Table saw vs Festool

I think those reviews may be from folks who own all the stuff that goes with the tracksaw. I have the TS 55, and several rails but none of the other stuff. It’s handy as all get out and mine earns it’s keep cutting sheet goods, straight edging rough sawn lumber and so on. But I wouldn’t consider it a replacement for a good table saw….ever, even if I had all the other goodies. But that’s just me…

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

http://www.bobmarinosbesttools.com/festool-reconditioned-tools/a/209/

Festools rock, especially when space is limited. Get the longest rail to cut down sheet
goods and a shorter one for cross cuts.

Festool and a table saw compliment each other and are not mutually exclusive.
Resale of Festools is high and the safety factor is coveted as well.

Thanks Fred, then what’s a good ” aqurate” table saw? One that if I cut 45’s, it makes a picture frame with no gas. If I rip 2 boards and join them together, it’s a good tight fit. I have an old Craftsman table saw in my garage and it will not do none of this.

-- Phil in Sutallee Georgia

If you don’t have room for a full sized saw, the bosch 4100 is a great portable saw.

-- He who dies with the most tools... dies with the emptiest wallet.

Festool’s track saw is pretty good for breaking up
sheet goods and carpentry applications.

I’ve owned the Festool ts55 with accessories and
don’t anymore. I think the Ezsmart is a better
value if you’re on a budget and in some ways it
can do things the Festool doesn’t do easily
without hundreds of dollars of additional
accessories.

Festool has excellent dust collection and the plunging
feature is nice to have sometimes. I prefer a
fixed-depth circular saw like a regular framing
saw in most circumstances though.

With some accessories you can buy of make yourself,
your Craftsman table saw will be capable of cutting
picture frame miters accurately.

This is one example of a jig you can buy:
dubby sled

Here’s another, newer but similar design:
incra miter sled

In terms of ripping boards that can be glued together,
you need a straight reference edge to run against
your fence first. Such an edge can be made several
ways, including with a track saw, but a jointer is a
good way to do it and the machine can be left set
up to do this, while a track saw requires fiddling
and clamping with every board.

Your table saw could probably do some much nicer
work for you with a better blade and perhaps an
aftermarket rip fence. I won’t tell you to put lipstick
on a pig, but the old saw will probably surprise you in
terms of what you can accomplish with it with some
better jigs, blades and fixtures.

A good contractor saw should do what you want, and well as the higher end job site saws. Is it possible that your Craftsman saw just needs some tuning?

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

Brownred: The saw only cuts as good as it is set up, no matter what brand or model it is, or what it costs. Gap free miters and edge joinable boards are both dependant on the saws setup for accuracy. I can’t think of a single situation other than breaking down sheet goods where i would prefer a tracksaw over my table saw. I do not own a tracksaw, but break down my sheet goods with a circular saw, a good blade and an accurately set up edge guide. My old craftsman worked well for me for 30 years until the motor crapped out, but… I spend a large amount of time working on the accuracy of the setup. Festool makes VERY high quality tools, but the high price going in the door is just more than I want to spend. I have never considered resale value when purchasing a tool. I just buy the best that I can afford for the purpose at hand, set them up well, maintain them well, and then use the s**t out of them until they are used up. Then I upgrade. like Loren said, TS sleds are one way to go. Buy em or build them yourself. I have 4 shop built sleds that I set up using the William Ng method and they crosscut very accurately. Ripping is a whole other animal. Good luck with all of your woodworking endeavors. It’s not the destination ( there is no ending point unless you all out quit) it’s the journey that makes us the woodworkers that we are and long to be.

-- Improvidus, Apto quod Victum-- Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

I have had my bosch 4000 for 8-10 years now and its great. I have never had to readjust it since I pulled it out of the box and set it up. The blade stays true to the mitre slots and the fence to the blade. I have also never thought it to be underpowered in the least. For a small job site saw I doubt you could beat the bosch.

-- Building quality in a throw away world.

I agree with others that a track saw is good for cutting sheet goods down but will not do all the operations a table saw can do.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Ok, thanks, looks like I need a good table saw. Now to find one through all the mixed reviews. I dought I’ll be doing any large prodject is why I think want a smaller saw but mainly I’m looking do accuracy.
Any recommendations?

Thanks

-- Phil in Sutallee Georgia

Table saw all day. The track saw is top of the line but aside from the guys that have mounted on upside down with a fence, I’d go table saw all day long.
.
From what you’re saying, I’d get the Bosch jobsite saw. I’ve never heard of anyone unhappy with it and it’ll get most smallish projects done. Get a nice rail and a wormdrive circular saw to break your stuff down. That’s what I do.

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog

If you have room for a contractor saw, look for a used Delta/Jet/Griz/PM model, and ask back on the forum about the particular one you found and it’s price. If you buy new, look first at the Grizzly models. If you can’t support the contractor saw, look at the Job site saws…starting with the Bosch.

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

I don’t, and probably won’t ever, have a table saw in my workshop. I’ve still managed to use the Festool tracksaw to do things like cut the bevel grooves that the sides nest into in the bow piece of the sailboat we built this spring. You have to think about setups differently, and there are some limitations, but I don’t miss the tablesaw.

I do have the (older) MFT table for setting up cross-cuts, and a good speed square to help me make sure the fence is aligned right. For ripping I use a rip jig I built for &fract34;" materials, or set up an ad-hoc similar jig for whatever size I need to be cutting at the time.

I knew I’d made the right decision a few years ago when I saw a (very accomplished woodworker) nephew-in-law building cabinets in his father’s shop, which had a full-size Saw Stop, and he eschewed that for a borrowed Festool tracksaw.

My Dad has a couple of short fingers ‘cause of a table saw accident, so I wouldn’t get anything other than a SawStop or a Euro-slider. If you compare the price of a track saw plus a table/hinge setup to that, and factor in the flexibility with sheet and small space requirements, I’d figure out other ways to do the few cuts you think would be easier on a tablesaw.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

I was always under the impression that grizzly was lower quality equipment because it was so much cheaper than other brands.
I prefer to buy new, I don’t know enough to know if I’m getting a lemon. If I were going to buy used I would use the old craftsman I have.
Yes, I will defiantly look at the Bosch. Anything out there better than the Bosch?

Thanks

-- Phil in Sutallee Georgia

My impression is that Grizzly uses the same castings as Harbor Freight’s “Central Machinery” brand, but Grizzly puts in better bearings and machines the castings more precisely.

And I have yet to think “wow, I should have bought the lower-end version of that tool”. Especially given the ratio of the cost of materials to the costs of tools. I have often thought “damn, I should have bought the better version”.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke