Ts55 req problems

[RyanRoberts91]

Yesterday, my ts55 req just stopped working all together, when I pulled the trigger, nothing happened. I changed the plug-it cord and still nothing but all the other machines were working no problem. I bought the saw brand new 2 years ago so is still in warranty. I took it to my local dealer who has a tool repair/ service shop and he checked the brushes but said they were fine. He then plugged the machine in to test it and it worked no problem! I have used this saw almost daily since I bought it and over the last week I have been cutting ALOT of 40mm solid oak. Does the saw have a thermal cut-out safety feature? I wonder if I just overworked it and it needed to cool down? Any advice much appreciated. The tool is a 110v version I might add

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Yes, the Festool TS saws supposedly have a thermal overload. The temperature cutout is mentioned on page 12 of the US manual found below. The UK Festool site seems to use zip files for the manuals which my phone doesn't like.
http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/703959_002_TS 55 REQ_USA.pdf

 

[windmill man]

Ryan ,
Your ts55 should eat 40mm oak providing you have the correct blade and its sharp
, the correct blade depends if your ripping or cross cutting. If you are using an inappropriate blade the 55 can soon bog down and go out on thermal overload just like any other saw .

 

[RHH]

I have a TS 55 REQ F which I purchased just before Christmas and have used it a few times since. Yesterday I was ripping 3/4" pine I had progressed about 24" and it stopped dead. This was the first cut so it could not have been overheated, regardless I waited an hour, nothing. I used another Fest. wire still nothing. Any ideas?

 

[Julie]

This might be obvious, but when mine stopped I had tripped the circuit breaker for my outlet.

 

[Gregor]

Thermal overload would not completely kill the machine but only have it run with way reduced power.
I suspect the idea behind this is that you are able to run it without load to vent/cool it using the internal motor fan.

 

[Frank-Jan]

I can concur what Gregor stated. A while ago I had to remove a wooden floor, glued to a concrete subfloor, I used my ts 55 rebq to cut the floor in manageable strips, so I could remove both layers of wood with minimal damage to the cement subfloor. Thermal protection kicked in a few times, but everytime I just ran the saw with no load untill it sped up again, and I could continue working with no problems. (after a while the sacrificial sawblade I used for this wasn't of optimal sharpness anymore).

So if the thermal protection kicks in, stop cutting immediately, but run the saw no load to cool it down. If you try to keep cutting the saw will shut down completely, and you have to wait a long time before it will work again. (My experience is with the 220 V version)

 

[huskercrue]

My TS55 has burned up 3 times now.  Not once did the speed ever reduce or switch off like the manual says. 

 

[Frank-Jan]

I'm on my third festool 55 plungecutsaw, first one was an ATF55 which is about 20 years old now I'm guessing, and it still works, the second one was a TS55 which got stolen, and the most recent is a TS55R ebq. The atf has a led-light that lights up green during normal use, and turns red when the load is too heavy.

On all of them the thermal protection worked fine. But in the past I just let the saw rest when it shut itself off, but this never worked well, and most of those times, the saws would shut off completely and would only work again the next day. 

I also have a Carat brand wallsaw, which has to be used with an isolation transformer, which also has thermal protection (The isolation transformer is used because it can be used with watercooling for the diamantblade) I noticed in the past that running the saw with no load to cool it down worked fairly well.

When I tried it not so long ago with the ts55r I found it worked extremely well, and it didn't take long to cool down at all, and it would keep cutting fairly long before it would kick in again.

The last time the thermal protection kicked in before the floor removal job, was when the toe-in setting on the saw had been knocked out of allignment caused by drop. When in normal use, cutting mdf or plywood, or cutting down doors I haven't had a problem with the saw overheating.

 

[huskercrue]

Did a quick test of the PTC resistor which showed there was not a change in resistance as temperature increased.