Festool Saw Question

[Steve Roxberg]

The manual for my 1080 says to cut the splinter guard for the first time at full speed on a board while making a shallow 3mm cut.

The manual that came with my saw doesn't mention cutting the splinter guard on the rail at all.

A manual I downloaded says to cut the splinter guard suspended in the air, with a shallow cut at the slowest speed.

So I'm confusted :confused:

Any recommendations or am I way overthinking this?

[Chris Barton]

On the new saws there is a splinter guard on the saw body and one on the giude rail. I know the one on the rail should be on top of a piece of wood when you make the cut (the shallow 3 mm cut). The other probably refers to the small green splinter guard on the outboard side of the saw which shold probably be done in the air, unsupported at low speed.

[Dave Falkenstein]

This topic was discussed at the Festool Owners Group on Yahoo a while back. As I recall, the concensus was to cut the guide rail splinter guard with the circular saw on slow speed. It works fine for me using slow speed.

[Rick Christopherson]

The information you found in the new downloaded version of the manual supercedes the information found in any other manual (assuming you downloaded the full-color PDF file from my site or Bob Marino's mirror copy). http://waterfront-woods.home.att.net/festool/TS55EQ.pdf (http://waterfront-woods.home.att.net/festool/TS55EQ.pdf)

The speed of the blade is not quite so important, but having the blade set to a shallow depth is. The new manual contains a photograph to explain this best.

Because the blade is cutting on the up-stroke, it is not necessary to have the splinter guard supported from below by placing it on a scrap piece of wood. This is also the reason why the photgraph shows the splinter guard in the center of the teeth when being cut.