TS55 new base

[Lou Miller]

Forrest,

I let my Corian installers use my TS55 last week and I was amazed at the amount of dust that was not collected. Would it be beneficial to use a 36mm hose, along with the cover plate, in order to pick up more of the dust? Its not the fault of the saw, nor the vac (Fein in my case), its just the inordinate amount of dust created by cutting corian. We were just using a 27mm hose and did not have the cover plate on.

I don't normally do a lot of Corian work, but it looks like I'm going to be doing a fair amount of it over the next few months.

 

[rodwolfy]

Lou,

I was watching an episode of Flip That House today and saw the crew using normal circular saws. The countertop crew came in and they were using a Festool w/ the guide rail. I actually saw a lot of dust coming off the piece being cut, which surprised me. I think that there are a couple of issues here. I was thinking that maybe the heavier weight of the countertop material caused it to fall clear of the gullets on the underside and some folks had mentioned having a lot less dust when they cut on a solid surface, like foam.

The other thing that might help was the side dust shroud that Brice reviewed. It's an accessory that you probably knew about.

Rod

 

[Lou Miller]

I referred to the shroud as a cover plate (I'm terrible with actual names of things). I have one, but usually only use it for MDF. I did buy it with the intention of using it on Corian as well, but since I don't do it very often, I always forget to bring it with me.

We were making our cuts on top of a sheet particle board, so it had the same effect as using foam. What I thought I was noticing was simply that the 27 mm hose just couldn't handle the sheer volume of the debris. The stuff just seems to "fluff" up so much that it fills the vac hose very quickly. That's why I was wondering about the 36mm hose.

 

[Eli]

Lou,

I was watching an episode of Flip That House today
Rod

Was my brother Dewey in that episode? He's a realtor for Trademark Properties in Charleston, SC. My Mom was down there for Thanksgiving having a BBQ with the "stars".

 

[Corwin]

I use the D36 hose with my saw and it does work better on MDF than the smaller hose.  I think the D36 hose would have to work better on Corian than the D27.

 

[Bob Marino]

I use the D36 hose with my saw and it does work better on MDF than the smaller hose.  I think the D36 hose would have to work better on Corian than the D27.

Lou, Corwin has it right - the 36 just moves more air and doesn't clog as quickly as the 27 mm hose does when cutting/routing te heavy stuff.

Bob

 

[Bill in seattle]

Forrest,

I let my Corian installers use my TS55 last week and I was amazed at the amount of dust that was not collected. Would it be beneficial to use a 36mm hose, along with the cover plate, in order to pick up more of the dust? Its not the fault of the saw, nor the vac (Fein in my case), its just the inordinate amount of dust created by cutting corian. We were just using a 27mm hose and did not have the cover plate on.

I don't normally do a lot of Corian work, but it looks like I'm going to be doing a fair amount of it over the next few months.

lou
as corian is what I do for the better part of my waking day and night I can tell you that it is a obnoxious dust to contain. using the side cover on the saw helps. a piece of laminate duct taped to the outside making it just touch the surface of the top helps a little more too. I run a 40foot 36mm hose  to my saw and It still will let some dust fly about but not using it is choking with the copious amount of heavy dust produced. One thing I find more helpful is to use the long life bag in the ct and dump it when the vacuum gauge drops to less than 2'' hg . Its heavy dust and you won't get it all.

regards
Bill

 

[mntbighker]

My week old TS-55 has the old style base. I wonder how much old inventory is left in North America and if I should make an issue of this?

--Mark

 

[Eli]

Are you going to use it in a commercial setting for cutting a lot of Corian?

 

[Forrest Anderson]

I let my Corian installers use my TS55 last week and I was amazed at the amount of dust that was not collected. Would it be beneficial to use a 36mm hose, along with the cover plate, in order to pick up more of the dust?

Lou

Sorry, but I have no experience of cutting Corian with my TS55, so I can't give any real-world advice. Logically, using both the cover plate and larger diameter hose should reduce the amount of dust.

The FAQ says the following about using a 36mm diameter hose with the saw...

-------------------
Normally the D27 hose is all you need for optimum dust extraction using the TS 55 plunge cut saw. Though depending on what material you are cutting and at what depth, the larger diameter D36 hose better accommodate the greater volume of waste produced. The same goes for the TS 75 plunge cut saw, which has the capacity to generate greater waste mass.
-------------------

In addition to the above, I'd imagine the speed at which you cut would also be a factor.

Making sure the vacuum has a new bag and filter would also increase air flow and dust removal, as would ensuring it was running at maximum speed (if your Fein has that feature).

Cutting on foam or similar should reduce falling dust, and continuing the cut into a piece of wood or foam placed at the far end should reduce the horizontal spurt of dust you get when the saw exits the cut. Finally, the cover plate should reduce the amount of dust coming from the side of the saw, and Brice has photos and a review athttp://www.burrellcustomcarpentry.com/subpage11.html

I hope your back continues to get better!

Forrest

 

[Lou Miller]

Thanks for the reply and especially the part about my back. Its much appreciated.

 

[rodwolfy]

Lou,

I was watching an episode of Flip That House today
Rod

Was my brother Dewey in that episode? He's a realtor for Trademark Properties in Charleston, SC. My Mom was down there for Thanksgiving having a BBQ with the "stars".

Boy Eli, you rub elbows with all of the stars... till you fell off the face of the earth and moved down under  (like all of us dumb Americans, the USA is the face of the earth, huh? Ha, Ha, Ha.

I'm not sure. There are like 3 different shows on two different networks up here. Flip this House, Flip that House and Flip.... One has a gal that tells them what they should do before and during a flip. That one was like an hour long on one channel. Then they reduced it to a half an hour show and took her out - having the 'flipper' and the narrator explain what was happening. I think this show was one from that series. It was like NC (the college town there) and it was a guy in a wheel chair doing the flipping.

The one with Trademark Properties I think is the one in SC and is led by a guy with a 'team' of support people. I've watched a bunch of those ones too. I think it's on HGTV network. They had an episode with a pro football player interested in a house; a house that they built a long dock off of and some other ones. I'll look for your brother Dewey the next time I watch it. Biological? Younger, older?

Rod

 

[Brice Burrell]

I've seen Flip That House, its the one with Ginger. 

Sorry, this post has nothing at all to do with the new base.

 

[Sweet]

This is my first post, but it's definitely something I've had experience with.

This summer we completed a huge house on the outskirts of Bath, England. The client was also acting as the project manager and as a result was "hands-on" in a big way. He was keen to use modern materials and techniques whenever there was an advantage, so we used a new (well to me anyway) product called Fermacell. This is in leiu of the traditional plasterboard. comes in various thickness and board sizes. It has a higher fire and acoustic rating than plaster board and is impact resistant. it can also be stapled!!!! ;D

BUT it is very heavy, difficult to cut and very dusty. With many awkward shapes and literally hundreds of metres of cutting to do, my trusty (3+ year old) TS55 was put to use. Some days I was filling two bags in my CT22 sometimes more. The poor thing really did have a hard time. By the end of the job, the base plate had worn out, the aluminium tabs had worn down so much the green adjustment wheels served no purpose. But off to Festool it went, one new base-plate later and I was back in action.

It took me a long time to wear my saw out and I really do use it every day. From Kitchen fitting, flooring, fitting sheets of ply, shaping eternit boards and now fermacell it has taken EVERY thing I have thrown at it and it is still going strong.

Festool don't release products until they are as close to perfect as they can make them. Just wish my Dewalt 708 would blow up so I can get a Kapex!!!

 

[extiger]

Will that new base fit on the older model, the ATF 55?. It came with the pressed-steel base that was superseded when the TS 55 was introduced (in North America) in the fall of 2005.

Gary Curtis

 

[johnbro]

My week old TS-55 has the old style base. I wonder how much old inventory is left in North America and if I should make an issue of this?

--Mark

Not to pick on Mark, whom I'm sure is planning to cut several hundred feet of Corian every week

BUT...

this is why product managers loath improvements to products. As soon as you slipstream an upgrade, the "old" stock suddenly becomes somehow worth less than it was before the upgrade. The channel (dealers) gets mad because customers hear about it and want to wait for the new "improved" product, so they have to discount to clear out the inventory of old stock.

Customers who recently bought the "old" product suddenly want to exchange it, get it upgraded for free, or get some of their money back.

Of course, if you don't want this to happen, then you hold off shipping the new inventory until all the supply of the old stuff has dried up, meaning sales go in the toilet and the channel and customers get mad at you because of inability to get stock. If customers can't find your product on the shelf, many won't wait but will buy a competing product.

There just is no easy way to do it.

Here's a thought: everybody write Festool and tell them how grateful we are that they are courageous enough to do product upgrades and we're not going to make their lives more difficult so that they will continue to improve their products...

 

[Sweet]

UPDATE:

Me and my big mouth. I had to order ANOTHER base for my TS55. It was wearing out again and I was getting fed up of constantly adjusting and seeing my splinterguards getting narrower and narrower!

To be fair, I have cut miles and miles recently. WBP ply (Sheathing) and more recently laminated chip board. Will fit my new base this evening and give it a whirl in the morning.

On another note one of my lads has just bought himself a Kapex.....!!!!!!!! In want one!!!!

 

[Eli]

Lou,

I was watching an episode of Flip That House today
Rod

Was my brother Dewey in that episode? He's a realtor for Trademark Properties in Charleston, SC. My Mom was down there for Thanksgiving having a BBQ with the "stars".

I'll look for your brother Dewey the next time I watch it. Biological? Younger, older?

Rod

Sorry Rod, I was moving house and off the internet when this post came through and I somehow missed it. Their show was the original
Flipper house show, it was sold, then copied, then they sued and got it back and produced it themselves, or something like that. That's why there's a few incarnations. It's the one with that girl Ginger I think, as Brice said. Dewey didn't like being on it much, he's since moved on and now manages commercial development. He's younger by five years, a biological brother, and is really hitting his stride as a developer.

Sorry for the off-topic.