Track saw attraction???

[Mike Cutler]

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.

Jim

I don't think they were sloppy framers, the houses have just settled over decades, and centuries. Many on dry stacked stone foundations. They used the materials at hand for construction, depending on the era. Just don't ever assume that the studs, and joists, are 16" on center in an old New England house.
I've seen houses with solid teak sub flooring and rough cut mahogany, beech, oak, maple, joists. No-one knew they were there because of the decades and centuries of use and mod's done during that time. When someone finally goes "all in" on a renovation, you find this stuff. It's pretty cool actually. It's also a "pita", but it's still cool. The knob and tube wiring, and gas piping throughout, for interior lamps is also really cool when you find it untouched, some of it is still in service too.

[ken masoumi]

There has been a few occasions when I wished I had a track saw, one occasion that really stands out was when I was trying to cut a very heavy slab of live edge Ash about 2.5" thick , into 4" strips(4"x 2.5"x 72"). I did the whole operation on my workbench with a circular saw and a shopmade track, just imagine how easier it would have been with a track saw.

[Warren Wilson]

I am surprised no one has mentioned cut quality yet. That is one of the reasons I quite like using my deWalt track saw: much nicer cut than my table saw. The offcut side might "fray" the tiniest bit (hard to really call it tear-out), but I can't get those lovely, sharp clean edges on the good side from my contractor-grade table saw (even with a good blade an 0-clearance throat plate). I understand the Festool does not even produce the fraying on the offcut side.

Plus all the reasons cited above. A custom cabinet maker / installer friend of mine swears by his because it is so much easier to st up and use on site (then put away in his tool trailer) than a table saw.

[Tom Ewell]

Jim

I don't think they were sloppy framers, the houses have just settled over decades, and centuries. Many on dry stacked stone foundations. They used the materials at hand for construction, depending on the era. Just don't ever assume that the studs, and joists, are 16" on center in an old New England house.
I've seen houses with solid teak sub flooring and rough cut mahogany, beech, oak, maple, joists. No-one knew they were there because of the decades and centuries of use and mod's done during that time. When someone finally goes "all in" on a renovation, you find this stuff. It's pretty cool actually. It's also a "pita", but it's still cool. The knob and tube wiring, and gas piping throughout, for interior lamps is also really cool when you find it untouched, some of it is still in service too.

Exactly, I've seen a few engineering oddities by today's standards but considering that these houses have stood for as long as they have is a testament to the skills of these guys.
In my area they used to setup the mills, cut down the standing area of trees and went at it, all full sized rough stuff, two and three story balloon framing from foundation to top plates, lath and plaster walls filled occasionally with whatever was around to keep drafts down. Worked on one staircase where the balusters were dovetailed into the treads, hand cut of course. Can't even imagine this type of work being done today in the average house.

[Art Mann]

I am surprised no one has mentioned cut quality yet. That is one of the reasons I quite like using my deWalt track saw: much nicer cut than my table saw. The offcut side might "fray" the tiniest bit (hard to really call it tear-out), but I can't get those lovely, sharp clean edges on the good side from my contractor-grade table saw (even with a good blade an 0-clearance throat plate). I understand the Festool does not even produce the fraying on the offcut side.

Plus all the reasons cited above. A custom cabinet maker / installer friend of mine swears by his because it is so much easier to st up and use on site (then put away in his tool trailer) than a table saw.

I have both. Let me assure you that a good table saw with the right blade will cut as cleanly and precisely as a track saw.

[Cody Colston]

I have both. Let me assure you that a good table saw with the right blade will cut as cleanly and precisely as a track saw.

Agree. I don't understand the cut-quality claim at all. I can get glue-line rip cuts on my TS so how could a track saw improve on that result?

Anyway, this entire discussion is rather moot. People will (and should) use whatever tool they are most comfortable using. For me, a track saw will never come close to replacing my TS. For others, that may not be the case. Either way, the only person we have to satisfy is our self (and possibly LOML).

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I've also found my track saw very helpful for ripping some hardwood that had two live edges that were pretty gnarly.

I do not have a jointer. If I want a long straight edge on an edge, I can drop my 110" track onto the board and rip a straight line. Then, when I drop it into my table saw I can rip a line parallel to it. I also tear down large sheet goods.

I have glued up a few panels where I do not have a smooth edge because the boards are different lengths. I can use the track saw to establish a straight edge.

[Glenn Clabo]

Agree. I don't understand the cut-quality claim at all. I can get glue-line rip cuts on my TS so how could a track saw improve on that result?

Anyway, this entire discussion is rather moot. People will (and should) use whatever tool they are most comfortable using. For me, a track saw will never come close to replacing my TS. For others, that may not be the case. Either way, the only person we have to satisfy is our self (and possibly LOML).

Hey there Cody...
It sure is true...a TS can cut extremely smooth...but on a TS you have to start with a straight side or use a jig. With a track you can make that straight edge. Not a big deal if you have a jointer...or handwork it.

Most of us aren't trying to convince anyone to through away their TS...just trying to answer the question. I for one have found that I can use a much smaller/cheaper TS which does help with your last comment.

[Henry Kramer]

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.

Mike, now THAT sounds like a good use for a track saw over a table saw. Something tapered and not parallel or repetitive.
Hank

[Henry Kramer]

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.

Keith,
This all sounds good to me (especially the dust collection) except the crawling around on the floor. I appoligize if this sounds rude, it is not meant to be, but I built too many benches and mounted too many machines on mobile bases to be crawling around on the cold concrete to make my cuts. I have this picture in my mind of me on the floor and someone looking in at me in my workshop, or my dad looking down at me from up high wondering what all of the stuff is for if I work off of the floor.

By the way, my boys are grown now too. When I finally realized that, I built an outfeed table.
Hank

[Von Bickley]

I have never seen a tool I didn't like. I do not need nor can I justify getting a track shop for a DIY shop. I break down a sheet of plywood on a set of sawhorses with a Makita circular saw, and then run them thru my table saw. Works for me........

[Tom Stenzel]

I never found a table saw to be all that precise when cutting sheet goods. Managing a full sheet of something through the blade while keeping it tight to the fence, it is a challenge.

I don't have a tracksaw but I'd like one.

I'm in Phil's camp on this.

When it comes to wrestling around large sheets of wood moving the saw is easier. My table saw is small so I use a circular saw with a homemade zero clearance bottom and a guide with clamps. It works but not as well as a real track saw. For the amount of use it would get I can't justify the expense of a track saw but would get one if I could.

-Tom

[ian maybury]

That in words of one syllable is probably the primary functional reason why sliding table saws exist...

[Brian Holcombe]

Keith,
This all sounds good to me (especially the dust collection) except the crawling around on the floor. I appoligize if this sounds rude, it is not meant to be, but I built too many benches and mounted too many machines on mobile bases to be crawling around on the cold concrete to make my cuts. I have this picture in my mind of me on the floor and someone looking in at me in my workshop, or my dad looking down at me from up high wondering what all of the stuff is for if I work off of the floor.

By the way, my boys are grown now too. When I finally realized that, I built an outfeed table.
Hank

Put the sacrifice material on a bench.

[Glenn Clabo]

Hank...I use my benches...after all I am older than you.