Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Festool). This thread is read-only.
Thanks! I. Really wanting one of these but trying to figure out if it is worth the money over a makita or dewalt.
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rrich1 wrote:
4 hours ago, rrich1 said:Thanks! I. Really wanting one of these but trying to figure out if it is worth the money over a makita or dewalt.
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Remember it’s part of a system Rich. To get the full benefits from the saw you really need to have the dust collection added. Though what you use is entirely up to you. A Ridgid vac with an adapter would be fine (obviously not as good as a sealed unit but…) to collect the dust from the machine. Totally worth it though. I’ve had mine for three years and it is my favorite tool. I have heard the Makita is also a great unit as well as the Bosch and I believe @wildroamer has the Bosch version.
The Bosch is similar to the Mafel Track saw I have heard, but I think the Bosch Track Saw is still EU only at the moment.
ChrisK wrote:
12 hours ago, ChrisK said:Remember it’s part of a system Rich. To get the full benefits from the saw you really need to have the dust collection added. Though what you use is entirely up to you. A Ridgid vac with an adapter would be fine (obviously not as good as a sealed unit but…) to collect the dust from the machine. Totally worth it though. I’ve had mine for three years and it is my favorite tool. I have heard the Makita is also a great unit as well as the Bosch and I believe @wildroamer has the Bosch version.
I have a dust deputy attached to a shop vac. I know fein has good deals on their dust collection units.
I am completely impressed with the TS 55 track saw. Today I was cutting 1in thick acrylic sheets. They were 8×6 so I was cutting them to fit on the CNC for odd shaped pieces. Each cut took between 8 1/2 to 9 mins, and I had to cut 11 sheets. What was so impressive to me after a long cut like that the saw and blade never got hot. If I was using a traditional worm drive saw I know the blade would have heated up and would have started to wobble and the motor would have been hot as hell. The saw I was running was the shop saw, I so want to ad one to my personal collection.
No doubt. Its the first Festool product I purchased about 15 years ago. I have several tracks and it gets used all the time.
It has saved my butt several times. With the slot on the back of track I have been able to clamp it to things sideways and make a clean cut.
ChrisK wrote:
On 12/29/2016 at 6:12 AM, ChrisK said:Remember it’s part of a system Rich. To get the full benefits from the saw you really need to have the dust collection added. Though what you use is entirely up to you. A Ridgid vac with an adapter would be fine (obviously not as good as a sealed unit but…) to collect the dust from the machine. Totally worth it though. I’ve had mine for three years and it is my favorite tool. I have heard the Makita is also a great unit as well as the Bosch and I believe @wildroamer has the Bosch version.
I’m not a big fan of what looks to me to be a lack of metal parts around the blade. You find any issues with this? Do you have the router with the track base? I wonder if other companies would come out with a track compatible router.
Jronman wrote:
23 minutes ago, Jronman said:I’m not a big fan of what looks to me to be a lack of metal parts around the blade. You find any issues with this? Do you have the router with the track base? I wonder if other companies would come out with a track compatible router.
You’re talking about the TS55REQ or the router? Or both?
ChrisK wrote:
4 minutes ago, ChrisK said:You’re talking about the TS55REQ or the router? Or both?
the first part was about the track saw. In the picture it looked like the blade cover was plastic. I could be wrong though. The second part was about the router.
Jronman wrote:
Just now, Jronman said:the first part was about the track saw. In the picture it looked like the blade cover was plastic. I could be wrong though. The second part was about the router.
Ahhh got ya! All metal shroud and spring load riving knife. Very very very durable. As far as the router, I have the adjustable bases for both my OF1400 and OF1010. Fully adjustable, they work really awesome.
yeah look like metal in the manual. Looks real nice.The video picture on the skill builder video looked white on my screen,
Jronman wrote:
2 minutes ago, Jronman said:yeah look like metal in the manual. Looks real nice.The video picture on the skill builder video looked white on my screen,
Ahhh go ya. I’m a huge green guy so it’s hard to sound unbiased about the tools but really doing some research in the tools may help. The PDF is actually a pretty cool explaination of its use and quality
ChrisK wrote:
Just now, ChrisK said:Ahhh go ya. I’m a huge green guy so it’s hard to sound unbiased about the tools but really doing some research in the tools may help. The PDF is actually a pretty cool explaination of its use and quality
yeah sometimes a picture doesn’t do justice.
I so want to buy my own track saw. We have a huge job where my crew has to cut a ton of pre laminated 5 x12 and 4 x10 sheets. Normally we would do it on the table saw and panel saw. No way did I feel like humping all the sheets around, so I have spent the last two days cutting with a TS55 and it has saved so much work and I’m able to make more accurate cuts when things are out of square.
I’ll be working my way through this pile for another couple of days. 🙂
ChrisK wrote:
On 12/29/2016 at 6:12 AM, ChrisK said:(obviously not as good as a sealed unit but…)
what do you mean by sealed unit?
Jronman wrote:
5 hours ago, Jronman said:what do you mean by sealed unit?
HEPA filter.
Although I am a Festool fan like Chris and I agree with what he is saying but I personally would buy whatever trips your trigger for a dust extractor. I have a Festool unit and it works great but I think most vacs would do the job. I have had mine 15 years and have yet to pull the lever for the HEPA filter. If I was a contractor trying to keep a customers place dust free, I might consider it.
I like the footprint of the Festool unit compared to a “shop vac” and the fact you can mount systainers on it is nice but they are expensive and not for everyone. 10 to 15 years ago might have been different but there is some good competition out there now.
I highly recommend a mini cyclone inline because it does not take long to fill a bag routing or cutting. I fill my cyclone box over and over and the bag only has a tiny bit of dust in it. The fuller your bag gets the more the performance drops on any vac. So if you can use a cyclone instead of bag you are better off.
Can’t disagree with Rich, I also run a Cuclone on my Midi. Haven’t had to change a bag in over a year since adding it.
Small question for ChrisK and Rrmccabe. You both have bought a festool Vac which, one of its finer points, is their small footprint. And then u both added a cyclone because the small festool bags fill up too fast ( and thus would add a significant cost on use )
At that point wouldnt it possible to have bought a shop vac with an auto clean function? Cant say i know how ‘big’ a festool midi + added cyclone is compared to a standard shopvac like the Bosch GAS 30M or Makita 447Mx. But with an auto Cleran shop vac u dont have to worry about bags, filters, loosing suction or whatever 🙂
I think Festool has an autoclean vac but it isn’t hepa.
ChrisK wrote:
On 5/1/2017 at 6:24 AM, ChrisK said:Can’t disagree with Rich, I also run a Cuclone on my Midi. Haven’t had to change a bag in over a year since adding it.
I filled 3 bags in under a week on a CT 36 :).
Jronman wrote:
2 hours ago, Jronman said:I think Festool has an autoclean vac but it isn’t hepa.
They have been HEPA since the beginning. my 15 year old CT22 is HEPA.
@kornomaniac not sure I understand your question. Just because its autoclean does not mean the bag does not fill up just as fast.
The UDD from Oneda cyclone box is larger than a bag and I can run a small planer into it. Thats really not recommended but does work.
rrmccabe wrote:
4 hours ago, rrmccabe said:They have been HEPA since the beginning. my 15 year old CT22 is HEPA.
@kornomaniac not sure I understand your question. Just because its autoclean does not mean the bag does not fill up just as fast.
The UDD from Oneda cyclone box is larger than a bag and I can run a small planer into it. Thats really not recommended but does work.
The auto clean version CT36 AC can be HEPA or it can have auto clean enabled but not both st the same time. The auto clean function apparently isn’t compatible with the HEPA filter so you have to use a different filter if you have it in AC mode.
SetBuilder wrote:
10 hours ago, SetBuilder said:I filled 3 bags in under a week on a CT 36 :).
Holy crap. You guys must’ve been doing a LOT of cutting and sanding! Of course not being a pro means saving some serious cashola from buying filter bags by the five pack!
khariV wrote:
6 hours ago, khariV said:The auto clean version CT36 AC can be HEPA or it can have auto clean enabled but not both st the same time. The auto clean function apparently isn’t compatible with the HEPA filter so you have to use a different filter if you have it in AC mode.
That does not surprise me. I still have yet to use my HEPA filter but I really dont have the need in my environment like some do.
@SetBuilder with the price of bags one of these would pay for itself quick.
ChrisK wrote:
9 hours ago, ChrisK said:Holy crap. You guys must’ve been doing a LOT of cutting and sanding! Of course not being a pro means saving some serious cashola from buying filter bags by the five pack!
Our tool room guy has a laborer empty out the bags so we can reuse them. Probably not the best practice but better than no dust collection at all.
rrmccabe wrote:
19 hours ago, rrmccabe said:
@kornomaniac not sure I understand your question. Just because its autoclean does not mean the bag does not fill up just as fast
Sorry I lack the right english words to properly express myself 😀
SetBuilder wrote:
1 hour ago, SetBuilder said:Our tool room guy has a laborer empty out the bags so we can reuse them. Probably not the best practice but better than no dust collection at all.
I reuse mine too, I have only
swappped out one bag
rrmccabe wrote:
10 hours ago, rrmccabe said:
@SetBuilder with the price of bags one of these would pay for itself quick.
Im pretty much the only one who uses the vacuum with the track saw and 1400 router. We have 2 CT 36s and a CT 11. The CT 11 has a European plug on it, so I have no idea the last time that one was used.
SetBuilder wrote:
59 minutes ago, SetBuilder said:
Im pretty much the only one who uses the vacuum with the track saw and 1400 router. We have 2 CT 36s and a CT 11. The CT 11 has a European plug on it, so I have no idea the last time that one was used.
So I was thinking you were using the cyclone kit with the Festool, is that accurate? I’ve been using my Midi with the cyclone for a year now and haven’t changed the bag since. It’s an awesome addition and is placed on my
Midi with the Kapex.
ChrisK wrote:
1 hour ago, ChrisK said:So I was thinking you were using the cyclone kit with the Festool, is that accurate? I’ve been using my Midi with the cyclone for a year now and haven’t changed the bag since. It’s an awesome addition and is placed on my
Midi with the Kapex.
No cyclone kit, this is just shop supplied Festool. Most guys dont even know we have it. When I’m done I kind of hide them away in the tool room.
We had a 74 in and 2 53in tracks. When I had a ton of 12 footers to rip, I asked my lead man if we could get another 74in track. He had one delivered within an hour.
I am surprised with the large quantity of sheet goods that you guys cut, you do not have a 2700 (100 inch) rail.
My most used rails are 2700 and 1400.
Maybe you need to keep them small to transport?
rrmccabe wrote:
On 5/10/2017 at 4:27 AM, rrmccabe said:I am surprised with the large quantity of sheet goods that you guys cut, you do not have a 2700 (100 inch) rail.
My most used rails are 2700 and 1400.
Maybe you need to keep them small to transport?
Like I said, most guys don’t utilize the Festool tools we have. Normally those big sheets are cut on a table saw and panel saw.
I did not feel like busting my ass lifting all those sheets since we had a huge build to do.
I told my lead man man how I wanted to do it and he let me and was happy with the out come.
He just kept me cutting for days and the rest of the crew assembling.
As I utilize the equipment more and they see it’s more productive I will ask for more accessories.
A couple of months ago I grabbed a Festool plainer from the tool room. It still had the twist ties on the cord.