Ferm FTZ-250 table saw

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stage1v8

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Hi Folks,

I was given a few power tools earlier in the year, one of which was a Ferm FTZ250 table saw. I believe ferm is a screwfix own brand, is that correct?

Not knowing much about these types of tools it seems to have a few pros and cons.

Pros:

Well it cuts stuff
It was free

Cons:

Seems rather cheaply made
Not sure how accurate it is
Seems rather loud to me. All saws could be like that though.

My plan:

I was going to buy a better one but dont currently have the funds so as I have this one sat in the workshop I am going to try and fettle it to make it as good as it can be.

Anyone got any advice or links to websites that might help? I assume this is a cheap chinese mass produced thing so is similar to other brands and models.

I have bought a new blade for it and started making a zero clearance insert. I plan to trim down the riving knife so it doesnt stick up above the blade. I am also going to make a stand that extends the table and provides an out feed.

My main concern is getting the blade to be parallel to the mitre slot. the motor attaches to the mount that moves on threaded rods so not sure of what adjustment I will have. Plan to dismantle the entire thing this weekend to see what I can do with it.

If its of any interest to anyone I will post some pictures.

Cheers

Jon
 
I think you are wasting your time here Jon. This was the first TS I bought about 6yrs ago. It scared the living day lights out of me. It literally jumped when I turned it on. Donate it to the local scrapyard and get yourself a proper TS. At very least the Axminster TS200, which is worth fettling.
 
Just been reading through your ts200 fettling thread and as and when I have a few more spare pennies its something I may consider.

I have been woking on the theory that as it was free I may as well try to do something with it. I am not going to put a huge amount of effort into it and I realise it will never be as good as many other saws but always liked a challenge.

Your right that its a bit scary. I have run a few peices of timber through it and decided a 6' push stick would be my first project.

Maybe I can sell a kidney and buy a nice big sedgwick.

Cheers for the advice

Jon
 
I had a Titan 10" table saw, and it was loud.

Contrary to Tom I made some great furniture with it over 2 years, and it was accurate enough.

That said, I do agree with Tom, a little Axy TS200 would be a world of difference. But at least keep the ferm for a while so you can fully appreciate it!
 
The Ferm is no where near the quality of the Titan. Seriously, this is like a motor in a box with a blade fitted to it....
 
Well if its that bad,

I think a point Tom made before but hasn't this time around is the safety of these smaller saws. They are really the worst to bring you into using a table saw. Just even the lack of stability when passing wood over them. Still I liked my titan. But not a patch on my proper saw.
 
I can sympathize, I own a cheap B&Q saw that was pretty awful fresh out of the box. However, all is not lost. Here's a few tips that helped me make this a reasonable saw, bearing in mind, I mainly work with softwoods... First, I got a decent blade, just for ripping, I think my latest is a 24 tooth sandvick, 250mm/10inch. The insert around the blade is of thin plastic, which I re-inforced with a bit of laminate flooring attached to the underneath of the insert.
The blade raises at 90 degrees, measured using a small engineers square. This was a couple of degrees out when new. I also adjusted it parallel to the fence, which itself, isn't too bad. All this was done by adjusting the trunions (?) under the saw. When setting up to rip at an angle, I use an angle gauge as the scale on the saw bears no relation to reality.This still require a couple of test cuts to get spot on. The mitre gauge had too much slop in to be of any value. I did manage to correct this by placing a punch on the edge of the gauge bar, and giving it a whack. Repeating this in several palces along the length of the gauge bar, and a bit of gentle filing, resulted in a snug fit. Never used it as I prefer my mitre saw. The measuring scale for the fence is close enough for Government work, but I tend to measure blade to fence with a steel ruler. Apart from stupidly throwing away the blade guard when I dumped my old saw-burnt out motor-I get decent results. Yes, it's noisy and can take a bit of time to set up, but it does the job. Hope this helps. Rick.
 
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