Well I've had a really good play with the tool today and taken lots of pic's, I hope I can explain myself clearly.
The first picture shows a hold down clamp, a simple device that attaches to a slot on either the left or right hand side of the blade.
To insert it all you do is reverse the clamp and lift it out, by turning it into the correct position it locks itself.
It seems to hold the wood down adequately, obvisously ewith long pieces you would have the wings extended.
I was a bit surprized that the saw only came with one of these clamps, I would have thouight for the price there should have been two. I have ordered another one and a costly £34.00, plus I have been promised a discount.
Mind you if I remember rightly I omly got the one clamp with my makita 10 years ago.
Altering the vertical angle on my makita used to be a real palavar, loosening this, allen key here etc, festool have come up with a much easier system.
The pic show a green selector switch with settings of 0 - 45 degrees, +/-45 degrees, or 47 degrees
To unlock you just rasie the lever that surrounds the selector switch, its as simple as that.
Whats even simplier is moving the machine to the desired setting, all you do is turn the knob in the picture either left or right, when your at the desired setting just flip the lock back over the selector switch and away you go.
I tried this several times and to change setting takes seconds.
For the horizontal angle is as esay, all all you do is push the lever down , push the inset lever and move left or right.
Nice easy movement, it just seems to glide. All the main setting have preset locking points, but for unusual ones its very easy to set these and lock the position.
The indicator arrow for the positions is to the side of the lever action, I found this quite useful, although took a little getting used to.
One of the things thats always bugged me is when I want to do trenchi9ng with a SCMS. A lot have the screw device on the side that you set up and hope it doesn't move while you're trenching, and theres always that little bit of spring movement thats evedent when you've finished.
If you look at the green lever thats point vertical in the picture, this is the device for setting the depth.
First you lower the lever as in the next pic, this will give you a preset depth of cut.
Should you wish to take the blade up or down then all you do is turn the lever left or right. Theis is very good for fine adjustment. I was also surprized to note that there is no spring once the depth has been set. A definate improvement on other machines.
There one one or two more features I'd like to mention but I'm haveing trouble with uploadit at the moment, so will post that bit later.
As mentioned in the last post the dust extraction is effective although not a 100%.
Now the big question, is the saw worth the asking price of just under £800.00, someone from Haarlam in the neatherlands question why anybody would want a SCMS, (I used to live near there, buts thats another Story)
In my view a tool is worth what the individual is prepared to pay for it, some may think its cheap given all the refinements, some will say its too expensive. Personally I find that its at the top end of what I would pay for such a tool.
I'm sure if yiou had the chance to get your hands on one and have a play then you may be convinced that its worth it.
Anyone want to come and try it out are more than welcome to flock South and give it a try.
I hope you find this useful.
The first picture shows a hold down clamp, a simple device that attaches to a slot on either the left or right hand side of the blade.
To insert it all you do is reverse the clamp and lift it out, by turning it into the correct position it locks itself.
It seems to hold the wood down adequately, obvisously ewith long pieces you would have the wings extended.
I was a bit surprized that the saw only came with one of these clamps, I would have thouight for the price there should have been two. I have ordered another one and a costly £34.00, plus I have been promised a discount.
Mind you if I remember rightly I omly got the one clamp with my makita 10 years ago.
Altering the vertical angle on my makita used to be a real palavar, loosening this, allen key here etc, festool have come up with a much easier system.
The pic show a green selector switch with settings of 0 - 45 degrees, +/-45 degrees, or 47 degrees
To unlock you just rasie the lever that surrounds the selector switch, its as simple as that.
Whats even simplier is moving the machine to the desired setting, all you do is turn the knob in the picture either left or right, when your at the desired setting just flip the lock back over the selector switch and away you go.
I tried this several times and to change setting takes seconds.
For the horizontal angle is as esay, all all you do is push the lever down , push the inset lever and move left or right.
Nice easy movement, it just seems to glide. All the main setting have preset locking points, but for unusual ones its very easy to set these and lock the position.
The indicator arrow for the positions is to the side of the lever action, I found this quite useful, although took a little getting used to.
One of the things thats always bugged me is when I want to do trenchi9ng with a SCMS. A lot have the screw device on the side that you set up and hope it doesn't move while you're trenching, and theres always that little bit of spring movement thats evedent when you've finished.
If you look at the green lever thats point vertical in the picture, this is the device for setting the depth.
First you lower the lever as in the next pic, this will give you a preset depth of cut.
Should you wish to take the blade up or down then all you do is turn the lever left or right. Theis is very good for fine adjustment. I was also surprized to note that there is no spring once the depth has been set. A definate improvement on other machines.
There one one or two more features I'd like to mention but I'm haveing trouble with uploadit at the moment, so will post that bit later.
As mentioned in the last post the dust extraction is effective although not a 100%.
Now the big question, is the saw worth the asking price of just under £800.00, someone from Haarlam in the neatherlands question why anybody would want a SCMS, (I used to live near there, buts thats another Story)
In my view a tool is worth what the individual is prepared to pay for it, some may think its cheap given all the refinements, some will say its too expensive. Personally I find that its at the top end of what I would pay for such a tool.
I'm sure if yiou had the chance to get your hands on one and have a play then you may be convinced that its worth it.
Anyone want to come and try it out are more than welcome to flock South and give it a try.
I hope you find this useful.
