Why I bought the Festool TS-55 and CTL MIDI 2

Last year I decided to buy a track saw with a dedicated dust extractor, principally for cutting sheet goods, rather than using my table saw. Thinking I would use it once in a blue moon, I thought that I would buy budget kit, but ended up buying a Festool instead. Why you might ask? well let me try and explain.

Festool CTL MIDI 2 dust extractor with TS-55 track saw

The saw I was think of was the Erbauer track saw, or possibly the slightly more expensive Triton and for the extrator a Nilfisk with power tool socket.  I discovered that the Erbauer and Triton are the same saw, but with different badging and pricing.

Festool CTL MIDI 2 with inbuilt bluetooth

One day in the hospital workshop I got the chance to handle the Erbauer and I was shocked at just how heavy it was and I could see problems picking it up. Then by chance I saw a video on YouTube of a chap using the Erbauer track saw with the same Nilfisk vac I had my eye on and was rather bemused to see dust flying everywhere!

Having lost one of my lungs to pneumonia a few years ago I have to be very careful about dust in the workshop and the arthritis in my spine, means lifting heavy tools these days is a complete no no, so what to do?

I had started watching wood working videos on YouTube and the Skillbuilder channel had gone to great lengths comparing all the track saws on the UK market. The saw that came out on top was the Festool TS-55.

Using the TS-55 and guide rail during the mitre saw station build

I looked up this saw online and was delighted to see that it was one of the lightest out there and best of all it was made in Germany and not in China. The downside for me, was the cost of the saw, which was nearly twice that of the Erbauer track saw and Nilfisk dust extractor combined!

Another YouTube woodworker I was enjoying watching was Matt from Badger Workshop. Matt had bought a used Festool TS-55 from a local builder. His saw, was by this time many years old, but was still reliable and clearly he thought it the bees knees.

With this in mind, I looked at listings on Ebay for used 240v Festool track saws and there were quite a few on offer at around £150 less than the cost of a new one, but even so these saws which no doubt had quite a hard life had no warranties and it was a case of  you pays your money and takes your chance as it were.

DeWalt DWE6423 random orbital sander connected to the MIDI's 27mm hose using a Cen-Tec Systems connector

I have a number of DeWalt tools in the workshop and have been very happy with this brand. I saw that they also had a track saw and it was a lot cheaper than the Festool, so I decided to have a good look. Again it was heavier than the Festool and the dust extraction was not as good.

Back to Ebay and more searching for a good used machine.

Then two things happened within a week of one another and looking back I get that feeling that my buying the Festool, was somehow meant to be.

I had enjoyed many a happy hour fly fishing for Trout and Grayling on the River Dee near to where I live, but following my sailing accident and with deteriorating balance, had been able to wade in the river less and less, until finally, I had realized that that door had now closed and with some regret I put all my tackle up for sale. I had built up a good selection of Hardy rods and reels prefering this English brand to many of those made in America and the Far East and a dealer contacted me to see if I would sell him the whole lot? Following his written offer, I decided to do just that. Later that same week, I received an email from  Festool UK, asking if I would be interested in buying a TS-55 track saw with a matching CTL MIDI 2 dust extractor on a special promotional deal. The heavily discounted cost of which was within a couple of pounds for what I had received for my Hardy tackle and not that much more expensive than the second user tools I had been looking at on Ebay!

The supplying dealer was N&B power tools from Weston Super Mare and I have been very impressed with their service. The tools arrived by DPD the next day and were, I have to say, extremely well packed. It was easy to log onto the Festool web site and arrange the three year warranties on both tools.

Since buying the TS-55 and the CTL MIDI 2, I find I use them nearly every day and continue to be impressed with the saw's ease of use, lightweight and precision and the CTL MIDI collects nearly all the dust, leaving the bench clean and more importantly the air in the workshop.

Cutting diagonals for the cold frames with the TS-55

Now that I have built my MFT table, I have invested in PARF super dogs and long super dogs, which enable me to produce perfectly square cuts with the saw. The long super dogs, a recent purchase from Axminster, will enable me to make trenching cuts with the saw up to 50mm, a function I look forward to using. I had thought that the TS-55 would only be suitable for cutting plywood and MDF sheets, but I use it for cross cutting soft and hard wood, as well as sheet goods. I have also started using it for ripping and it does this brilliantly. I now only use the table saw for ripping narrow pieces of timber and for very narrow rips at which it is excellent, for everything else the TS-55 is my go to saw.

The CTL MIDI 2 sits under the MFT table

The MIDI 2 is positioned under my MFT table and provides dust extraction in addition to the TS-55, for my DeWalt random orbital sander,

The 27mm anti static hose is a perfect fit for the Ferrex 10 inch bandsaw

Ferrex 10 inch band saw, DeWalt mitre saw, Makita trim router and Workzone table saw. The 27mm Festool anti static hose plugs into the mitre saw and band saw without needing an adapter.

DeWalt DWS-774 mitre saw couples easily to the 27mm Festool hose

                                                                                                

The DeWalt sander has a different size port, just to be awkward, but I solved this with an adpater from Cen-Tec Systems, which I bought from Amazon for £10. To connect the hose to the Makita trim router, I found Feskit a company that produce adapters which they make on a 3D printer and make a perfect join between the Makita dust port and the 27mm anti static hose. The table saw connection is rather a heath robinson affair by comparison.

The table saw hose connection is a heath robinson affair made with gaffer tape, but it works!

The workzone saw came with an extraction hose on the crown guard and this plugs into a tee piece at the rear of the saw which joins to the extraction port under the blade. I found when I first had the table saw that dust extraction clearly was not part of the original design brief and the crown guard extraction hose did very little, even when connected to a powerful extractor to make any difference to the mass of dust that the saw created. The saw had a laser attached to the riving knife which was a rather poor piece of kit and I quickly binned that and placed the crown guard in a drawer. With the crown guard hose serving no purpose, I fashioned with a connection with gaffer tape, for this hose to be the only extraction hose for the saw. More gaffer tape around the other end of the hose and it is a perfect fit for the MIDI 27mm hose rubber tip! The MIDI works brilliantly with the saw and the mass of dust propelled across the work space with gay abandon is a thing of the past. Admittedly there is just a little dust left on the saw top after a busy ripping session, but this is easily hoovered up with the extractor set to manual.

A four gang extension plugs into the extractor and works all the tools except the table saw

I connect all the tools to the MIDI 2 via the power tool socket. It is also fitted with built in bluetooth, but as yet I have not used  this feature. For everything apart from the table saw I plug a four gang power strip into the MIDI. This is positioned at the rear of the mitre saw station and to which is plugged the mitre saw, band saw, random orbital sander and the TS-55 power cable. I only use one tool at a time and all the tools auto start the extractor when switching the tool on and when switching the tool off, the extractor keeps running for a few seconds to clear the dust hose. Very impressive. I feed the hose behind the mitre saw and this easily connects to each individual tool as required.

The table saw power cable is too short to reach the power strip, so when using the saw I connect this to the power tool socket and the hose to the saw's extractor hose. Once again upon starting the saw blade the extractor kicks in and when the blade is turned off the extractor keeps running for a few seconds to clear the line and then shuts off.

To say the CTL MIDI 2 works perfectly would be true, but also an  understatement, as I can use all of the above tools without producing any airborne dust.

I do wear a respirator in the workshop, as with only the one lung, one cannot be too careful, but looking for dust laying on top of the tools and benches at the end of the day, there is hardly any at all which is pretty impressive.

Other features that I really like are the ease of opening and closing the dust bag section at the bottom of the extractor.

Opening and closing the dust bag container is easy with catches that work correctly every time

Unlike some extractors that I have used, where putting the thing back together after emptying the bag, the MIDI 2 is a doddle, with catches that work first time every time.

The dust bag fills one side first and then the other, making it very efficient

The dust bag  fills from the centre and rather cleverly, it fills one side first and it really fills it so that the bag is good and full and only then does it start to fill the other side. I found to start with that I would check the bag every couple of days, but there was not much dust, then every week.

The dust bag locks easily in place. It is easy to empty with no mess!

If I have been running the table saw ripping timber, then I check the bag every day, as the table saw really does produce a lot of dust and as aforementioned it all ends up in the bag!

I recently purchased this replacement bag with a zip in the bottom which works really well.

I recently purchased a new bag with a zip in the bottom and find this very handy for emptying and being able to reuse the same bag. This is a cost saving over buying replacement Festool bags, but it is also much more convenient. We use the dust in our compost toilet system and it is easy to hold the Festool bag over the toilet dust hopper, open the zip and with little mess empty out the contents.

Finally, the MIDI 2 comes with a very long length of industrial standard insulated cable, which stows neatly on the back of the machine. You can unwind this link by link, or turn one of the cable supports and drop the whole lot off at once. Neat.

There is a tool space under the lid if you buy the optional cleaning set or just an ideal place to keep your sandwiches

There is a tool space on top of the machine under a hinged lid and a clever fold down stop to prevent it from rolling away from where you parked it.

Would I buy other Festool products if the funds were there? Yes absolutely!

Making seed labels from pallet wood to replace plastic labels

Seed tray markers made from pallet wood

I suppose like many gardeners we would love to see the back of plastic in the garden.

Resawing a pallet wood offcut into 2mm strips

With lockdown and most places still shut in Wales, I had forgotten to order new plastic plant and see labels for this year's planting. I have done this automatically at the end of each season, getting everything in order for the following year. It never occured to me before that it might be easy enough to actually make the plant labels myself and do away with yet another plastic product from the veg garden. Then events took over and I found myself with seeds to sow and no plant labels left in the drawer.

The blade is stopped and the guard set high for the purpose of illustrating the cut, as two strips are cut into four.

For the labels I used a pallet rib which measured 25mm wide and using the band saw set at 2mm resawed this wood into thin strips, which I then cut in half. These were then pointed on the saw and sanded to a smooth finish with 120 grit paper.

Plant labels sanded and ready for use

I made 30 of these wooden plant labels and have used them in both the seed trays and the raised beds.
At the end of the season I will clean and store those that have survived the rigours of sun, wind and rain and those that have not will go in the kindling bin.  Next season it will be just an hour's work to make a new set.

I am gradually  phasing out as much plastic as possible in the garden. Once the seed trays and plugs have been used many times over and have cracked and broken they go to recycling. I am gradually replacing them with wooden seed trays, made from pallet wood.

Ash dieback and Larch Disease is bad news for our national forests

The view from the workshop, Larch trees, now marked for clear fell

On two sides of the workshop are forestry plantations of Larch, Ash and Oak trees. These tall elegant trees have stood for many years and whenever I open the workshop door this is what I see. Sadly, all the Larch and Ash trees have been found to be diseased and are now marked for clear fell this year end. The Larch have Ramorum Disease a mould that attacks the bark and the Ash have Ash Dieback, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, a fungus which originated in Asia that attacks the leaves and eventually blocks the irrigation channels within the trunk, killing the tree.

The foresters were here last week clearing a path for the harvesters and kindly offered some logs from trees that they cleared near to our cottage.
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A good stack of hardwood and softwood logs

These will be stacked in due course and air dried for three years, some will hopefully be used for projects and some will go for firewood.

Making the new mitre saw station out of reclaimed wood

When I set up the workshop I used an old sideboard and a Victorian pine chest of drawers as a simple base for the mitre saw, pillar drill and belt sander.

This has worked okay, but has several drawbacks especially when trying to cut long lengths of timber.

My pencil sketch of the new layout

I decided it was time to rearrange the workshop and build a proper mitre station capable of handling 10 foot lengths of timber. In order to do this, I would need to relocate the pillar drill and sander and incorporate my 10 inch band saw table into the mitre saw in feed table, so I got to work with pencil and paper and came up with the sketch above.

First step was empty all the tools onto the MFT bench

I wanted to keep the chest of drawers, as this provides storage for an assortment of tools and as it is a substantial piece of furniture, build the mitre saw outfeed on top of this. The pillar drill and the belt sander are both very heavy so I only wanted to move these as little as possible. I worked out that in the small space, these machines could sit on a shelf behind the mitre saw track, so the first step was to empty the cupboards of all their contents and move the chest of drawers 12 inches forward.

The chest of drawers moved forward into its new position

As the workshop is in a temporary location, I decided to use reclaimed materials for the build. This consisted of several part sheets of oil and cement stained 18mm exterior plywood which with a bit of work should clean up okay and a Douglas Fir spar from a boat for the track. The old MDF sideboard would be cut down to form a base for the mitre saw itself and I have a number of reclaimed pine drawers gathering dust and some of these looked an ideal fit for the new saw bases.

Opposing benches now level

I wanted this new bench to be the same level as the MFT so when working on larger projects I could use both benches for cutting and glue up.

Cutting down the sideboard with the TS-55

I made the band saw base out of the 18mm ply screwed together. For the feet some off cuts of 3 x 2 glued and screwed to the base.

Band saw base fitted built out of 18mm ply

Wedges were cut to level the saw bases

The workshop floor slopes in two directions! To correct for this I fashioned various wedges fitted to the back feet, which compensates for the uneven floor and both bases now sit level.

Building the out feed table with 48 inch (122 cm) cut

The outfeed table built out of the 18mm ply, comprises a bottom shelf, three support ribs and top. The saw has a 10 inch capacity, so I made the top 15 inches wide, to allow for the guide rail and the full swing of the 49 degree mitre cut. The top was glued with PVA and secured with 18 guage brads.

Titan 240v 18 guage brad nailer stapler

I had been meaning to order the DeWalt air nailer stapler to use with the old compressor I bought locally, but only having used a nailer once before I was unsure just how useful it would be and  the £140 air tool, kept slipping down my list of priorities. Then a project came along where I needed a 22mm stapler and after reading lots of reviews, I ordered a Titan nailer stapler from Screwfix for £35.
I did not expect much, but for the money it is okay and I will publish a review in due course.

The band saw table forms part of the imitre saw infeed table

In order to fit all the tools in the seven foot length, it was necessary to use the band saw table as part of the infeed. This took a fair amount of juggling to get right, but long pieces of timber are now supported on the band saw and on the Titan superjaws, which would allow for long planks to be processed. The band saw has an extending table which means that the blade is several inches behind the timber being cut and is protected at all times. The weight of long planks is taken by the superjaws and the mitre saw station and the band saw table, simply provides added support. There is sufficient length of cut behind the mitre saw, to use the band saw as I intend, so this way both tools can be used as required.

This doughlas fir sail track and spar came from a junk rig sailing boat

For the mitre saw track I used a sail track and spar that came from a junk rig sailing boat. I had bought a job lot of douglas fir battens, some with alloy sail tracks, from a boat yard years ago with the idea of converting a boat I owned, from Bermudian rig to Junk, but like so many ideas this one never got off the ground! I did not glue the track to the outfeed so that I could always adjust it if required. The alloy track, complete with sail slide, will offer potential for some sort of custom stop at a later date.

First marking the track with chisel cuts

Using the measurements on the saw, I made cuts with a chisel to represent set distances from the blade,

then came across a dress makers tape whilst sorting out a box of stuff and applied this to the saw with  the last of the double sided tape and with no more left, tacked the fabric tape to the rail with 4mm staples. A crude method of fixing for now, but one that works adequately well. In due course I will replace the fabric tape with an adhesive backed tape.

The final thing to do was build a shelf behind the new outfeed to carry the weight of the pillar drill and belt sander. This was made out of two sheets of 18mm ply laminated together and supported on 4 x 3 bearers and held in place with 75mm screws. This shelf also offers space for the 1250 mm Bessey clamps, fire extinguisher, etc. The space below the outfeed is just the right fit for my two large screw boxes.

The completed mitre saw station

I had been meaning to post this article for a couple of weeks, but I have been building a new run for our chickens and what I thought would be a fairly simple sprint, turned out to be an exhausting marathon. Consequently at the end of the day I was so tired, that I could hardly summon the energy to order my thoughts here. Thankfully, that build is now complete and so too is this post.

I was able to make full use of the new mitre saw station for the chicken run build, cutting down 14 foot lengths (4.27 m) of 2x2 (50 mm x 50 mm) and some lengths of 4 x 2 CLS (100 mm x 50 mm), which I then ripped down on the table saw and ran through the thicknesser to match.

Being able to make repeated cuts is a fantastic time saver. I set up a stop fashioned out of a douglas fir off cut, to the required length and clamped to the rail, then making repeated 110 cm cuts was a doddle. Very pleased with this build.