Bosch Portable Table Saw or Festool 55?
I am taking the plunge to a new level of woodworking. I will be undertaking my first nice stain-grade cabinet and built-in project for a friend. I have done some paint grade built-ins before, but never a nice library type of stain grade. I am planning on using mahogany, mostly plywood, but faced with solid mahogany. I was planning on buying a table saw, and due to the fact that most of my woodworking hobby is fences, decks, outdoor furniture and paint grade stuff, I was looking at a high end portable. I have seen very good reviews of the Bosch 4100. I have seen many say it is a tool worthy of my upcoming effort. I was looking at the saw at Tool King, and the expert at the store told me that I would be better off with a Festool TS 55. Given the job I am going to undertake, and what I normally would use a table saw for, I was hoping to get a few opinions to guide my decision. Thanks in advance.
Replies
I have owned both for about 3 years and the hands down answer is Bosch 4100. The TS 55 is a very good tool but requires much more and slower set up time that the table saw.
I recently took delivery on a new Saw Stop cabinet saw and my Bosch 4100 and stand is for sale if you are interested. 601-856-8134 Madison, Ms.
I cannot praise the 'quality
I cannot praise the 'quality of cut' from the TS55 and guide bar highly enough. Dust collection is excellent and if you are working with large sheets of plywood, the process sure beats hefting the big stuff onto a table saw.
I'll do an Amen on that one!
I'll do an Amen on that one! I did not appreciate it's capabilities (heard it preached about), until I bought it and used it the first time! WOW comes to mind. I throw that sheet down on a solid 2" sheet of insullation and cut it into manageble sizes. Secondly, have you used the ts55 to put a 45 degree on something yet. That's dead on as well. Really cool!
Denver95,
I would say it depends on what sort of work you plan on doing going forward. If you will mostly be working with sheet goods then the TS 55 is probably the way to go. It gets rave reviews from owners and the Bosch 4100 table is pretty small for 4x8 sheets.
OTOH, If you plan on doing more general woodworking the Bosch can do a whole host of things you can't do with a circular saw. Rabbits, dados, long rip cuts, consistent set up, etc. I have the Bosch and have never felt like I need anything better. (Want and need are two different things...) That said, whenever I need to cut up a full sheet of plywood I always break out the circular saw.
Hope that helps.
Chris
Don't let those Festoolers
Don't let those Festoolers talk you into the TS 55. For what your doing the Bosch will do so much more and quicker.Having said that I couldn't imagine cutting cabinet carcases on a small portable table saw. I would want to do that on nothing less than a standard contractors saw at the shop, preferably a cabinet grade saw. I personally use a sliding panel saw, for my carcass parts, but for you since you don't do a lot of cabinets that wouldn't be practical. Cutting smaller pieces on site with a portable table saw would be OK if you first cut down your sheet goods to manageable sizes.But seriously I think the Festool type systems are over priced and over rated for what they do .You can get or make some very accurate straight edge guides.Freud now also makes quality blades that will make a smooth cut on plywood or melamine for your worm drive Skillsaw. Before I had my panel saw I broke down all my sheet stock down with a 1/2" by 3 inch wide by nine foot long piece of extruded aluminum I bought at the metal yard. You can do it all with a couple of saw horses a few clamps and a sheet of solid insulation board to lay your sheet stock on.It worked fine and didn't cost me thousands of dollars which you'll find yourself spending if you get into the Festool system. Trust me those Feestoolers will be on this site trying to convince you to spend all that money on their fancy system and I think they mostly do it to make themselves feel better about all the money they spent. If you have any more questions don't be afraid to ask!
I have a T55 and a couple table saws. The T55 is great for cutting sheet goods, but it would not be good at cutting face frames. Whatever you cut with the T55 needs to be wider than the guide rail. I believe use of the MFT table would resolve this issue to some extent but then your spending $1100 (not including dust collection).
I have heard good things about the Bosch. I have a Dewalt 744 which I like.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for their replies. I really appreciate it.
I went and checked out both the Festool and Bosch tools again. The Bosch probably fits what I do better than the Festool, but it seemed very unstable for doing large panels. I was told by a carpenter present in the store at the time that he uses a Bosch but has built very large and stable outfeed and extension tables around it. This sort of takes away some of the portability advantages in my mind. I also asked about the utility of the Festool for face frames, and his response was that it would not be ideal without work arounds. The price for the tool, dust collection, extension rail, and table from them is equal to a nice TS anyway.
Given this, I took a look at table saws that would work in my garage (ie - put them on a mobile base). I really liked some of what I saw from Grizzly and a few othe companies that had saws on sale. (A huge thank you to all who take the time to write reviews of their saws, be it here or at lumberjocks or any of the other online communities). One of the things I read was to look for a good saw on Craigslist. I found a Ridgid 3650 for $300, went to check it out (miter to blade was dead on as close as I could tell, and the fence was just a 32nd off in the safe direction). People who reviewed that saw all seem to love it, and it was in pristine condition. So I plopped down $300 and will go pick it up this weekend. I will build an outfeed table to use in my garage and will now have some cash to make/purchase a nice crosscut sled for it.
Some day, I may upgrade the rails on it or get a nice cabinet saw on a mobile base, but this should do me well for a while.
Thanks again for all of your advice, I am sure I will have more questions soon!
Congratulations ! You did your homework and made a decision based on the information you received. That means that you deserve the good 'score' you made on CraigsList.
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