Festool Saw Stop TKS 80 Review (and Custom Shop Cart) 

Thank you for a very detailed and precise personal evaluation of the table saw. Very helpful. I look forward to watching more of your productions. Welcome to the retirees woodworking exploration club!

“Victorian attitude towards structural integrity” 😂🎯 That’s just perfect! Thank you for sharing this.

Finally a user review which just barely mention the sawstop feature and focusing on usability, feeling, weaknesses. Got tired of sausage videos without any useful info. Big thank you !

The only proper Festool Table Saw review

Boring! And all the better for it! Clear, systematic, no attempt to be a comedian. Excellent. Thanks. 8 min: not the first time I've seen comments about small things where Festool cut corners. One video took apart a saw and found ultra high quality components next to brittle trash. Shame. But most people find them reliable, even on site

Thank you from Downunder - Your practical safety-first perspective is appreciated. Looking forward to your design of accessories. Cheers, Merry Christmas

Thanks! Very informative!

Very interesting video, thank you for taking the time to make it, and please make a video of the construction of your lovely cart

Amateur wood working surgeon here considering one of these. I’d love the Mafell Erika but like you I’m also in need of a full set of fingers hence tks80. Thanks for the frankfurter free review.

An excellent video, thank you. I have been thinking about this saw foe some time now, however after watching your reviewI'm not so sure, thanks again. Look forward to more

Excellent video, thanks very much.

Wonderful, thank you

Thanks for the video, I am in the market for a new table saw and a saw with the SawStop function really has closed down my options. Great review!

great review! thanks. Would love some more info on the holder you have made.

Interesting report on the Festool Sawstop. I'm an American remodeling carpenter and bought the Sawstop job site saw when my son started working with me four or five years ago. It's a very well made tool and has similar blade height and angle adjustments. I've had two unintentional tripping events, one with wet lumber and one when the saw fence extension was left out and touched the running blade. The safety feature worked . Hopefully never on a finger, but the peace of mind is worth the cost and bother. The jobsite saw cost about $1500. US. I hate to imagine what the Festool will be. They do make wonderful tools though and I've never regretted a purchase! Sawstop also has excellent customer service! For some reason last year the saw would not stay running. The tech rep walked me through a repair. It still wouldn't work. I took the saw to an authorized repair shop and they struggled with it as well. In the end they sent me two new switches and cartridges free of charge. I was without the saw for two weeks and realized how nice it is having to use my old unit in the interim. Best regards on your new purchase, It's a beauty !

Andy the Woodgrafter has a good series on using the INCRA positioner with the MFT table I bought the INCRA setup from the UK, and added the adaptors to affix it to the MFT table via dogs into the holes, plus attaching to the v groove aluminium channels on the in feed table. Have not yet explored the potential of the setup. Perhaps this setup may help you achieve your ideas with jigs etc. Andy’s videos are very helpful for a senior newbie like myself. As are your videos. Thanks to both of you.

I think your critique and solutions ought to be of utmost interest to Festool et als.

Good Video, your info was very helpful. Thank you

"as common as rocking horse poop" classic

Thank you for taking time and sharing your thoughts Sir. Looks like Festool still has some homework to do in the field of table saws. Probably version 2.0 will eliminate everything or most bad what you mentioned. Cheers from Poland

It's maddening what you guys can get and what We Can't. I'd buy the HK or HKC 85 w/ Dado feature if I could!

Yes please to the description of the construction of the Cart. I am just beginning my adventure with this tool package in a 2.4 x 4.2 shed that is already full of a bench and storage.

Great video, thank you - a construction video for the trolley would be very useful!

Hi Great review. Im in a similar situation with a small workshop. I put everything on wheels! I would love to see more details of the construction of the mobile cart. Cheers

Excellent presentation. If this saw is ever offered in the USA, I'd be inclined to make a base such as yours, with storage for many Systainers! They're multiplying like rabbits in my shop!

Subscribed 👍

I wonder if a sled could be made with timbers running ether side of the table. Maybe it would bind up?

Thanks - always interested to see reports, warts and all, of someone using a tool rather than just repeating manufacturer's spiel. As for 90cm - that is the height of all Festool tools like the MKT/3 - it is not arbitrary.

Well done! I'd bet that saw cost more than the Sawstop's Top of the Line 5 hp cabinet saw. Canadian builder Rob Cosman swears by it.

The best review of this saw in my mind online. Been looking at this to replace a dewalt saw. The lack of a mitre slot is a pain but the extension tables would be nice. How does the main fence set up and how are you finding it now you have owed it for some time? Thanks for reviewing this tool.

This is a very thorough video - watching a second time, as we have just moved to a retirement village, with a 3 car garage. Refreshing my memory on the many features of this saw. Now I have room for long awaited tools, including this saw, a jointer, a thicknesser and a linisher. BTW any progress on crosscut and other jigs? Hope the house extensions are progressing without too many surprises. Now you have had more time with the saw, anything new you have discovered that you can share?

Thank you for the video is very informative and well done, I wanted to ask you if you have an idea of the noise level of this saw? Thanks again

Well done a great vid 👍. 11:48 is it possible to add another extension table again to make the rip cut over 1.1metres? Thanks

Thanks for this honest review. I have been in the states for 20+ years where I had a 3HP PCS . I have now moved back to the UK and looking into getting this saw, but going from a 250KG PCS to the 65KG I am concerned at how 'wobbly' this saw is. did you experience much wobble? many thanks Michael

Hi, Really enjoyed your excellent presentation. I am thinking of investing in this saw. I create serving boards and keepsake boxes. Would you recommend. I have Bosch gts10 xc but it’s fences are not precise So I made a crosscut sled.

Love the cart Idea and you can't put a price on a digit 👍

I do have a question on operation. How efficient is the dust collection. Table saws generate a great deal of sawdust. cheers!

Really good review . Like you I am surprised festool did not include mitre slots …. You mentioned using the sliding table as a basis for sleds have you managed to make any sleds jigs for the saw that are successful, the lack of these slots is the one thing that makes me reluctant to purchase !.

Thanks for the very thorough review of the saw. I'm also quite keen on my ten fingers, so the tks 80 seems like the most logic choice for a table saw. I'm only a bit afraid of the coarse adjustment of the blade height. It seems easy to raise and lower the blade in a single turn. However, I wonder if it restricts setting the height to a specific measurement? I'm thinking of half-lapped joinery for instance. Do you have any experience with that being an issue, or does if function as one would like for such detailed work? Thanks again.

How are you finding the rip fence? I've only just gotten mine, but the fence feels quite stiff. I'm finding some adjustment, it's a bit free-er now, but it still get stuck in the lightly groved table with the glued on bit of laminate that's at the base of the fence. Also find it sticking when transitioning between the extension table and the table saw base. Nowhere near as refined as I'd normally expect from Festool.

Very nice video. I have also bought the saw. What I am missing is a sled. Do you have plans to build one? It would be great to see.

I have the SawStop Jobsite Pro, but have been looking at the TKS 80. Is your saw table dead flat? Does it dip near the throat plate and if so, by how much? Thank you for a comprehensive review of your saw and cart. All good information.

What I also meant to ask, how is the dust collection? It has two intakes going into one hose. What do you think of it?

Nice and instructive video. How about the alignment? Is this table saw accurate? For 90° cuts and other angles? Aligned to the fence as to the miter gage? Also, how does it allow for adjustment to make it perfectly square if it’s not? Maybe the subject of another video?

Hello Sir! Love you supporting table. Can you share the sizes? (Im from the netherlands so millimeters would be great! Thank you very much

would you say the tsk is a very accurate saw or a generic building site saw? Would gladly like to know. Nothing much on accuracy of this saw on the net I’m afraid. Its this or a Mafell Erica 85ec. Using classic INCA machines from Switzerland now. `These are no longer in production, restoration is worthwhile since they are excellent and very accurate and perfect for a small shop.

One more question for you...does your blade hold exact 90* to the table after tilting to 45* then returning it? I have the folding cart for my JSS Pro and whenever I take it out of storage on the cart, I have to reset the 90* to table adjustment. I know you never have to tilt your saw on its side, however I'm wondering if just tilting the blade will make the TKS 80 blade go out of adjustment?

Hi, great review. I have just had a new TKS80 delivered, its does not have the splinter guard anymore and i have a problem with the table not being flat, did you have any issues regarding this? the throat plate will not sit flush, no matter what i do.

How accurate do you find the long fence? Is there much deflection in it? I have a mafell Erika and although it's very accurate the fence adjustment is very poor.

If you had the extra space, would you consider a Sawstop Saw e.g. Cabinet so you could make your own jigs. The cost of both is similar. Having the ability to make and use jigs adds versatility, plus an extra layer of safety. Maybe the Sawstop’s dust collection is not as good? Any comments appreciated. Thanks

Festool TKS 80 Shop Cart Build: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5sKLZc4Meqs.html

The fence on this saw is just junk. It’s the same as the old cms and precisio why such a good company as festool can’t design a decent fence is beyond me. Something along the line of the dewalt rack and pinion would be a start. The table extensions are a pia to take off and remove. I notice the mafell table saws also have poor fence designs. I can’t understand how such expensive table saws have junk fences.

Festool had literally 250 years of tablesaw history to draw from and THAT is what they came up with?

I'm a professional cabinetmaker, and I will tell you there is no excuse for the blade guard lifting off center on 45 degree rips, just as there no excuse for the Festool Kapex mitre saw not able to cut oversized crown mould on the flat at 33 & 31 degree mitre and compound angles, For $1500.00. Festool products are absurdly priced and not worth the money