Track saw attraction???

[Henry Kramer]

Henry

A simple guide system for any circular saw is easy to make. The track saws are just a refinement of them.
I guess I am in the minority because I didn't buy my TS75 for sheet goods. I bought it to rip 2x's to width for my house, and begin the process of breaking down lumber. ( Once I finish our kitchen remodel, I hope I never see another sheet of plywood. )
The last two projects I did started with big slabs. One was a 16'x3', 10/4, piece of padauk. The other was/is started with 8/4, 12'x20" pieces of cherry. A track saw made it possible for me working alone to mill that material more safely.

Add Triton to the list of tracksaws. I just saw their new offering in the Infinity catalog. It sits between the DeWalt and the Festool on price.

Mike,
You found it easier to rip 2x's with a track saw than on a table saw?

[Mike Cutler]

Henry

My house was built in 1919, and all the studs,beams, joists and rafters are actual 2"x4", 6",8"and 10". When I need to do repairs I have to start with the next width in 2x and rip it too width. Much quicker with a circular saw. I've put construction grade 2x12's through a table saw and jointer and it is time consuming and messy. So, yes, I personally found it easier with a circular saw. I used to use a Milwaukee 8 1/2, worm drive, but the depth of cut on the TS 75 is deeper than the Milwaukee on an EZ rail.
My fascia boards are 2" thick hemlock that are 10" wide, and I have a porch repair to do that requires all "true"dimension lumber. The depth of cut on a TS 75 will let me do this work easily.

[Peter Quinn]

I use a track saw professionally and just recently broke down and bought one for the home shop. At work we have a CNC, a 10' slider and several cabinet saws....the track saw doesn't break down too many full sheets for square cuts, but its still a critical piece of equipment. Odd angles...big bear to set up on the busy panel saw, dead simple and quick with the track saw. It comes in really hand for a variety of "fix it" tasks, mods to cabinets where the client has changed their mind post construction, or the designer failed to accommodate some obstruction, or the cabinet maker misinterpreted the plans. Pushing whole cabinets over a TS can get interesting. Track saw much easier. Sink cutouts? I can't think of a better way, cabinet saw not much help there. I've made so many weird cuts with this thing, if it broke we would run not walk to get a replacement.

Honestly at work I'd pretty much never use the track saw to break down full sheets. You mentioned lugging sheets? If you are working with plywood you are lugging sheets, that doesn't change with any machine. But with a TS you aren't just lifting and lugging the sheets, you are pushing them past a spinning blade with a relatively short reference fence to guide you. And your other reference is a hastily cut often not straight factory edge that seems to get worse every year. You can't get square parts using a bowed and out of square reference. At work we do a quick 4 cut method to square up each sheet on the slider, gets rid off all the messy factory edges, results in very accurate parts. In the home shop...no slider, but with a long rail I have dead straight and square cuts from the track saw, I do a sort of hybrid approach where initial cuts are made with the track saw, cabinet saw does the final dimensioning as its very quick and repeatable, and I'm not interested in using an MFT table.

For solids, its pretty much never used in my shop except on counter top cross cuts, don't care how good your TS is, dragging a 10' solid counter top over it to cut to length is not easy if even possible. For installs its a huge help when scribes are long subtle tapers, much easier to cut straight with the track saw than a jig saw or belt sander.

[Cary Falk]

I didn't read all of the responses. I use mine for straight line ripping on rough lumber, cutting plywood, cutting odd angles that would take some time to set up otherwise(works great for quick tapers, plunge cutting, etc. I don't think it is a replacement for a table saw but it has it's place. If you feel you don't need or want one that is ok. I don't need or want a domino. I don't know if anybody else mentioned it but you don't have to clamp it down. The tracks have rubber strips that hold it in place. All you have to do is mark a line and lay the rubber strip on the line and ou are ready to cut.

[Jim Andrew]

I spent years as the cut man building houses. Back then I would have loved a track saw. Saw the guys on "this old house" using a track saw to cut a door to fit a threshold. I did that for years free hand. For my shop, not so much. I can handle a full sheet on my table saw, and crosscuts on a slider are so easy.

[Henry Kramer]

Henry

My house was built in 1919, and all the studs,beams, joists and rafters are actual 2"x4", 6",8"and 10". When I need to do repairs I have to start with the next width in 2x and rip it too width. Much quicker with a circular saw. I've put construction grade 2x12's through a table saw and jointer and it is time consuming and messy. So, yes, I personally found it easier with a circular saw. I used to use a Milwaukee 8 1/2, worm drive, but the depth of cut on the TS 75 is deeper than the Milwaukee on an EZ rail.
My fascia boards are 2" thick hemlock that are 10" wide, and I have a porch repair to do that requires all "true"dimension lumber. The depth of cut on a TS 75 will let me do this work easily.

Mike,
I knew the purpose of you ripping was the actual full inch measurement and not the current nominal size. And I guess my ignorance of track saws is showing through again because it's hard for me to imagine ripping a 2x in a table saw as being time consuming. 30 seconds would seem about normal to me for an 8' 2x and even at what I would consider a long time of One minute it still doesn't seem that time consuming. I have a hard time envisioning marking a 2x, laying the track on the piece of wood, ripping with either your Milwaukee worm drive or the TS 75, and all of that being faster than setting the fence on the table saw and ripping away.
Just when I thought that I had the track saw thing figured out, I find myself puzzled again.
Hank

[Matthew Hills]

My festool TS55 is a really nice tool for straight cuts in sheet goods.
Better than tablesaw for large sheets, non-90 cuts, and even stopped cuts (need hand saw to trim out corner).
Excellent cut quality.

Wouldn't try to make it replace my table saw, although occasionally I read about some who do (try)...

Matt

[Mark Gibney]

One important thing cutting sheet goods with a track saw is that the sheet has to be on a flat surface. I ripped sheets to edge-join on a table with an 1/8" dip, and ended up with a fat 1/16" gap.

I couldn't work out what was happening, so the dealer explained it to me, and next time it came out fine. He said he had a contractor's guys ruin several sheet of exotic wood ply by putting them down on 2 x 4s to cut. So be aware.

[Allan Speers]

One important thing cutting sheet goods with a track saw is that the sheet has to be on a flat surface. I ripped sheets to edge-join on a table with an 1/8" dip, and ended up with a fat 1/16" gap.

I couldn't work out what was happening, so the dealer explained it to me, and next time it came out fine. He said he had a contractor's guys ruin several sheet of exotic wood ply by putting them down on 2 x 4s to cut. So be aware.

Another reason why I prefer the Eurekazone system. The track is thick, and fairly stiff, and you clamp it at both ends. So, it helps flatten slightly warped sheets, esp 1/4" ply.

[Henry Kramer]

One important thing cutting sheet goods with a track saw is that the sheet has to be on a flat surface. I ripped sheets to edge-join on a table with an 1/8" dip, and ended up with a fat 1/16" gap.

I couldn't work out what was happening, so the dealer explained it to me, and next time it came out fine. He said he had a contractor's guys ruin several sheet of exotic wood ply by putting them down on 2 x 4s to cut. So be aware.

That makes sense to me Mark, and I asked about this in post #9.

[Mike Cutler]

Mike,
I knew the purpose of you ripping was the actual full inch measurement and not the current nominal size. And I guess my ignorance of track saws is showing through again because it's hard for me to imagine ripping a 2x in a table saw as being time consuming. 30 seconds would seem about normal to me for an 8' 2x and even at what I would consider a long time of One minute it still doesn't seem that time consuming. I have a hard time envisioning marking a 2x, laying the track on the piece of wood, ripping with either your Milwaukee worm drive or the TS 75, and all of that being faster than setting the fence on the table saw and ripping away.
Just when I thought that I had the track saw thing figured out, I find myself puzzled again.
Hank

Not sure how older houses were/are built in the Chicago area, but in New England, it seems like they just "winged it" on house construction. Maybe there were codes in 1919, but man it sure doesn't seem that way.

When I said I had to rip to width, I guess I should have clarified that at the same time I was/am straightening and truing walls. One stud may have been a nominal 4" at the top and 3 7/8", the next something different, at the bottom or the reverse. One of the walls I corrected was 7/8" out of plumb over 8', so each of those ""scabs"were a taper cut. I'm using the term "sister" incorrectly here, but when I had to level the floor joists. Each "sister" was a tapered 2x10, and as I got farther from the corner, the dimensions changed. The floor bowed along and across the joists, so each joist was slightly different.

If you can buy 2x material that you can put straight through a table saw, without jointing one edge, god bless you, and please tell me where you get it. I'm happy if I can get at least flat around here. They all seem to bow in one direction or another. I can't put them through the saw without jointing first, and the knots are destructive on jointer blades. My saw is in a small section of the garage also, so that would mean continuous trips back and forth. With a track saw you just make two marks, one at each end, and set the guide to the marks at each end. It's pretty quick, once you're set up to do it.

When I used to worked in a boat yard we made our own reference edges for ripping to fit. It's easy, a sheet of low grade cabinet ply ,and some aluminum "L" stock, and can make a pretty darn good circular saw guide. Kinda heavy though.

I don't think a track saw can completely replace a table saw, at least not for me. Those times I've made cabinets, I've just "roughed" the ply panels with the track saw and then everything went to the table saw. I know I'm missing out on one of the key point feature of the system, but that comes at a pretty significant cost, and the table saw is already paid for.

The only reason I bought the Festool TS 75 was because my Milwaukee 8 1/2", being used with a set of EZ Rails, didn't have enough depth of cut. I was going to just buy a bigger circular saw and make a base plate for it to use with my EZ rails, but a 14" circular saw is a pretty expensive little item, and not really that much less than a track saw system. A 10" circular saw on a set of EZ rails has less depth of cut than a TS 75, and I wanted depth of cut as a the priority. I seem to find myself in some odd, meaning heavy, and big, situations.

I don't think you have any ignorance of track saws. There really isn't a whole lot to the concept, I think you just haven't found a legitimate use for one. If you don't have one, a use, then you really don't need one. Someday you might, and you'll be able to buy one then. As more manufacturers make them,the cost will come down across the board on all of them, and you'll probably spend smarter money than I did.

[Glenn Clabo]

I understand your confusion Hank. Way back in the old days...yes I'm old to...we made our own straight edge with 2 layers of hardboard. I learned to use it when renovating old houses (like Mike) in New England where the structure was almost always interesting to say the least. These new fangle tools take it one step up by being more accurate. A table saw had no chance to do it.
A track with circular saw simply makes it real easy to make one side flat, odd width, or parallel sides on a crowned board without the need for a jointer or hand plane and then a table saw. Add the breakdown of sheet goods and to even add more confusion...a router attachment...and for me it's a great tool.

[Jim Andrew]

Have to say wow, to cutting wedge shaped pieces to straighten up an old house. Guess they had sloppy framers back 100 years ago. And you also have a point, when manufacturers all compete to make a tool, better than the others, you get good tools at good prices. Problem is, when they compete to make it cheap, the quality is drained out.

[Frank Ashmore]

Im lucky to a shop big enough for a table saw with a sliding table that can crosscut 60" miters and to break down sheet goods I use a stock feeder ,goes real fast with good in feed and out feed tables. Track saw would be a hindrance to me .I roll sheet goods in on a cart from my truck to the storage rack then on 2 wheeled roller to the in feed table lift 1 end and lever it up on to the in feed and on through the stock feeder and table saw ,never lifting the entire weight myself. Can cut a full sheet into 4 pieces in about 2 min.

[Keith Hankins]

As someone that's had the festool for a long time, they are great. If you can get them at a discount it's an easy decision. I don't use a lot of ply, but when I cut my cherry sheets down it's fantastic. My boy's are grown and gone, so I don't have spare hands any more. So now it's just me and my gorilla gripper to move the ply. I've cut it every way you can think of. I hossed it up on a TS, I've put it on saw horses and clamped a strait edge figuring how far to put it away from my true cut line for my 7 1/4" saw with a forrest blade to hit my line.

When I got the track saw it became easy. I use a heavy duty 2" piece of styrofoam on the floor, and I move the sheet with the gorilla gripper, and plop it on top. The track has a surface on the bottom that allows it just stay there. Plus where the track ends on the line thats whre the cut is. Another big advantace is the dust collection integration. I have a festool CT33e dust extractor. You cut and no dust.

I also have the MFT/3 which is the table with a track built in. I use that all the time as well.

Yea, festool is expensive, but you only feel the pain once, they last forever and they stand behind their power tools.