Festool TSC 55 KEBI-F-Plus Question

[Greg Parrish]

Anyone using the latest battery track saw from Festool? If so, can you share any likes/dislikes? Are you using Makita track or Festool?

I was considering the Makita battery saw but have been watching as many comparison videos and reviews as I can find and in many ways the Festool looks to be a little more refined in many areas. It’s about $200 more expensive not counting the track costs, but for other tools I’ve found the extra cost to be really worth it to me (like sanders for example).

My usage is just as hobby usage and I have a table saw, so this will be for large material breakdown, rough cut lumber initial edging (we have a sawmill), etc. I want battery power so I can use outside at our sawmill location as needed, but much of the time it will be used in my shop and connected to a Festool midi.

The various reviews have left me scratching my head. Most tend to say stick with the Makita, but that is based on cost or having other Makita battery tools. In my case, I don’t have Makita tools already (I use Milwaukee M12 and M18 - but don’t want their tracksaw).

Is there any advantage to the Festool in this case?

Thanks.

[Bryan Hall]

I can't verify this from experience, but I've heard that the festool cordless saws struggled with power? If you're just doing panel breakdown, I can't imagine it would lack the power for that. The rough cut lumber though, depends on species. I went with Mafell for the muscle and have the MT55 and KSS 40 on batteries. They use bosch tracks (or you can buy the inflated price mafell track, EXACT same item). Mafell is also on the CAS battery system to you can purchase metabo batteries, again, for a fraction of the cost of the mafell ones, and they are just as good (I have both).

All that said, if you're on the festool train already, then you know that all their tools play together really well and it may be worth it to keep investing in that platform.

[Greg Parrish]

Thanks, I know Mafell is the Rolls Royce but I want to stick with either the Makita battery track saw or the Festool version referenced above. I just wondered if anyone felt there were enough additional features on the Festool to warrant spending the extra $210 or if this was an area where it isn’t warranted as many of the reviewers noted. I have a hard time trusting the review videos because they are given the tools for testing many times.

[Greg Parrish]

Have been continuing to research this. Last night I posted and deleted it, but I discovered something that seemed noteworthy.

The Festool brand blades for the newer TSC55 KEB are 1.8mm plates and have a kerf of 0.070 across all 3 or 4 blades. This seemed like a reason to go with the Festool since it would mean the track rubber edge would remain consistent across all blades.

The Makita XPS01PTJ kit comes with a 56t general blade that only has a kerf of 0.057 and the other Makita blades have varying sized kerfs. The 28t rip blade is around 0.079 kerf. My initial though is that this means the rubber edge will be off for the general purpose but I guess in actuality it will only be off by 1/2 of that difference, which is 0.011 or 11/1000’s.

If my thought process is correct, and in the grand scheme of things, would 11/1000’s be critical in the general usage of a tracksaw? I’m thinking that it would be critical in aligning a machines tolorances but wouldn’t be that big of a deal for wood tolerance in most cases, and if it were, you probably wouldn’t turn to a tracksaw for that cut.

My next concern is whether or not the lack of riving knife or kickback safety feature is a big deal for cutting 2” thick oak/cherry rough cut lumber. The new Festool doesn’t have the riving knife but does have the anti kickback tab. Is kickback a huge concern when cutting edges of rough cut lumber?

maybe I’m overthinking this decision. LOL