#129. Festool track saw.

In this podcast, I talk about my festool track saw, and give my impressions after nearly a year of use.


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this podcast, I'm going to be going over my crack.
So this could be maybe concideratas maybe a bit of
a review. So you could think of this as a
hand toold would worker coming over to the dark side,

(00:22):
so to speak, so to speak. So I've had this
since Christmas and you know, so that's what's that that's
around there, what one now, September, so it's around nine
month is ish. So I haven't used it extensively, but
I have used it quite a lot. So I'm kind of,

(00:44):
you know, I'm kind of getting the grips with it now.
I'm saying its possibilities, I'm saying its limitations, so on
and so forth. So I thought i'd go over a
few things to day. And I'm in no way, shape
or form any sort of expert with the track. So
going back quite a few years ago, and I initially

(01:05):
did use power tools pretty much for everything. Before I
started using all these hand tools, which I really love.
I had seen track shows, but i'd never used one,
and I think one of the reasons why I never
actually used one was at the time there very very

(01:28):
expensive and they've remain very very expensive. So this guy, yeah,
this is the tsa fifty five cab. It runs on
two eighteen volts batteries, so these are five I was each,

(01:50):
so that's like ten I was and the batteries themselves
are the last reasonable amount of time. I think if
you're you know, maybe a kitchen fitter or I don't
know your your fit wardrobes for a living guessing, I'm

(02:12):
guessing and from what I've seen video wise years, I'm
probably going to have one of these and recorded one.
I'm guessing and obviously what I've seen, so this when
I bought this, I did actually buy this. I bought
one of these. This is this is basically so I

(02:34):
can get nineteen degree cuts. It's kind of like it
turns the track into kind of a big squave, you will,
So I bought that. I bought two. I think these
are four foot two four foot tracks, and I also
bought a smaller one whereever it is. So the smaller

(02:58):
one is about you know, yeah height, you know, it's
about three foot something like that. So in total, the
whole thing come I think was about one thousand pounds.
So it's a lot of money, you know, when you
haven't when you haven't got a great deal of money.
One thousand pounds. There's a lot of money. You know.
It's at the time I was fortunate enough to have

(03:19):
the money. You know, I haven't always been that fortunate,
but at that time I was fortunate and I did
get it. So again, for anyone that doesn't know why
I got this thing, this was bought specifically because I've
got issues with me back. And one of the problems
is that when I'm using me me sore as well.

(03:43):
I'd be Western, so will i be a Japanese or
a frame So nine out of ten, I'm usually bent over.
If I'm doing a large rip or I'm doing a
large cross cut, i will be bent over some way
shape or form whomen lay on the bench or on

(04:04):
the top of the workpiece, or just you know slightly
when they he's bent and bent over that way. But
obviously when I'm doing that for extended periods of time,
it plays absolutely have it with me back. So again,
I've mentioned this numerous times. I've got damage to at
least three of me vertebrate in the top portion of

(04:26):
my back. Below our back, I've got a hernionated disc
or a bulgeing disc. It's one or the other. So
I've got to be very very careful with me back.
I don't want to I don't want to aggravate it anymore,
and I don't want any more psiatic psiatic. That sucks,
It really does. It's it's not fun at all. So

(04:48):
incomes this guy. So basically, if I've got a large
rip to do, or multiple large rips to do, even
multiple smaller ribs to do, guy comes out. Obviously, it
does have its limitations. And it's the same with cross cutting.
If I have multiple lengths of cross cutting to do,

(05:10):
that guy will come out. I mean, if it's just
you know, I don't know, half a dozen boards, you'd
see I don't know, one hundred and fifty millimeters, that's
like six inches. You know, it's it's not too much
of an issue. But if it's going to be you know,
a few hours, a couple of hours, you know, spread
out through the day, as I said, it does take
its toll. So because of that reason, I've built the bullets,

(05:34):
I've paid the money, and this is the result. So
what do I like about it? So there is there
is a lot of things I like about it. There's
a few things I don't like. About it. So I'm
going to go over a few of those things to day.

(05:54):
So first and foremost, I went for this model because
it's cordless and I don't like fasughing about plugging things
in and so on and so forth. And obviously in
the last couple of years, I've kind of gotten into

(06:16):
me solar panels, you know, kind of liftium batteras and whatnot.
If you think the good or bad, it's it's irrelevant,
because that's kind of an interest I've taken interest in.
So that was one of the things that sweareds to this.
Why did I go for first tool? I went for

(06:37):
a fest tool because we've got such a good reputation.
Obviously I have heard some bad reports about them, but
in general from what I've seen, again, if anyone knows
any differently either comments and Lettle, there's no Lettle does
know your point of view and let me know your
point of view. So, as I said, for me, they've

(06:59):
got a really good reputation. I've heard nothing but good
reports mainly mainly, I must say, so I phone myself
if I am gonna go out and I am gonna
buy something like this, A good bit of kits I
may as well go the full hog, and the full
hog I went for it being a quarterless track, so

(07:20):
I will say it works very very well. I'm actually
surprised how well it works. So how they get around
this from what I've read is that the use a
really fine blade and I think it's somewhere and the
reason is I think it's slightly under two millimeters, so
the blade itself is quite thin. And I think because

(07:44):
the blade's so small that's how it's able to perform.
How it performs to me knowledge anyway, So just to
give you an idea what this sort of so can
cote with, I've ripped multiple pieces of this beach and
this is killing dried. It's absolutely tough as old nails.

(08:07):
This thing. It's really tough. It's it can be a
bit of a battle with a freshly short and playing
as well. Just to give you some idea. So this
is got there. This is forty seven millimeters in thickness.
So this thing it does go through, not a problem.

(08:29):
You do have to take your time. You can't just
you can't just rip it through. But I think even
with a table, so you'd have to take your time
with a table. So with this sort of thing, you'd
want to do that anyway. I don't think you want
to be just you know, firing anything through you know,
anything with short blades or it that's got the potential
to chop your fingers if you really do want to

(08:50):
be taking your time and being careful about things. But
as I said, that will go through that beautifully. It
is a bit taxing on the battery, of course, because
it is using nearly the full capacity or the full yeah,
the full capacity of the blade. So as I said,
it will take its toll on the battery, But I

(09:11):
mean still I was quite happy with how the battery
was performing when I was written multiple lems of this.
Another thing I really like is the Another thing I
really like is the adjustment for the blade. So that's

(09:31):
how quick it is absolutely awesome. Some of the earlier
stuff and when I was would work, and again a
number of years ago, there was nothing like this that
I'd used, so you know, it's just quick, it's easy.
And another thing about this is really precise as well.

(09:52):
It came out the box. It came out of the
box precisely. But I don't expect you know, after paying
nearly your felt well it was a thousand pound. It
was below a thousand pounds, but obviously with all the
kit added it came up to around about one thousand pounds.
But for that sort of price, you don't expect it
to come out of the box and be that precise,
at least I do. Anyway, at the front here you

(10:16):
do have two little edges, and one of the edges
is if you're using this the sword itself without a track,
so that would be the bottom one. And with the FS,
this edge here is actually taking into consideration the thickness

(10:37):
of the track. So I think that's really really cool.
I don't like it, and I don't use this a
lot safe for different things. Obviously, I've just built this.
So when I was building this, so it's twenty two
millimeters in thickness the material I used for this bench,

(10:59):
so I give myself, you know, a couple of mil
so that that took us to what twenty four to
twenty five, So I was going let's say twenty five
arguments six, So I was going from twenty five to
full capacity. And the full capacity was just when I
was cutting the slots, and that was just enabling us
to actually use the guides so I don't know if

(11:21):
you can say this on the camera. Maybe you can,
maybe you can't. But there's actually a little guide where
I've got my finger now, and there's another guide here.
So basically, when the sores are full capacity, all the
sold blades at full capacity, full depth of you will
this is a guide for the back, and that is
a guide for the front. So basically, if you've if

(11:44):
you've had a bit of a plunge, if you've plunged
in like I had for these sections chaff for the
slots I've plunged in, I can basically line up where
I need to start and then I can push forward
and obviously when I get to the end points, I
just need to get that section at the front lined
up with the end point or the pencil line. Let

(12:06):
the sow come back up, let the trigger go. So
it's as easy as that. It's really really good for
doing things like that, although you do have to be careful.
We'll kicked back obviously. This is something I learned. You know,
if you switch the thing on and you want to
put you know, if you switch the thing on and

(12:29):
you think you can just like you know, like go
like down the full depth straight away. You can't do that.
You do have to take your time, especially if you're
doing it freehand. Free hand meaning that you're not using
any stop, so obviously you're using the tracks, or at
least the hours use the tracks, or sorry not the
tracks or the track. So with the track you can

(12:51):
actually get stopped. So basically you get the sower lined
up to where you want it, and it would put
some so of a stop when you have so basically
the stop goes goes onto this section and it will
go to wherever you need it to go. You tied up.
So basically with the stop, see a way you had

(13:14):
to stop here, or could bring the saw back to here,
it would hit the stop and the sw wouldn't be
able to travel backwards. So the reason the sword would
want to travel backwards is that when you're plunge, and
it will, you will have a bit of kickback sometimes
depending how careful you are putting the sword down. So

(13:34):
I didn't I didn't do that. I did, however, take
me time when I was going down. I was using
my hand grip. Again, maybe I shouldn't have been down
what I did, And I took my time with it,
and I found that it worked really really well. Another
thing that I really love about this as I've been

(13:57):
using it is that the the track itself does not
move once there's weight on it. Are all the weight
of the saw, and I do always try to apply
pressure with the hand that I'm not using, so meaning
when I'm doing the cuts, I'll have my hand on

(14:17):
the on the track itself, and as soon as the
soul of the track saw hits me hand or gets
close to my hand, I just bring that to the
other side, apply pressure here and continue me cut. So

(14:40):
I think I've had maybe this track moved twice, and
the reason that moved twice was my own fault. I'm
not going to get into hell and why, but it
was my own fault. I've never had the track move
on a nice flat surface, so any sort of ply
I've been couldn't. I've never had it move at all.

(15:03):
So one of the things, one of the things that
helps it from not moving is these kind of the
kind of like a robot foam. So it's the same
sort of principle as the robot mats that I use.
So if anyone followers is will know what I'm talking about.

(15:25):
So these robot mats. I use these extensively. You say,
that's how good. Yeah, I'm trying to push it's main
liar out of us now. But if you the slightest
little bit of pressure, So I'm gonna use me two
fingers and I'm going to try and push the whole bench.
The bench is on its wheels, by the way. So

(15:50):
and that's how good robot works or form in this case,
I think it is. So it's the same sort of
principle as the robot mats a game when you put
the rubber mats on, you know, so the do work
really really well rubber I've never I've never once had

(16:12):
the inkling to clamp this down. So again for those
of you that do not know, those of you that
haven't seen these, you can't actually clamp them down. So
on the back there is a kind of a tie slot,
and you have got the where I don't know, yeah

(16:33):
they are. You have got clams that are specifically, you know,
used for this. So basically the clams fit in. Put
the clamp the way you need to be. Obviously the
track would be on the other side, and he's just
you know, clamped to the workpiece or whatever. As I said,
I've never had a need to use these. The sprint

(16:54):
accord as well. I really like the sprint that God
just does cut splintering down quite a lot, especially when
you're cross cutting. These are removable to tell of them,
So the sprint a God and the foam I don't
know what these are called. To be honest, for you
grips if you will, so you can't take these off

(17:16):
and you can replace them. So they do sell these
on Amazon and stuff. I haven't had a need to
replace them as of yet. Something I've added very recently
all these parallel guides, and these are bench dog parallel guides.
I have to be honest. They are expensive. I think

(17:38):
that I pay maybe one hundred and fifty pounds. I
can't quite remember what I paid one hundred and fifty.
I really can't remember. When you use these, obviously, these
just fixed to the's fixed to the tay slots on
the front. You know you'll get these in. You tighten

(17:58):
them up both sides and you've got a little fence.
She asked. So basically, with a fence, you move it
to the measurement you want. And these do have to
be calibrated when you first buy them, but it's not
a big deal to calibrate them. And once you've got
them calibrated, you know you've got all your measurements on
the beam, if you will. And after that it's just

(18:21):
repetitive cuts. You just get precision cuts every single time.
So obviously this is excellent if you're cutting sheet material
and you make and I don't know, maybe you're a
kitchen fit and maybe you're building wardrobes, building wardrobes. I
think it's a perfect example of this sort of usage.

(18:43):
I did use the parallel guides to build this bench,
and I have to say it did speed the process
up a lot, and it gives a lot of precision.
And while you last still maintain that this bench could
have been built with just a circus or a router,
I think it would have taken longer in the precision

(19:04):
probably wouldn't have been as good. It still would have
been fine, don't get its wrong, but I think with
the parallel guides it is really good. I mean, there
is all manner of other gizmos you can buy, and
obviously I won't I won't be paying everything, but I

(19:25):
did feel that the parallel guides was something that I
would benefit from and obviously once I've got them, I've
got them type of thing. So one of the cheaper
things that I did kind of mention before was this guy. Yeah,
so this just basically makes the fence like ninety degree
actorate if you will. So this does go into the

(19:52):
into the back tie section and as I said, acts
like like a big square pretty much. So you're getting
in a position. So that's ninety degrees. Obviously, run your
sword down. Now, this this wasn't halfter the more one.

(20:13):
This was like one. This is like a cheap Chinese one.
I think I paid thirty pound. I want to say,
and I have to be honest, it's bang on. It
is precise, you know. So sometimes I think Chinese equipment
it gets a really bad name. And this this is

(20:36):
this comes from phones on I want to say phones
if I'm pronouncing that right, phones on tools. So I
have to say I haven't had an issue with it.
It is one hundred ninety degrees, so I think they
they'll get a bit of a bad rap sometimes, but

(20:57):
in this particular case, you know, it's really worth getting one.
As I said, it's precise, and that's all I want.
Something else I did spend money on with this was
this little this little I don't know, I don't know
what these are called. H fast fixed cover for the festivol.

(21:24):
This was off Etsy. I think some guy was making
them on Etsy so Friday printing them. And the reason
that I got this again, for those of you that
haven't used one of these, I've got this to keep
the dust down. So obviously I'm in a very small
space and I want to keep the dustdown as much

(21:46):
as possible. So obviously when I'm using the bag and
I didn't have this on, there was quite a lot
spewing out. If you are so once I put the
soulhole cover on, if your will, what a difference, What

(22:06):
an absolute difference, and you know, kind of leading that
kind of leads us onto the bag. So this comes
with a dust extraction extraction bag. And again in the past,
I'm going back a lot of years now, I might
be going back nearly, I don't know, fifteen twenty years,

(22:27):
whatever it is, when I was using power tools, and
the power tools I had with sort of like dust
extraction bags like this were crap. The world really really
really crap. And I'm not exaggerating. That's how bad they were,
I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised with how

(22:48):
much dust this picks up. Obviously, you still have the
issue with the fine dust in the air, which obviously
which does the harm to your your lungs. So that
is still an issue in here. So what I have
to do is or as what I do do is
I'll leave the door open. I try to leave the

(23:10):
door open as much as possible and depending on the
time of day, and obviously the well are and I've
been using a dust mask, so it is still an issue.
But if I'm maybe if I'm only doing a couple
of rips with it sometimes, I mean, but if it's

(23:30):
going to be repetitive, obviously i'd be an agent not
wearing masks. You know, you've got to look after your lungs.
And unfortunately, some of the wood that we do use
as woodwork as can be quite toxic to a body,
and the fine dust can be so that leads us

(23:51):
into a few of the things I don't like about this.
So with keeping with the dust, they're not like wearing masks.
I absolutely hate wearing those masks in a noises to
no end, and and I understand why I've got to

(24:11):
wear one, but that's that doesn't make any difference to
me that I just don't like them. I feel uncomfortable.
I really struggle to breathe in one of these. I
don't like it at all. So that's that for me,
is one of the pet hates that goes with not

(24:34):
just with this power tool, but with a lot of
power tools. And it's it's a shame. It's it's a shame.
That's something else cann be done. All I then all
I then make going out and paying more money to
get some sort of an extraction system, which to be honest,

(24:56):
I have thought about doing. I did think about buying
one of the first tool little vacuums extract as. So
maybe I will, maybe I won't, but I don't know
if I can't justify it because at the moment power
tool wise, and I've got no intention of buying any
more power tools. Like what I've got is enough for me.

(25:18):
So at the moment, I have got the track. So
I've got an electric sander, I've got a router which
I never ever use, and I've got a drill and
that is it. And I really don't see myself going
out and buying any more stuff. I really don't, so

(25:38):
I don't know if I could justify going out. And
I don't know what they are now. I think the
first tool extract as or like maybe a five hundred
poundish or something like that. So I don't know if
I can go out and justify paying that sort of
money for just the two tools, because I would only
use it for the first tool tracks and obviously the

(26:03):
sander and I you know, in the amount of time
I use these, you know, I'm not using this every
single day, so I can't be in the workshop. You know.
Let's see, let's say I'm in all week in the
in the workshop on my shed new workshed. You know,

(26:23):
sometimes I might use it once. Sometimes I might use
it two three, four days, you know, like I did
with this thing when I was building the workbench. But again,
can I just defied. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
It really depends, you know, who knows what's going to
happen in the future. You know, maybe I stop, you know,

(26:47):
doing building wardrobes. Who knows. Maybe that's something you know,
I might have to do to you know, I might
have a change of work. Who knows, So I kind
of I kind of like comp saying note would, but
it is one thing I don't like. The dust. Obviously,
when you're using the likes of the the Ioba saws

(27:11):
are even Western sores, the dust is a lot bigger,
and when you're so soaring, most of it goes on
the floor. And even there is something just produced with
you know, a Ioba sore or a western so insane. Again,
it's so minimal and it's not you know, you're not

(27:34):
going you're not soreing as fast as what a circular
saw is rotating. So obviously the dust isn't getting shot
up into the air. As I said, the majority of
the dust is going on the floor, and it is bigger.
If it's bigger, it's less likely to travel into your lungs.

(27:54):
It's not it's not impossible, but you know, obviously if
it's a bigger dust particle, it's just going to be
more difficult for it to be airborne. Basically. Another thing
that I find about this so is that it's a

(28:15):
bit awkward to handle, or at least it's awkward for me.
So even picking it up there as I am it's
it's that's awkward. It's really awkward. So how I've been
working this is that I've been making a couch and
I've been putting it on top of the sustainer. So

(28:38):
basically the sores off the top of the bench. It's
out me way, which is good. I can reposition we
track so whatever I needed there or swap out, you know,
not get another sheet. Apply whatever I'm doing, and then
to get it back and then obviously you've got a

(28:59):
whole the track, or at least I want to hold
the track, get it on, make sure it's it's situated
right on the track, and then start. You could. But
but I find doing all this it can be very
very awkward. You know. It's like, as I'm saying, I'm

(29:20):
holding that, then there's a lot of strain. There's a
lot of strain on me, on me hand and my
fingers and we wrist. But as I said, I find
it really big and bulky to do that, and that
is that is a bit of a petty here with
my with this. It's kind of a bit of a
love hate relationship with this because I can make my

(29:41):
life so much easier. Obviously, be back health, you know,
if I've been in here all day, be back. I
must admit me back health has been a lot better
than what it had. I don't know, maybe a year ago,
I mean a year ago. You know, if I've been
like in the way workshop all day, a lot of

(30:02):
the time, i'd be woking, you know, kind of like
an old man, like an eighty year old man, you know,
hobble hobbling, hobbling back into the house. So I must admit,
you know, it is it has been good in that since.
Something else that I don't like is that the track

(30:24):
itself when you're doing repetitive cuts, you know, when you've
got the the parallel guide set up, and when you're
doing repetitive cuts, sometimes it can be just a real
faff on to actually pick the pick the track up.

(30:44):
So the track how I've been using it, I've had
the initial cuts facing towards us, so when I've been
taken sorry, when I've been taking the track, so making
the cuts, taking it off, putting it down. I've had
two of the parallel kids like sticking away from us.

(31:08):
So I think it's more of an issue in he
here because obviously the roof heights, you know, so I'm
touching the roof there, and that's exactly seven foot to
where I am. How do I know that? Because I'm
a scaffold that and when I stand like this to
the tip of my fingers, that's seven foot. And I've

(31:30):
measured this time and tav again that's a little party trick.
By the way, it's bang on seven foot. But as
I've said, so when I'm picking this up and I'm
kind of tilting it. So when I'm tilting it like this,
I've got them two parallel guys here. So what I've
started doing is when I when I pick it up,

(31:52):
and then I've got the kind of you know, twisted,
so the parallel guys are pointing down and I've got
to bring it back, and I'm storing it against the
bench line against the bench. As I said, that's more
of a my problem or a space problem, because obviously
there's not a lot of space in your Maybe I

(32:16):
will get a little bit better, a little bit more
organized with things, but overall I do like it. Would
I recommend it, I would, I have to be honest,
I would recommend it if your hand tool would work
like me. And maybe you're getting on a bit, maybe

(32:37):
you've got a few injuries, like I have to arm
full of injuries. Let's not go there. But you know,
maybe you've got issues where your back, same as myself, shoulders, elbows,
things like that. I think something like this is going
to be a good investment for yourself. It's just gonna
whatever it may a bigger well actually elbow, your back,

(32:59):
your hands. It is going to ease that, and it's
going to allow you to get into the workshop and
enjoy making things if that's your sort of thing. And
obviously that's my sort of thing. I do like to
be in here making things. You know, it's a It's
a real good way to pass the time in my
opinion anyway, and that's why I do what I do. Obviously,

(33:25):
I still use all my saws. I still use all
me all my hand tools again because I love it
and I'll always use them. But going back to the saw,
I think it's a really good investment. And would I
recommend that over a table saw. I would. I would.

(33:45):
I've used the table saw. I had a table saw
for a number of years, and personally, for me, I
think that's better. It just is. I'm not going to
get into any sort of debate with anyone about it.
In my opinion, I just find that better than a

(34:07):
than a table. So don't get us wrong, I don't
understand it has its limitations. At the same time, there
is a lot of ways to get around those limitations,
building jigs and planting and stuff to the side of
benches and so on and so forth. Again, I'm not
going to get into that today because I don't really
feel that I'm qualified enough to get into some of

(34:29):
that stuff because i haven't been using it long enough.
So what do you guys think? Do you think it
was a good investment? Would you, guys go out and
get one you know? Or rather than that, would you

(34:51):
forego that and go out and get some other tool
because of maybe some injuries you have. I'd be interested
to know in the comments, So leave a comment and
until the next time I shall say you can speak
to your guys. Lea