Festool TS 55 Vs TSC 55 plunge saw

[Deleted member 174758]

They are Waitley BL1890 batteries and were bought from eBay. Circa £100 the pair. In regular use they are used 1 to 3 days a week and I bought them in April. I bought them having originally bought a couple of BL1860s from the same seller back.in August 2019. That pair are still in use. I also have a second pair of BL1860s bought in May - and I did manage to kill one a month back, by leaving it outdoors whilst I took my break. And then it hoiked it down (rained heavily) for most of the time, which didn't do the circular saw it was on any favours, either.

If I can sound a word of caution about "snide" batteries: AFAIK none of these aftermarket batteries have any form of in-built battery protection, so I avoid using them on high amperage tools (e.g.angle grinders,large diameter hole saws/drills, etc) where the current draw can cause battery overheating. Also do not push any tool.to get the last drop of energy out of the battery - if the battery starts running low swap it out for another, don't push it until you kill it. A little extra thought goes a long way to longer battery lifespan

 

[lostinthelight]

Thanks that sounds really good and will give them a go

 

[lostinthelight]

Sorry for the delay, but this has taken some working out (using the figures in my journal). It seems to work out at about 350 to 400 feet (or 43 to 50 length rips on 8 x 4ft 18mm hardwood flooring ply using 2 no. 5Ah battery packs and a brand new Makita efiCut blade - talking with another sub who has a Festool TSC55R that is slightly, but not much better than he reckons on getting on 2 no. 5.2Ah batteries and a new blade). The efiCut blades are nice blades, but to my mind are way too expensive to be used on general sub-flooring, so I for that I normally substitute a deWalt cordless blade, which being msrginally thicker brings the amount of cutting down by about 10 to 15%. Like all cordless saws these tools are sensitive to blade thickness and sharpness and will eat batteries if you run them with a blunt blade. The other change I've made is to use a couple of 9Ah batteries on mine (3rd party, Waitley) which generally ensures that I'll get a full day of cutting out of one set of batteries with maybe a bit to spare. You do need a dual or quad charger with one of these saws (Makita do both, AFAIK Festool and Mafell do not). A current flooring task I'm dealing with requires a lot of cut-outs to be done around truss ends, queen posts, steel straps, stair openings, etc as well as every well running out, so in a good day two of us won't normally lay more than 40 to 45 sheets and nail them (to a nailing pattern of about 500 nails per top sheet on this job - it's a diaphragm floor), often less because of the volume of trimming required around various obstacles.

Hope that gives you a useful indication of work volume

Thanks,
I have now purchased a Dsp600 from SF for £320 which was the best price I could find
As its a bare bones job I am looking to buy guide rails and wondered if two 1.5 m makita rail kit at 170 quid is worth the extra over the Evolution two x 1.4m for £70 and does the saw mitre tilt lock still work if using the latter?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

The tilt lock (a retractable tab which us designed to stop the saw from falling over at higher bevel angles) will only work on the Makita track because only Makita tracks have the required second slot for them. Used with care on a Festool track (no anti-tilt slot) you can still produce bevel rips. Just how often will you need to do them, though?

 

[lostinthelight]

The tilt lock (a retractable tab which us designed to stop the saw from falling over at higher bevel angles) will only work on the Makita track because only Makita tracks have the required second slot for them. Used with care on a Festool track (no anti-tilt slot) you can still produce bevel rips. Just how often will you need to do them, though?

Thanks, I wouldn't use them much as yet but just gathering as much info as possible at this point

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'm currently using my DSP600 on a motley collection of old Festool guide rails, which also lack the Makita anti-tilt feature, however, because I rarely need to make bevel rip cuts the lack of this feature isn't too much of an issue. Were I making regular bevel cuts or might well be an issue

 

[lostinthelight]

Sorry for the delay, but this has taken some working out (using the figures in my journal). It seems to work out at about 350 to 400 feet (or 43 to 50 length rips on 8 x 4ft 18mm hardwood flooring ply using 2 no. 5Ah battery packs and a brand new Makita efiCut blade - talking with another sub who has a Festool TSC55R that is slightly, but not much better than he reckons on getting on 2 no. 5.2Ah batteries and a new blade). The efiCut blades are nice blades, but to my mind are way too expensive to be used on general sub-flooring, so I for that I normally substitute a deWalt cordless blade, which being msrginally thicker brings the amount of cutting down by about 10 to 15%. Like all cordless saws these tools are sensitive to blade thickness and sharpness and will eat batteries if you run them with a blunt blade. The other change I've made is to use a couple of 9Ah batteries on mine (3rd party, Waitley) which generally ensures that I'll get a full day of cutting out of one set of batteries with maybe a bit to spare. You do need a dual or quad charger with one of these saws (Makita do both, AFAIK Festool and Mafell do not). A current flooring task I'm dealing with requires a lot of cut-outs to be done around truss ends, queen posts, steel straps, stair openings, etc as well as every well running out, so in a good day two of us won't normally lay more than 40 to 45 sheets and nail them (to a nailing pattern of about 500 nails per top sheet on this job - it's a diaphragm floor), often less because of the volume of trimming required around various obstacles.

Hope that gives you a useful indication of work volume

Thanks You may recall I posted that my Duc254 was eating batteries so as an experiment tried them in my makita plunge saw today to see if they could be at fault.
Two 5ah batteries 10 charges each from new I cut some flooring chipboard into strips: 27 x 600mm long and 7 x 1200mm so around 25m total before they cut out
It doesnt seem a lot of cutting but would apreciate your comments on my findings