FESTOOL circular saws

[Burt Waddell]

Gary,

I understand what you are saying and agree 100%.

I try to be safe but a couple of years ago, I lost control of a roughly 1 x 1 X about 5' while trying to make it into corner cap on a 5 horse unisaw. Fortunately, I make it a practice to stand to the side of the saw when doing such cuts. The saw threw the piece about 10 feet thru the air before it hit anything. Then it went thru a piece of 1/4" tile board, 2 pieces of 1/4" plywood and banged up the side of a 1/2" piece of plywood. I've often thought about what could have happened if I had been standing behind that saw.

Burt

[Michael Schwartz]

The answer to the great F vs E debate is simple, Both systems have their merits and can live side by side. There are pros and cons of the Fesstool saws, and there pros and cons of saws like the Hilti 267 as well. There is no perfect tool and to call a tool perfect would end all inovation and we would be stuck with what we have forever.

Fesstool makes a darn fine product, and all of their tools are of the highest quality, but there are other manufacturers of fine tools out there as well.

Eureka-zone also produces a fine product of high quality that is extremely inovative and functional.

Both systems provide a better safer way to make many cuts and yes provide and alternative to the table-saw for those limited by space and budget.

I wish that discussions that involve the EZ Smart and Fesstool would revolve arround discussing the pros and cons of each system. Instead they always seem to shift to personal attacks from both sides. This has been rather tame here compared to other forums, but there is no need to go there.

[robert micley]

i have most of the festool products.they are good-but not great. i got the domino-it was out of alignment.festool jigsaw is a pain to adjust bevel and has no blower to clear the dust.the circular saw does not have the power of other circular saws on market.i bought an eight foot guide rail because combining two guide rails did not give me a perfect straight edge.the routers do not come with base plate accepting usual bushings. routers do not have multi base kits- i like a regular two knob handles for dovetailing on jigs. mft table bridge goes out of square not infrequently and is not big enough to cut more than 24 inches.it would be handy to have repeaters and the accessories that ez smart has for the festool guide rail syatem.

[Jason White]

I have one (the TS55). Worth every penny!

I hardly use the table saw anymore except when I need to do a lot of repeat cutting. The best thing about it is that it's not necessary to cut to "rough size" with a circular saw before cutting to "finished size" on the table saw. You can do most or all of your finish cuts with the TS55 or TS75.

JW

How is this system? I watched the videos on the website for the TS75 and TS55 and was very impressed. The saws seem safe to me and very effective. However, I didn't see any simple mechanism for squaring up the rail to make sure you are cutting a straight line. The rail simply winds up on the cutting surface and the actor/woodworker cuts away.

The EZ smart system is also impressive and obviously does a whole lot more. The ez smart cuts look cleaner. However, the plunging circular saw and dust collection system looks very good.

Any first hand reports on this system? If all I'm going to do is make repeated cross cuts and rips and need accuracy and cleanliness (plus I'm up for a new circular saw) would this be a good choice? As always, thank you for your responses in advance. I'm always put on the right track here.
Scott

[Dan Lautner]

"i have most of the festool products.they are good-but not great. i got the domino-it was out of alignment"

Robert, how do you like the Domino after you got it aligned?

Dan

[Bob Childress]

i have most of the festool products.they are good-but not great.

And yet, apparently, you keep buyin' 'em. Reminds me of the joke about the guy who kept hitting his head against the wall. When asked Why? he replied "because it feels so good when I stop."

[Gary Keedwell]

And yet, apparently, you keep buyin' 'em. Reminds me of the joke about the guy who kept hitting his head against the wall. When asked Why? he replied "because it feels so good when I stop."

I was wondering how long it would take the Festool Police to arrive at the scene :>)

Gary K. Only kidding....

[Bob Childress]

I was wondering how long it would take the Festool Police to arrive at the scene :>)

Gary K. Only kidding....

Oh Gary, you know I love you!

[Burt Waddell]

i have most of the festool products.they are good-but not great. i got the domino-it was out of alignment.festool jigsaw is a pain to adjust bevel and has no blower to clear the dust.the circular saw does not have the power of other circular saws on market.i bought an eight foot guide rail because combining two guide rails did not give me a perfect straight edge.the routers do not come with base plate accepting usual bushings. routers do not have multi base kits- i like a regular two knob handles for dovetailing on jigs. mft table bridge goes out of square not infrequently and is not big enough to cut more than 24 inches.it would be handy to have repeaters and the accessories that ez smart has for the festool guide rail syatem.

Robert,

Why not give Dino a call and see if there is a way to add some EZ Stuff to what you have? Maybe a hybrid system would be good for you.

Burt

[robert micley]

i like their tools very much. i am just mentioning that their are ways to improve on them. the domino is fine now that the board member months ago showed me the page on aligning the pins.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I hear they are very nice.

I wouldn't get a Festool hand held circular saw for the simple reason that you are paying Porsche prices for a high performance race car of a saw and I don't see a hand held circular saw as a Porsche class tool.

I use mine to cut construction lumber, and I used to use it to break sheet goods down cause I couldn't always manage big heavy sheets on my TS. I'd just clamp a shop made straight edge to the sheet stock and wail away. So the heavy Skill Worm drive is the saw of choice for this puppy.

I might consider Festool's router - maybe just maybe. However there is really nothing they sell that holds a lot of appeal for me. I think the reason is dust collection. for every cool tool that Festool makes there is a cheaper unit elsewhere that is every bit as good but doesn't have DC and I just don't care about DC so I'd be a fool to pay for it.

[Paul Dwight]

I have used both systems, but man, I hesitate to enter into one of these F vs. E discussions. Passions run high. But here goes:

A good friend has the Eurekazone guide system that he uses with a PC Mag saw and a Freud blade. I used his equipment several times before I bought my Festool stuff. I thought the E system was easy to use and I was perfectly happy with the results.

Afterwards, my friend asked me to check a cut edge carefully to see if it was exactly square to the surface. I pulled out a machinists square and saw that the cut edge was just slightly off of square -- probably less than 1/64" off over the 3/4" depth of the melamine, not enough to cause any problems for dado/rabbet case construction, but maybe enough that a case assembled with pocket screws would go together a little out of square. Which was puzzling because I had adjusted the saw before I started and verified the blade was square to the Eureka base. My friend had experienced this several times and found that to get an edge that's dead-on square, he has to adjust the saw to square with the saw sitting on the guide rail and the guide rail sitting on a solid surface. Which can be done, but is not easy or convenient. Fortunately, it only has to be done occasionally (assuming someone like me doesn't come along and mess up his adjustment).

I'm not saying this is a problem with every Eureka system. Maybe there's something a little different about the particular pieces my friend owns.

And I'm not saying it's a huge problem. I had no trouble getting my dadoed-and-rabbeted carcasses to go together square.

I decided to go with the Festool system, myself, mostly because I found a decent deal on a used ATF55 and guide rail. (Still more expensive than comparable Eureka guides and a PC Mag saw, though.) I have found the Festool system to be very easy to use and extremely accurate. The factor that limits accuracy of the F system is how well I do the setup.

As someone who looks at the Eurekazone products from the outside, it appears to me that Dino's biggest advantage is that he understands his customers so well and is so quick to market with innovations that makes his customers' lives easier. Dino continually innovates. In contrast, the Festool saw system has been fairly static for years. I wish to heck that Festool offered an accessory like Dino's Repeaters. But they don't. If that level of speed and convenience is important to you, then you should probably choose Eureka.

[John Stevens]

I wouldn't get a Festool hand held circular saw for the simple reason that you are paying Porsche prices for a high performance race car of a saw and I don't see a hand held circular saw as a Porsche class tool.

I use mine to cut construction lumber, and I used to use it to break sheet goods down cause I couldn't always manage big heavy sheets on my TS.

Sure, if that's all you use a circular saw for, then it probably wouldn't pay to buy Festool. However, I own the Festool saw and MFT and use it to make furniture as well as cut sheets down to size. Because the Festool system produces clean, accurate cuts, and is so much better at dust control and safety, I don't use my table saw for anything but ripping lumber. I have no regrets about spending the money on the smaller Festool saw, and will probably buy the larger one (TS-75) at some point.

Regards,

John

[Gary Keedwell]

I hear they are very nice.

I wouldn't get a Festool hand held circular saw for the simple reason that you are paying Porsche prices for a high performance race car of a saw and I don't see a hand held circular saw as a Porsche class tool.

I use mine to cut construction lumber, and I used to use it to break sheet goods down cause I couldn't always manage big heavy sheets on my TS. I'd just clamp a shop made straight edge to the sheet stock and wail away. So the heavy Skill Worm drive is the saw of choice for this puppy.

I might consider Festool's router - maybe just maybe. However there is really nothing they sell that holds a lot of appeal for me. I think the reason is dust collection. for every cool tool that Festool makes there is a cheaper unit elsewhere that is every bit as good but doesn't have DC and I just don't care about DC so I'd be a fool to pay for it.

I agree, in part, about Festool's dust collection being a big draw. That's why I purchased their sander and vacuum, but their cordless drill is a gas.
Gary K.

[Dino Makropoulos]

My friend had experienced this several times and found that to get an edge that's dead-on square, he has to adjust the saw to square with the saw sitting on the guide rail and the guide rail sitting on a solid surface. Which can be done, but is not easy or convenient. Fortunately, it only has to be done occasionally (assuming someone like me doesn't come along and mess up his adjustment).

.

Paul.
You right. The saw must be adjusted on the rail.
Here are the instructions that you can follow with any rail and saw.

http://www.eurekazone.com/photoinstr...&g2_itemId=124