Shopsmith Forums

I have a Festool TS55, and it is really great with large sheet goods. The True-Trac system is a great option for those who already own a good quality circular saw, and want the accuracy of a track saw.

(I do not, repeat do not recommend buying sheet goods at the box stores)

Sorry to go off topic, but why?

Steve

Quality I'd guess.

I've heard of a Chinese owned factory ship that goes from port to port buying the cheapest timber and the quality of their plywood is so bad that you can get overlap on the layers.

The first speakers I built were with 8 x 4 Finnish Baltic Birch, every sheet has one unblemished face. For the next batch I ordered Russian BB as the 5 x 5 size gave less scrap. (5 foot tall speakers.) I'll be painting those as none of the speakers has a surface good enough to be left natural Birch. I could have cherry picked areas without the duckegg shaped inserts but then I would have even more leftovers than with the Finnish BB.

To me the reason why this is most disappointing is that it really seems like a waste of money in the long run. They spent money:

engineering time analyzing the existing tracksaws
paying lawyers to see what they could copy and what they couldn't
engineering time designing the "new" tracksaw system
paying to get the new "design" patented
paying to get the dies made for the aluminum extrusion
paying to get all the prototypes made
marketing

In contrast, if they had partnered with someone like EZ, they would have gotten:
An existing user base, some of which was already crossovers with shopsmith users
Access to a system which is richly configurable (EZ has a few SPT like things), similar to the shopsmith (ie: the shopsmith multipurpose tool system and the EZ smart multipurpose tool system brought to you by shopsmith)
no costs in engineering
no costs in tooling
no costs in supply chain
no costs researching or filing patents
minimal marketing costs

In short, it really seems to be that for a cash-strapped company they spent a bunch of cash building an unnecessariliy custom stuff to try and become a player in the tracksaw market. It would have been a huge win for EZ to get backing from a name like shopsmith, and shopsmith would have gotten a really great system. oh well

I think it is the EZ cut system. Notice the table used toward the end that is Ez cut table design.

My guess if it isn't Ez cut system there will be a lawsuit since the two are nearly identical. My guess they purchased some rights from Dino.

Just a guess.

I just checked out the EZ system for the first time after hearing about it from you guys this morning. Looks like a nice approach. The webpage however, leaves much to be desired. I can't really determine what the components really are, what the add-ons are and what is needed.
May be good innovative engineering, but need a more "user friendly" web page design. Might need to see what at a woodworking show sometime.

major_bob wrote:I just checked out the EZ system for the first time after hearing about it from you guys this morning. Looks like a nice approach. The webpage however, leaves much to be desired. I can't really determine what the components really are, what the add-ons are and what is needed.
May be good innovative engineering, but need a more "user friendly" web page design. Might need to see what at a woodworking show sometime.

Yeah, there is definitely room for improvement on their site when it comes to being clear about what parts help with what operations, what you need to do various operations, etc.

First rules of sales is don't slag the competition but Dino does just that. Listening to him you'd think Festool was a 3rd world product.

People look for Festool alternatives because they baulk at the price, not the quality.

I would like to reply to some of the concerns and comments about the True Trac System. I am one of the partners who designed and refined our tool over the last two years. Our company is Insight Toolworks LLC, my partner and I have over 50 years experience in the woodworking tool industry. We were first made aware of the track saw concept when Festool introduced theirs several years ago. I personally have had to work in a small shop (MKV owner since 1978) and was amzed at the ease and percision of the track saw, but the price, high cost of metric blades, and so, on kept me from buying.

Why did we decide to design our own track saw? We had the advantage of looking at ALL track saws that were on the market and talking with users, what they liked, did not like, and what could be done better. First, to design a universal track, you need to have one adapter plate that would work with all types of saws: right hand, left hand, worm drive, cord or cordless; we did that. Second, you have to take out the play, which is created by tolerance slop between the adapter plate and the track. Festool and others have an adjustment built into the base of their saws, but instead we designed the track itself to eliminate the tolerance slop, thus making the plate truly universal.

Our track design may look like others but it is very different and unique, and the track design is currently patent pending. Other track saws work with a "hump" on the track and a matching groove in the plate. This makes it easy to fall off of the center guide "hump". Our track works exactly the opposite, we have two raised humps with a groove inbetween. The raised humps have beveled outside edges with straight inside edges, and the adapter plate meshes perfectly because the plate bevel's slide down against the trac bevels until they are snug. No play! The plates area between the bevels fits into the trac groove and helps secure the plate to the trac, making it hard to come off the track. The analogy is it is easy to fall off a hill (other systems) but you can't fall out of a ditch! It only took a year and a half to work all of this out. Our anti chip edges are extruded with the anti slip material, it is not tape that you add on that can come off when it gets hot. It is easy to move until you apply down pressure, but if you like clamps we have them available, they slide into the dovetails on the underside. The underside dovetails also work with our self aligning connectors, which do a great job.

I have no desire to knock anyones product, and if you have any other band of track saw and are happy with it that is great! The backbone of our country has always been someone trying to build a better mousetrap. We feel we have made a better trac saw and are proud and excited that Shopsmith felt it was a good fit for their customers. By the way True Trac is all American made in southern Ohio.

wh500special wrote:Sorry to go off topic, but why?

Steve

Quality (the lack of) is the issue I have. I have had two projects degraded because of voids in the plywood I purchased at a box store. Fasteners just do not hold in a void.