Idled some time away at the Woodcraft store today

[algale]

Prices from Festoolusa.com
TS 55 req. $640. It comes with a 55 inch guide rail
Second 55 inch guide rail. 129
Connector $18.
Total. $787
Add dust vac $475 for the small one. But it will work with most any dust vac and the Shopsmith dust collector.


With this you can cut up anything shorter than 110 inches it will do a 4x8 sheet of ply.

2 connectors are required. Thus $805 as I was quoted today at Woodcraft.

[charlese]

My Goodness!
At those prices you could add a couple hundred and by a PowerPro DIY kit.

One day, if the situation would ever arrive, I would like to compare the edge of a cut for straightness and smoothness produced by a Festool and their straight edge with one made by my homemade saw guide and my circle saw which I bought at a pawn shop for $25.

My cost was approximately $35 for the whole thing.

straight edge - circle saw.jpg (118.86 KiB) Viewed 1813 times

[reible]

It is not my job to educate people on the reasons for Festool or to explain the whys hows and details there in.

No one is asking anyone here to buy any of these tools so if they cost too much for you or they are not to your liking so be it, I felt that way for a long time but now I'm changing my mind. Not my job to change your mind.

I already have the capability to use a circular saw to cut up sheet goods and have for a lot of years. Now I'm looking at new ways. As I said before I might just give up on the whole project but I certainly want to look at what options I have to do the job if I so choice.

Remodeling is a pain and the extent of this job is a little overwhelming so if I think my best option is to spend some money on a/this track saw then I will. My budget will be about 12K so a new saw is a drop in the bucket.

None of this is going to happen until my spring physical and a lot more studying. It could be we will be house shopping instead??? Only time will tell.

Ed

[Ed in Tampa]

Prices from Festoolusa.com
TS 55 req. $640. It comes with a 55 inch guide rail
Second 55 inch guide rail. 129
Connector $18.
Total. $787
Add dust vac $475 for the small one. But it will work with most any dust vac and the Shopsmith dust collector.


With this you can cut up anything shorter than 110 inches it will do a 4x8 sheet of ply.

2 connectors are required. Thus $805 as I was quoted today at Woodcraft.

Right you are, my bad!

[Ed in Tampa]

My Goodness!
At those prices you could add a couple hundred and by a PowerPro DIY kit.

One day, if the situation would ever arrive, I would like to compare the edge of a cut for straightness and smoothness produced by a Festool and their straight edge with one made by my homemade saw guide and my circle saw which I bought at a pawn shop for $25.

My cost was approximately $35 for the whole thing.

straight edge - circle saw.jpg

Both the keeper side and the waste side have no tear out with the Festool. Plus you get about 96% dust collection, soft start, plunge cut and riving knife. Depth of cut is very easy to set as is bevel. Plus the blade does not move when to swing it over to bevel you can use the same straight edge for both straight or bevel cuts. Plus the motor technology is similar to the Shopsmith power pro DVR type. Blade change is simplified and you get an easy replace plug/cord.

Quite honestly this is about the same argument I have with the power pro upgrade. If it makes sense to you, you buy it if not you say it way too expensive.

[charlese]

Quite honestly this is about the same argument I have with the power pro upgrade. If it makes sense to you, you buy it if not you say it way too expensive.

Got to admit the Festool stuff doesn't make sense to me, but my original post was intended only as a price shocker. However if a guy wants one he should get one. Some people evidently do purchase these things. After all the Festool Co. is still in business.

I'll be willing to bet (no $) that the great majority of Festool purchasers are in business and can write off the depreciation. Usually a 5 year period. If the Festool features of the $1400 value spread over 5 years, or $280 per year, are acceptable to the business then it is a good deal.

[robinson46176]

I sometimes get sticker shock just buying a hamburger. Being a generally frugal person I do try to justify what I spend. Then on some things I ignore a higher price. There are a lot of factors involved with pricing. I don't mind (OK, it still hurts ) paying more for something if it is really higher quality or has very special features that I want. I believe that Festool is one of those "better" or even maybe "the best" as far as quality and function goes. If I am going to use it a couple of times a year I probably wouldn't spend for it unless I got a really bad case of the wants... If I am doing a lot of such work or doing it for part of my living then I'll stretch for it.
I used some of that logic recently buying a new Stihl chain saw. I didn't buy top of the line because I have several other saws and my needs are slowing down from the days when I not only heated with wood but I was selling firewood. Still, this saw cost about 3 times as much as I have often spent. The difference is that this saw has an exceptional "easy start" feature that is very important to me. I have a problem shoulder and a regular chainsaw can about cripple me. With this one you start pulling the rope out and it winds up for about the first third of the pull then it spins over quickly after that. It is a very soft pull and my shoulder loves it. That feature was worth a lot to me and if you add in the fact that I will be feeding two furnaces with it the savings will pay me back quickly. And the general quality is high. If I were just cutting brush to get rid of it I wouldn't spend that much. No good payback...
On the other hand as a long time retailer (and shopper ) I have seen a huge number of products that were of really crappy or mediocre quality but still sold at ridiculous prices. You don't get what you pay for, you get the quality that you learn to identify in a product. That usually comes with experience.
Shopsmith is one of those high priced items... The clones were cheaper but they are gone now. I believe that quality was mixed but they couldn't match Shopsmith's customer service, not even close.
I probably will not be buying any Festool products for making bird houses or many of the other projects I make... Then again if circumstances were to change...

[claimdude]

I have been using the Festool TS55 w/CT22 vac for probably 10 years or so. I have never once regretted the purchase. I like more the older I get as it is much easier to break down sheet goods. I also have 108" rail (used two 55's with connectors for several years but my tools never leave the shop so got the long rail about 6 years ago). I also have a 75" rail, Domino 500, RO125 sander, ETS 125 EC, RO90, Vecturo Oscillating tool, , Ti15, T15, CXS, and a bunch of non-festool stuff. Expensive stuff to be sure, but very well made and shear joy to use. When I was much younger and money was tight I made do with the best I could afford. As I have gotten older and matured in my career I find that using the best tools makes the journey to the completed project a real joy and since completing the projects is purely on my own time table I can enjoy the process as much as the completed project. I bought my Mark V in 1987 as a 500, upgraded to 510, then the 520 and finally the PowerPro because it made my Mark V more versatile and even more fun to use. Frankly, I think the Shopsmith 520 Power Pro is every bit the quality of the Festool stuff (the price new bears that out except the resell prices aren't nearly as good as Festool resale tools).

Jack

[Ed in Tampa]

Before we go off topic there is another option. If you own a circular saw already (Charlese) you can get a guided saw system from Eurekazone for $315.

The guides in this setup have a zero clearance insert the goes on both sides of the blade, a no- splinter strip that is attached to the guide rail. With this set up you can cut 108 inches. For another $25 the guide length is 118 inches.

Also Eureka zone sells shields and templates to modify certain saws to be more dust free. They install shields on the outside of the blade and relocate the dust port.

Plus they have what they call the bridge which in effect makes the whole setup to be a guided overhead saw table.

Biggest advantage of the guided saw system is safety, dust collection, ease of use when dealing with sheet stock, ability to joint wood of any width producing a glue edge without a jointer.

[reible]

I was back at the store again today and idled some more time away. I got to talk to a guy who has had the festool track saw for 15 years already. He said when he got his they would come and do a demo and then take your order. Some time later it would arrive...... sound like some company we know? The marketing people found us Americans don't like to do it that way. We like to buy it and take it home. So a change in marketing and their sales went way up. Go figure.

Anyway it was interesting talking to a guy who has owned the system and used the system for that long. A fan boy fore sure except he was a man in his late 40's or early 50's I'd guess.

The only thing he warned me about is the track, sure it is light weight and all that but it doesn't hold up well to getting stepped on or tossed around, once bent it is pretty much over for it. He has a case that they use to sell that holds the track sections for transportation. Sounds like a gun case. Other then that it has held up well. He has three of the tables (mft/3) they have bars that hook them together and it can give you a nice large area to work on.

The router table also can plug into the system so they have a real expansion capacity. He really likes the table system for cutting just about anything. He was showing me how the stops work, how the angle can be changed for cutting joints and the like. Pretty slick. Nice to have someone who knows how it works show it off rather then someone who only sells them but doesn't really know it.

I was still able to resist today but I don't know how much longer before I cave and buy one.

Oh yea he also said to locktite the little rail screws as they get lost really easy, he was speaking from experience. So I filed that away for later.

It was a tough day on the pocket change today anyway, ended up getting 4 things on my list and spending $480.52, none of it festool. So there goes March's money and the rest of my savings for the mark7 parts to finish my powerpro purchase of last year......... well no demo's coming here for a while yet anyway.

Ed