On Aug 7, 2:16 pm, Renata wrote:
A seemingly fairly experienced woodworker recently made a comment to
the effect that he would never again use a table saw to cut plywood.
He got the nifty Festool saw.

Whadya'all think?

Thanx
Renata

Depends on lots of things. If your table saw is a cheap bench top or
such saw with poor fences and no infeed table or outfeed table, then
it would take quite a bit of luck to get a straight cut where you want
it on a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" maple veneered MDF. The handling of the
full size plywood sheet during the cutting is where lots of
inaccuracies can occur. If you can minimize this, then you will get
better cuts. One way is to use a horizontal sliding panel saw. The
plywood is held by the sliding table and guided through the blade via
a mechanically restrained sled. Or the vertical panel saw where the
plywood stays stationary and the blade is mechanically guided through
the plywood. Both of these methods allow you to cut multiple sheets
at once for even better batch processing. Instead of making 20 cuts
on 20 pieces of plywood, you make 5 cuts because you cut 4 sheets
thick. The Festool circular saw lets the heavy large piece of plywood
remain stationary and the blade is mechanically guided by the guide
plate. You do have to measure and mark for each cut though. Maybe
best to use the Festool for the longest finish cuts to do half the
cuts and break the panel down to a manageable size in the process.
Then take the smaller pieces to the table saw for repetitive cuts.
Its a lot easier to accurately guide a 2x2 panel through the blade and
against the fence than a 4x8 panel.

One thing the Festool has that few table saws have is the ability to
cut without tearout. Unless you have a scoring blade and meticulously
set it up on your panel saw. If the chipped edges from a regular
table saw can be seen, it may not make much difference how accurately
the piece is cut. Unless you recess the first 1/16" or so of the
plywood, you will see the chipped edges. Festool won't have the
chipped edges.