Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:I agree with everything you say (on this subject) so long as you are talking about a professional craftsman. However, I am a hobbiest and I cannot afford the Festool Circular Saw and will not buy one just because it does a fabulous job of collecting the dust.

I work in a garage shop with windows on one side (open air) and when I may making a lot of dust I turn on the oscillating fan. If I am working with MDF, I wear a mask. I try to do the majority of my sheet good work all at the same time. Then I clean up. Sometimes it is so bad that I have to jump in the pool to clear the dust.

But I am not buying a Festool to avoid all that.

If you all have one - I hope you all enjoy and get your monies worth out of it.

Darn it. I've done it again. This thread was about breaking down sheet goods and not the pros/cons of a tool.

Dusty I agree but cost of the Festool saw and guide is still far cheaper than say Power Pro upgrade. In fact you could build a well stocked Festool shop alone with some other stationary tools for the price of a new Shopsmith Mark 7.

And I agree IF we use the right precautions Dust isn't that big of problem. However in truth how many of us reach for the dust mask when all we are going to cut is ths one little piece of MDF. Or turn the fan when all we need is to just rip this board. I love wood working and I have been fairly careful in doing it but I believe I may be seeing a slight allergy to oak now after all these years of breathing in oak dust. I know some of the exotic woods really do effect me and I'm tending to work with them less and less. I really believe if I had better handled the dust I would not be considering this now.

Ed in Tampa wrote:Dusty I agree but cost of the Festool saw and guide is still far cheaper than say Power Pro upgrade. ......

But you can't drill with it using large Forstner bits, or turn large bowls with it, or rout or shape with it. All you can do with it is saw straight, but that operation can be done with a much smaller outlay. So, the Festool seems like a lot of money to cut down on sawdust.

charlese wrote:But you can't drill with it using large Forstner bits, or turn large bowls with it, or rout or shape with it. All you can do with it is saw straight, but that operation can be done with a much smaller outlay. So, the Festool seems like a lot of money to cut down on sawdust.

Actually I was talking a Festool system that would allow you to drill, sand, rout, shape and such. And you are correct if you wanted to turn bowls or some other things you would have to buy some other tools but even with them included you can still do it cheaper than the SS Mark 7

Ed in Tampa wrote:Actually I was talking a Festool system that would allow you to drill, sand, rout, shape and such. And you are correct if you wanted to turn bowls or some other things you would have to buy some other tools but even with them included you can still do it cheaper than the SS Mark 7

Give up Ed. I'll stick with my twenty year old Mark V Model 520 or the even older Model 510.

If you need someone to agree with you - try the Festool forum. Over there they believe like you - there is no other way to do wood working but with a dustless Festool. BTW - many of them are professionals; that explains a lot.

According to ebay, my now used Festool saw and track is worth about £250. This means that should I sell it now, 2 years of ownership has cost me about £2 a week.

As a hobbyist I like owning and using good equipment, to me it's part of the fun. I spend about £500pa on equipment I don't really need but want. (Calling it a hobby means that you never have to justify the expense lol.)

I got happy with my audio system some years ago as my ears can no longer recognise expensive improvements in sound quality so now I spend on tools. In 10 years I'm going to have some cool toys in that shop of mine, might even make something.

I also enjoy owning and using my Shopsmith but I take it for what it is, a versatile but imperfect machine that requires much more from me in terms of thought, skill and safety awareness.

jm51 wrote: I also enjoy owning and using my Shopsmith but I take it for what it is, a versatile but imperfect machine that requires much more from me in terms of thought, skill and safety awareness.

Well said!!!!!!

I'm presently making three long cabinets, two are 6'2" long and one is 8'. I can rip the length of 4'x8' plywood accurately with very clean cuts on the Shopsmith using an 80T Freud blade. I also use four roller stands and have a helper.

For the crosscuts, I use Dusty's method, using a straight piece of scrap clamped to the plywood with "C" clamps. My circular saw is a common Skill saw model. I remember what Nick Engler once said; a so-so saw with a great blade is better than an expensive saw with a so-so blade. I have a very thin kerf 7 1/4" carbide plywood blade made by Freud. Actually, there is not too much dust, and the blade slices thru the plywood so easily that keeping the saw from "wandering" is not a problem. I'm very pleased with the quality of my crosscuts.

I totally agree that a sharp, quality blade will render the best cuts. Probably as good as or better than most of us demand. However, I do not believe one needs to purchase "top of the line" blades to get a good, clean cut. A sharp blade works just as well as long as it is sharp.

Lesser blades provide less time sharp. How much are you willing to spend?

If you cut a lot of the harder woods, you need a good quality, sharp blade much more than otherwise FOR SAFETY SAKE. I believe a dull blade is much more likely to produce a kick back than a sharp blade.