FINE HOMEBUILDING: Can a CS replace TS?

[Phil Winn]

In the current Oct/November 2006 FINE HOMEBUILDING Magazine,
"Can a Circular-Saw Edge Guide Replace Your Tablesaw? Best Value goes to the Red-Line Cutting Guide (Hartville Tool); Best Overall goes to Festool, with EZ Smart a close runner-up. Festool is a man set out to play among the boys; too bad it's priced accordingly. Ez Smart is well-conceived; as with the Festool, someone set down all the questions and tried (quite successfully) to answer them." page 96.
"Choosing between Festool and EZ Smart is like choosing between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid..." "I think EZ Smart's antisplinting provision is the best of the lot." page 94.

I am not trying to start any battles, I just thought it was nice that they liked both.
Phil
PS: I do not own either...

[Don Baer]

OK Phil,
You may not have inteded to start it but I'll be willing to be it turn into one. I don't own either so I'll sit on the side lines.

[Steve Clardy]

Ok. I'm in.
I have Dino's system

[Gary Herrmann]

I've got an EZ Smart. I like it a lot. I'll probably buy more stuff from Dino. If I had money to burn, I'd pick up that new Festool CS with the big vac. But that would run me about a grand.

I'm pretty happy with what I have. I just need to figure out a way to make dust collection work with my Milwaukee.

[Vaughn McMillan]

I agree with Phil. I think it's great that both were equally praised. I have neither, but if I were to buy a system, it'd likely be the least expensive of the two. They seem to have comparable capabilities in most regards.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

I have the Festool TS55 and rails, I love it, but the main reason I bought it was for the saw, I needed a new CS and the dust control issue for me was paramount. Nothing agains the EZ system.

Will it replace a TS, maybe, depends on what you are doing.

I think with my SCMS and the Festool, it has almost replaced my TS, the TS is not for sale......... yet

Cheers!

[Mike Cutler]

I don't think that any of them can "replace" the tablesaw completely. They can all augment, and compliment a tablesaw.

I'm not picking any sides. I use a straight edge of MDF with an aluminium length of "L" channel fixed to one edge, and clamp it in place. I know, low tech.

[Tyler Howell]

"Man playing among the boys" OK I admit it. I won't grow up .
I'm a Festool tool snob. and glad of it.

[Bart Leetch]

Well Stu if I could remove my table-saw from its stand & easily put it somewhere on a shelf I wouldn't get rid of it anyway/either. However remembering that yours & my shop are the same size or close enough to the same size that it doesn't matter if I had to get rid of my table-saw because having room became the most important thing I think a set of guided rails with all the associated goodies for both CS & router as well as saber/jig-saw (to me hand held is a saber-saw & table model is a Jig-saw) I believe could replace my table-saw.

If he hasn't already I think one of the things Dino could & should address is dust collection by making a dust chute that can be installed on most saws by mounting with screws or some other means of attachment.

I use a commercial $20 guide system with masonite fastened to it so the ripped edge is my rip line indicator.

I have a friend that has both the EZ & FT systems so I have seen both. But I have not decided to spend the money on either system. I my never spend my money on either system. I think they are goth quite expensive considering that I use my tools mainly for hobby woodworking & have both a cabinet-saw & a Dewalt Panel-saw as well as guide rails for my CS these tools pretty much cover all my needs. Besides that if I really needed to I could probable borrow either system from my friend.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Hey Tyler............ Grow Up....

Bart, yeah, space is always a concern, you should see my Dungeon right now with those three wine shelves in the way, man, I need to get skinny to get around my shop right now!

The main thing that I use my TS for is the Dado stack, now I know a lot of that you can do on the router table, but, router bits, do not last very long, and they cannot be shimmed out for that "perfect" fit.

My TS, in the spot it is, I cannot handle full sheets of plywood (even the Japanese 3' x 6' sheets) with out moving a bunch of stuff around, so the Festool does a better job, for me, your mileage may vary.......

BTW, if you are interested in a TS free shop, John Lucas at woodshopdemos.com is doing just that..........

Woodshopdemos.com Festool pages

Now if you go look at all the stuff they do with just the Festool system, and you take a look at all the stuff Dino does, well, maybe the TS, for an at home hobbyist is getting old hat...?

Time will tell.

Cheers!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I'd say no.
However. while in college I had lent my TS to a friend who was biulding his house.

I wanted a big bed. I wanted a King size water bed with 12 drawers and a big massive headboard with leaded glass windows and a big mirror .
I had a Millers Falls Circular saw, a black and decker jig saw, a Craftsman router, a couple screwdrivers, a black and decker drill, a black and decker sander, a craftsman track sander, a couple of hand planes, two chisels, and a hammer, and a Volkswagen Hatchback.

I built the bed. It stayed with me for almost 10 years till all the evil gods ganged upagainst me and - - well anyway the bed was great. I didn't dovetail but the drawers worked flawlessly the thing was massive and it did have the headboard I envisioned.

So I guess you can get along without a TS if you have to.

I just don't have to.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

remember those polular mechanics articles about making your own TS with a sheet of plywood and a CS?

[Michael Adelong]

Hmmm... Me and my $19 two piece aluminum cutting guide with 10 year old hand me down C-Man circular saw are starting to feel pretty inadequate right about now.

Naaa... It works great, and has very minimal tearout when I install the good plywood blade. Dust collection? Excellent. It puts all of the sawdust in a nice 4 foot radius patch on the floor, where it is nice and easy to pick up with some flex hose on the ole HF DC. Replace my TS? No way. Can't set my beer on the CS while I'm cleaning up. Maybe a bigger base plate?

Michael

[Frank Pellow]

A Guided Tool System with a Circular Saw and a Router can replace a table saw. I do that with my Festool system for a couple of months each summer at Pellow's Camp as well as with various off-site projects. But, I am still glad to get back to my (General 650) table saw when I get back to my shop in Toronto

[Jon Eckels]

A Guided Tool System with a Circular Saw and a Router can replace a table saw.

I'm almost in agreement, but let me take it one step further. A Guided Tool System with a Circular Saw and a Router Table can replace a table saw.

Like I've said in previous threads, I've virtually replaced my Table saw with the EZ. I've really had no use for the Table saw since I bought the EZ. I won't get rid of it "just in case", but at this time i can see no forseeable reason that I would need it.

I install a lot Screen doors and custom wood window panels, and the EZ is indespensible for trimming them down at jobsites. The festool would have been an excellent choice for this task as well - but the EZ had more features that made it a better choice in my case. Heavier rails allow me to build better jigs in the shop for one... and the much lower price is another.

In the end whether a user chooses a festool or an EZ, it's safer for their digits, and that's a good thing.