useful for the handful of users using a boom, but for everyone else - having a hose which flops down and constantly snags is a total PITA.

I don’t know if these guys ship worldwide, but I just installed this rigid aftermarket part on my saw and it’s great in every way. For those who aspire to cut sheet goods without swearing all the time, I’d recommend it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Festool-...=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
And here was me thinking what someone might do wit a Floppy (disc) and a TS 55. :D

You can also get a spare Festool version and glue it, or possibly glue the one which came with saw and get a spare only if it bothers you. Putting in double-tape inside works too.

In any case, $15 for a 3d printed piece like this is a proper rip-off.

A premium saw which needs the user to get out some duck tape and a bottle of glue to make it functional? And as for it being a ‘proper rip-off’,  a spare bodged-up and glued Festool OEM part costs double. £22.
 
The one on the original TS55 was a nuisance at times.  Haven't had the same issues at all since the REBQ model and later were released with the 2 piece setup.

If all it takes is 5 screws, a couple of wraps of tape and put the 5 screws back, I can't understand why someone would go to the trouble of ordering a different thing and fitting that instead of just fixing their problem in the simplest of ways.

 
woodbutcherbower said:
A premium saw which needs the user to get out some duck tape and a bottle of glue to make it functional? And as for it being a ‘proper rip-off’,  a spare bodged-up and glued Festool OEM part costs double. £22.
Sorry, but that saw is very much functional if used as Festool shows in most of their instructional videos. Sure, everything can be improved. But claiming it non-functional is going a bit too far.

Reg, the 3 printed part. It is something you print in a couple hours and use about 1 ounce of fillament which is $1 likely less. The total print cost, including labor, is $5, and I am being very generous here.

That absolutely not comparable to the Festool price. A mold for stuff like this /et the level of precision/ goes around $10k, possibly more. Then Festool uses special plastics. Then it is a normal retail part you can buy. Then the development cost, say some engineer spending a week+ testing various details is $10k etc. easily, likely more. The Festool margin would be in the several tens percentage points here. The 3d print margin is in the several hundred percentage points area.

Yes, possibly Festool should offer a fixed version for those folks who do not want to use a tape or screw. I would likely cost more (as way less volume for similar fixed costs) but hey, they probably should. But that is not a justification for someone selling something way worse (3D printed is incomparable to the original reinforced plastic one) for pretty much the cost or a retail original is a rip-off as far as I am concerned.

For $7 it would be OK, possibly $10 with both eyes closed. But at $15 it is bordering on a scam for me.
 
I am not going to tread into the aftermarket replacement, but for those who are interested in anti-static grounding paths, my guess is that the additives that Festool uses are not probably included in a printed version.  Obviously I could be wrong here.

Peter
 
I found a cheap, effective solution which works for me. I don’t have the time or will to argue about the salaries of over-thinking development guys, injection mould tooling costs or similar. Instead, allow me to pass you over to Peter Millard - one of YouTube’s most successful and heavily-subscribed professional woodworkers;

 
My post in this old thread shows a better fix, I think (and free).  This has functioned very well for years now - I need to do another one for my HK85, but for now I just swap it over.
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...-new-dust-port-on-a-ts55/msg502495/#msg502495

Next time I would make the inserts just a little longer to reduce the flex in the arms just a little bit more.

This was on the original, non-bayonet style fitting, but the fix is the same on the later versions. I agree it is a poor design, along with all the bayonet-style Cleantec connectors - you do wonder if the development engineers ever try using this stuff.

Cheers

 
scholar said:
My post in this old thread shows a better fix, I think (and free).  This has functioned very well for years now - I need to do another one for my HK85, but for now I just swap it over.
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...-new-dust-port-on-a-ts55/msg502495/#msg502495

Next time I would make the inserts just a little longer to reduce the flex in the arms just a little bit more.

This was on the original, non-bayonet style fitting, but the fix is the same on the later versions. I agree it is a poor design, along with all the bayonet-style Cleantec connectors - you do wonder if the development engineers ever try using this stuff.

Cheers
The swiveling port is clearly optimised for boom arm use. There an /easily/ swiveling port is a must. Without it, the boom arms would not work well.

In the new version they did include the quick-connect interface to allow quick-swapping to a "fixed" head. There is nothing preventing Festool to release a non-rotating version of the replaceable hose head. It was just not made yet.

[member=101]Festool USA[/member]
As much as possible, please do feed back to development that there is a real market for a fixed version of the removable hose port. From a proper antistatic plastic. Yes, you can "glue" the existing one in. But still it is still just a hack.

Everyone would love it in the standard saw kits of course. But even as an accessory with tis own business case, I am sure there is a market for it at the current swiveling version price. I will buy one if you make it.
 
I don't think that's a fair comparison. If you calculate the initial investment then you need to include the time someone spend on creating this piece, the expected volume of sales vs. investment cost. For example:

3D Printed part:
CAD: 3 hours (Yes, details takes more time than expected for most) $300
Administration time: 10 min (package, shipping etc if you do it one-off from time to time)  $16/a piece
Print cost: $5 /a piece
Retail price: $15 / a piece

Total sales for 25 pieces: $375
Total cost: -$825 (Not including purchase of 3D printer, PC, Education time etc)
TOTAL: -$450

Of course if it's a great success that will change it to a profit, but it's also a great time investment if your just selling one off's $15 units to be packed and shipped every other week. So, it's an investment that might or might not pay off.

mino said:
woodbutcherbower said:
A premium saw which needs the user to get out some duck tape and a bottle of glue to make it functional? And as for it being a ‘proper rip-off’,  a spare bodged-up and glued Festool OEM part costs double. £22.
Sorry, but that saw is very much functional if used as Festool shows in most of their instructional videos. Sure, everything can be improved. But claiming it non-functional is going a bit too far.

Reg, the 3 printed part. It is something you print in a couple hours and use about 1 ounce of fillament which is $1 likely less. The total print cost, including labor, is $5, and I am being very generous here.

That absolutely not comparable to the Festool price. A mold for stuff like this /et the level of precision/ goes around $10k, possibly more. Then Festool uses special plastics. Then it is a normal retail part you can buy. Then the development cost, say some engineer spending a week+ testing various details is $10k etc. easily, likely more. The Festool margin would be in the several tens percentage points here. The 3d print margin is in the several hundred percentage points area.

Yes, possibly Festool should offer a fixed version for those folks who do not want to use a tape or screw. I would likely cost more (as way less volume for similar fixed costs) but hey, they probably should. But that is not a justification for someone selling something way worse (3D printed is incomparable to the original reinforced plastic one) for pretty much the cost or a retail original is a rip-off as far as I am concerned.

For $7 it would be OK, possibly $10 with both eyes closed. But at $15 it is bordering on a scam for me.
 
MikkelF said:
I don't think that's a fair comparison. If you calculate the initial investment then you need to include the time someone spend on creating this piece, the expected volume of sales vs. investment cost. For example:
That $5 estimate included the total print cost, material, printer, space, electrictity etc.

The material costs from it are in the $1 range, rest being labor to operate the printer. Design is included in that as normally you do not stand in front of the printers just looking at them but actually do something useful, like design our next part..

Now, if you believe that it is OK to charge $100/hour for a simple work any 15 year old can do, then great for your suppliers.
A sallaried IT engineer costs us about as much - with a degree and several years of experience. In the UK. For a freelancer though that is even better. Goes out to $100k after taxes etc. For essentially unskilled work here.

I do not see the folk who offer that is doing something bad. It is a normal business and if people pay, why not.

But it is put up at 2x what should be. Even if UK-made. That price would be OK for single-piece print-to-order where customer provide the 3D model and someone slices it, tunes it and then prints it for them. Not for something printed in advance and then sold on.

Many people still think that you need a senior CAD engineer with a degree and a $5000 Ultimaker to be able to offer 3D print services.

While, in reality, today you need a $100 Raspberry Pi, a $100 screen, some mouse, keyboard, a $400 Prusa Mini, FreeCad, PrusaSlicer a $20 digital caliper and off you go. Beyond it, just get more printers to scale and up to 10 or so no special farm tooling is neeeded.

2m2 of a dorm room gives you a worstation plus 2-4 printers to be in business. Yes, I have seen that.

EDIT:
For a bigger business, the actual per-item costs stays similar as other costs start popping up and what one saves here, one spends there.
 
Mino, your points are very well made - but it’s fifteen bucks. Folks will happily spend more than that on a latte, a bag of chips and a slice of fancy cake. It’s really not that big a deal.
 
I take needle nose pliers and crimp the swivel on my saws to stiffen the rotation and have been doing so for years, TS-55,TSC-55, TS-75 and HKC.
 
The price for the 3D printed part does not seem unreasonable - it's just unnecessary and inferior to the fix I outlined (inferior because it is not AS and it does not rotate at all without unscrewing the collar and repositioning the whole thing).

It is helpful to be able to swivel the outlet one way or another for different cuts, it is just that you need the outlet to stay in the chosen position.

[member=61254]mino[/member] says it is optimised for boom arm use - that is a pretty esoteric application, but I don't think the requirements in this respect are any different to non-boom arm use.

Cheers

 
Peter Halle said:
I am not going to tread into the aftermarket replacement, but for those who are interested in anti-static grounding paths, my guess is that the additives that Festool uses are not probably included in a printed version.  Obviously I could be wrong here.

Peter

If I had one I would stick the MFT on  it  at 1 kV and see whtmat is what. That also works very well to distinguish salted from unsalted water without tasting.
 
scholar said:
The price for the 3D printed part does not seem unreasonable - it's just unnecessary and inferior to the fix I outlined (inferior because it is not AS and it does not rotate at all without unscrewing the collar and repositioning the whole thing).

It is helpful to be able to swivel the outlet one way or another for different cuts, it is just that you need the outlet to stay in the chosen position.

[member=61254]mino[/member] says it is optimised for boom arm use - that is a pretty esoteric application, but I don't think the requirements in this respect are any different to non-boom arm use.

Cheers
Did not really mean optimised, but that for boom arm use you absolutely do require the swiveling - as you move with the saw the position of the boom changes so you want/need it to swivel to optimise your reach.

With the original sTS55, the attachement was free-moving that would be the "optimised one. With the new one, the some "stops" were added to try to get the best of both worlds, but still not good enough.

My point being, unless there is some complicated mechanism added for "locking" the port position, the only real solution is to have a "swiveling" version for use with a boom arm and other case when you want it and a "fixed" version for the more "basic" cases which are likely in the majority.

I just do not believe there is a way to allow one design to meet both needs well which means that as long as ther is only one version being made, it will allways have to be the swivelign version - as that works well fith boom arm and can also be used OK-ish manually. The "fixed" version worsk well in some cases manually, but is a no-go with the swiveling arm, so as "the sole option" it is a no-go.
 
The Mafell port has small detents, which allow it to swivel without flopping. So, it can be done.
 
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