I thought I'd break this review up into two segments otherwise it will be extremely long. The first part takes in the work station and some of the good things abopt the machine.
The machine itself is very light, it comes in at just under 25kg, the instruction book recommends that the machine is clamped to the table. I have opted to screw it down to the mobile stand that has been modified from when it held the Makita.
This pic shows it screwed to the base.
I tend to make my mobile bases as cupboard units, you can never have enough storage space. You can see on this pic that there are flaps on the side of the table, I'll talk about them shortly.
It is my intention to give this saw its own dedicated dust extraction, I did order a Festool mini that will fit in the cupboard, but it hasn't arrived yet, so for demonstration purposes only, I have used my hand tool one.
In the pic you can see that it fits snugly in the lower part of the cabinet.
In the back of the cabinet I have drilled two holes, one for the extraction hose and the other for the cables. This was the dust extractor will start automatically when the saw is running.
What I had to here was secure the hose with a tie wrap, this acts to keep it tidy and also to ensure that there is no no kink in the hose. I tested the hose length in all position of the saw just to make sure that I had enough above the tie wrap.
You'll have noticed on the side of the table a sort of frame hanging on the flap, this is the support for the flap.
With the flaps inthe horizontal position the mobile base turns into a 7 feet workstation for the SCMS, with the wheels locked iy makes it a very sturdy unit.
All festool lovers will know that there study the market and come up with some things that other manufacturers haven't thought of. Well this is one of them, we've all had trouble with long pieces of wood and making sure that with have the whole length horizontal the the base of the saw.
This pic shows you how festool have solved this problem, all you need is two festool systainers, these are the exact height of the saw bed, good thinking on there part.
The last pic show a 2" x 10' piece of maple waiting to be cut.
Now to answer the question that a few of you have asked, dust extraction, does it really work.
Well I know that wilth my makita it used to fly all over the plave, some would get to the bag, but most of it eventually landed on the workshop floor.
What I can say is that the festool dust extraction does work, I'm not going to say 100%, but let me put it this way, if you see what you are getting now, the festool is 90% better.
I do the concluding bit tomorrow, we'll get into the nitty gritty of the saw itself.
Hope someone out there finds this useful.
The machine itself is very light, it comes in at just under 25kg, the instruction book recommends that the machine is clamped to the table. I have opted to screw it down to the mobile stand that has been modified from when it held the Makita.
This pic shows it screwed to the base.
I tend to make my mobile bases as cupboard units, you can never have enough storage space. You can see on this pic that there are flaps on the side of the table, I'll talk about them shortly.
It is my intention to give this saw its own dedicated dust extraction, I did order a Festool mini that will fit in the cupboard, but it hasn't arrived yet, so for demonstration purposes only, I have used my hand tool one.
In the pic you can see that it fits snugly in the lower part of the cabinet.
In the back of the cabinet I have drilled two holes, one for the extraction hose and the other for the cables. This was the dust extractor will start automatically when the saw is running.
What I had to here was secure the hose with a tie wrap, this acts to keep it tidy and also to ensure that there is no no kink in the hose. I tested the hose length in all position of the saw just to make sure that I had enough above the tie wrap.
You'll have noticed on the side of the table a sort of frame hanging on the flap, this is the support for the flap.
With the flaps inthe horizontal position the mobile base turns into a 7 feet workstation for the SCMS, with the wheels locked iy makes it a very sturdy unit.
All festool lovers will know that there study the market and come up with some things that other manufacturers haven't thought of. Well this is one of them, we've all had trouble with long pieces of wood and making sure that with have the whole length horizontal the the base of the saw.
This pic shows you how festool have solved this problem, all you need is two festool systainers, these are the exact height of the saw bed, good thinking on there part.
The last pic show a 2" x 10' piece of maple waiting to be cut.
Now to answer the question that a few of you have asked, dust extraction, does it really work.
Well I know that wilth my makita it used to fly all over the plave, some would get to the bag, but most of it eventually landed on the workshop floor.
What I can say is that the festool dust extraction does work, I'm not going to say 100%, but let me put it this way, if you see what you are getting now, the festool is 90% better.
I do the concluding bit tomorrow, we'll get into the nitty gritty of the saw itself.
Hope someone out there finds this useful.
