Chipping with Festool TS55

[RogerS]

I'm getting chipping with my Festool TS55. Material is laminated MDF (?) - type of stuff kitchen plinths are made of. The chipping occurs on the edge away from the guide. The little green thingumyjig is wound down tight against the material.

Or am I expecting too much?

I'm using the recommended blade from Festool ( 489 457 TF 48 ) but as I type this reading the back of the blade carton I see that there is another blade (439 586 TF 56) so maybe that is what I need?

Roger

 

[Steve Maskery]

Roger
You say the green plate is wound right down. Have you cut thicker material with this plate before? If you have, and your blade is now not so exposed, the laminate will be unsupported infront of the blade, even though it is supported at the sides. This makes a difference. You really need to have a different grenn plate for every thickness you cut.

If you don't have a new green plate to try, try using some epoxy to build up your existing one, and recut it for the depth of your board. Alternatively you could increase your cutting depth so that the blade is cutting as far as it has ever cut into the green plate.

Cheers
Steve

 

[RogerS]

Thanks Steve...I think you've hit the nail on the head.

 

[LyNx]

You really need to have a different grenn plate for every thickness you cut.

why?? surely you just set the blade to the deepest cut you have done so far and cut your boards at that



Andy

 

[tim]

Like Andy, I'm confused by Steve's answer. I cut lots of different thicknesses and I don't think I've ever cut into the green strip once and I never get chipping. I just move it up and down til its tight on the surface and cut away.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well, yes, fair enough, but sometimes you have to consider what's underneath the board you are cutting. If the board is only 12mm and you are cutting at 55mm do you really want to cut 43mm into your supports?

Also, by keeping the tip of the blade with minimal clearance, you are cutting the surface as horizontally as is possible. At greatest depth you are cutting it as vertically as possible, lifting off the laminate surface.

What would be a really good solution to this is for Festool to make a zero-clearance plate with a user-replaceable sacrificial wooden block. That way you could use a brand new one every time.

Cheers
Steve

 

[ivan]

I have a Mafell plunge saw - its guide doesn't have the anti splinter strip that Festool use. However I've always wondered how the Festool strip could control splintering on the 'other' side of the cut - from your post, it sounds as if it doesn't.

The solution when cutting valuable material is to double cut. (Can only be done with a plunging saw that has a retracting riving knife) Start the cut on the far side of the board, where you would normally finish. Plunge the saw to 2 or 3 mm, and climb cut backwards (toward yourself). The blade is cutting into the surface and scores a chip free kerf. Then plunge to full depth, just through the material is usually enough, and cut forward to the far side, to complete the cut to full depth. Instant portable scoring saw.

Have a try on something non critical to get the feel. DO NOT try to increase the depth of the scoring cut over ~ 3mm or the saw may run away from you. If you're standing behind the line of the cut, read that as 'run towards you uncontrolled'. I can't easily reach across a 4' board laid flat, and usually stand so I'm cutting from side to side in front of me.

hope this helps, Ivan

 

[RogerS]

I like that suggestion,Ivan and will give it a try.

 

[George_N]

Does this only work if you pull the saw against the normal direction of cut, IE backwards? You can 'half-rip' MFC on a table saw by setting the blade to cut half thickness of the sheet, but cutting in the normal direction. Running a hand-held circular saw backwards sounds dangerous to me.

 

[ivan]

George, ordinarily it would be - with an ordinary saw you would have to remove the riving knife, and the saw might be guided just by the edge of a cutting guide. However the Mafell and Festool saws can plunge rather like a router (my Mafell has two columns exactly the same) and the riving knife automatically retracts and pops back out as needed. Both these saws run on a guide track, with an interlocking rail that goes up into the saw's soleplate. This ensures that the same track track is followed in both cuts.

Cutting backwards, in the same direction as the blade, is not generally a Good Idea unless you're power feeding. However, provided you limit the climb cut to about 3mm, and the blade is properly sharp, you'll feel no tendency at all for the saw to take charge. Both saws have accurate control of the plunge setting (+ a scale) and a plunge lock. It has to be 'backwards' to start the cut. Only then is the cut being made by the blade entering the material, on both the upper and lower surface of the board.

Roger, let us know if this works for you.

regards, Ivan

 

[RogerS]

It has to be 'backwards' to start the cut. Only then is the cut being made by the blade entering the material, on both the upper and lower surface of the board.

Ah?? Now I'm confused by this last bit and not sure that I inderstand what you mean. What is 'it' as in 'it has' ? How does the blade enter on both sides of the board? Are you suggesting turning over and 'backward scoring' both sides before making the final cut? If so then I can't see how you can fail to get a step in the final cut

 

[Steve Maskery]

Roger,

I think Ivan means that if you start at the far end and plunge just 2mm or so, then you are entering the board from above, then, for the main cut you cut as normal and are therefore entering from below.

Tim,
Sorry, I missed your post earlier, I think we were posting at the same time. I think that you do cut into the green strip, or at least you did the very first time you used it. If that was at max depth then every cut since has been with the surface supported only each side of the blade not in front, because as the blade comes up it also comes back. If you've "got away with it" then great, but for delicate surfaces, support all round the blade offers more support to the laminate.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Mike B]

Roger,

Have you replaced the blade?? Or used the green plate on another saw??

When the block is brand new it protrudes under the blade slightly, thus when the first cut is made you cut into it and end up with a perfect zero clearance fit to the side of the blade. (This is the same for the first cut along the guide rail and cutting into the black strip.)

If the the thickness of the blade is fractionally smaller then the zero clearance fit will not be quite so good anymore. Similarly, if the green plate has been used on another saw its position may be slightly different again. (The same thing applies when you use the guide rail with a different saw - it is recommended to move the black strip over slightly and make another zero clearance cut in it)



Steve,

You mean the zero clearance in front of the blade, not at the side??
I take your point about a dedicated sacrificial insert being an improvement.

To test your initial deduction, couldn't Roger just set the blade for max depth of cut and see if this improves matters?? As in this scenario the front of the blade should have the correct zero clearance fit with the green plate regardless of what cuts have been made before...

Cheers
Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

Mike,
Yes.
S

 

[RogerS]

Steve/Mike - I think that you are correct. It was a brand new green piece and only used on the same saw...but (a) different blades have been used which may/may not have the same width but probably more importantly and as Steve originally suggested (b) I have cut at several different depths and you c\an quite clearly see how the green plastic no longer provides a zero clearance fit.

 

[ivan]

I thought the Festool's anti splinter strip ran down the edge of the guide - I take it it's a sort of zero clearance 'throat plate' at the leading edge of the blade? Or is it both?

However, if you double cut as described above, and your saw/guide is in good condition, I'd be surprised if you get any chipping. It may well improve the already good Festool results.

Roger, Steve has the gist of it. Sorry if words caused confusion, I was trying to explain that cutting backwards in the same direction as the blade is rotating, is essential. You cut the top 2mm depth of your board by cutting from the far side towards yourself (ie. backwards), and then complete the cut by running the saw back to the far side, with it set to full depth (ie.forwards). This way both the top srface and the lower surface are cut by teeth entering the board, and thus it is impossible for chipping to take place.

Think of a scoring panel saw: in the 1st pass the Festool saw is pretending to be a scoring blade, and in the second, the main blade.

 

[Anonymous]

Ivan

there is a strip on the edge of the guide and also a small green 'foot' that presses on the workpiece on the other side of the blade, effectively making a zero clearance insert