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Festool TS 55 EQ Plunge Cut Saw: The Facts.
The TS55 rides on a guide rail to produce perfectly straight, splinter free cuts......
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Well, you're here for the facts, so lets get started. Festool measures the power of the motor in watts, 1200w, so that comes out to 10 amps. I know the question that is popping into your head, "At only 10 amps is it underpowered?". The short answer is no, with the right blade it can handle anything it was designed for. The Electronic variable-speed (2,000 - 5,000 RPM) control automatically maintains the blade speed under load. Plus the soft start is a nice feature. The blades are 160 mm or 6 1/4." This allows for a 1 15/16" straight cut or 1 7/16" 45 degree cut when on the guide rail. Or a 2 1/8 straight cut without the rail. To give you some idea of the size of the saw, the base is about 12" long. Weight, is listed at just under 10 lbs, in use it dosn't feel that heavy.
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This is a shot of what is included, TS55 saw, 48 tooth blade (491952), Plug-It power cord, plastic splinterguard, limit stop, Systainer 4, 55" guide rail and manual.
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Here's a look into the Systainer, everything stores neatly. There is room to store extra blades under the saw.
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In this picture, the little green wheels are used to adjust the amount of slop between the saw base and the guide rail. Tighten the wheel until the slop is gone, but the saw still moves smoothly on the rail.
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The plug-it cord gets pressed in and locks with a 90 degree turn clockwise. It is kind of hard to install and remove the cord when the it is still new. It can be hard to get your hand in there to give it a good turn. It does get easier when the cord wares in a little. The next thing to do is to trim back the rubber edge of the guide rail. Set the motor to the highest speed and the plunge to full depth. Place the saw on the rail and trim back the rubber in one continuous motion. You are now ready to use the TS55 saw.
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The animation here shows the plunge action of the TS55, the saw pivots from the rear of the base with a forward/downward motion. Let point out a few safety features. First, unlike most circular saws, the TS55 has a spring that retracts the blade completely into the housing. Plus, the saw won't plunge/turn on until the thumb safety switch is pressed. Also note in the picture the riving knife, this is a great safety feature. The riving knife is adjustable to line it up just right, mine came from the factory perfectly adjusted.
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At this point you are probably wondering how the TS55 makes the prefect, splinter free cuts that you've heard about. A very big part of what does this (and you never really read about this part), is the three bearing motor that runs a smooth as it gets. Coupled with the heavy duty blade, you get no swirl marks.
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The rail has the rubber edge to keep the stock from splintering on one side. To keep the other side of the cut from splintering you can install the splinterguard.
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You can see here the splinterguard sits on the face of the stock. When the saw is plunged the blade cuts into the splinterguard making a zero clearance kerf. This gives you clean, splinter free cuts on both sides of the cutline.
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Making bevel cuts is very easy. Because of the way the saw bevels, the rubber edge of the guide rail is still the cut line, how cool is that. This is a picture of the bevel gauge on the front of the saw.
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