+1 on the toe in comments. You can tell by looking at the saw marks on the work piece under the rail. If they were going the other way it would be toe out. Ideally you want to see marks running both was like elongated "X's"

Nearly anything could cause problems in cut quality. The irregularly of the pattern suggests a little random side play, esp the rear gib cam. I'd double check and tighten the front and rear gib cams to achieve a little preload.

Even a little drag on the saw from power cord or extractor hose can cause irregular cuts.

When well adjusted, I think the TS55 produces a better finish than an electric planer - takes less sanding to remove saw marks than planer marks.

BTW, I went looking for the toe adjustment in Ric's supplementary manual but couldn't find it there. Search for "toe" came up blank. Maybe I just read it on a forum?? Wondering if anyone has done experiments with different toe-in settings. I have mine set to one paper thickness.

That information is on the bottom half of page 12, under the title, "Matching the TS 55 to an Existing Guide Rail."

Thanks. Would be useful to also call the section "toe-in" adjustment for cut quality, since others have had problems with incorrect factory settings.

I just ran mines through a few 18 ga nails, im wondering how good the next cut is going to be. Im also going to take it to a place to get it sharpened and buy another one I can swap it with while one is getting sharpened.

You may be pleasantly surprised, these blades are tough.

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Maybe the cuts in the first photo aren't that bad - they have been photographed in harsh side light. My best cuts in hardwood don't look substantially different in that light, but cuts in manufactured boards look a lot better.



PS the above saw cuts with 12 tooth ripping blade

BLOUIS, I've checked the cams, there is no side play at all. Looking at your cuts though, your saw may not be performing as it should. I've attached a pic of the same piece of wood in my first pic, with a piece on top that I dragged out of my wood pile. That is how a TS55 normally cuts.
As for my saw, it's still away being looked at. Unfortunately Festool NZ service is not on a par with Festool USA.

Attached Thumbnails

 

It was a while ago I cut the hardwood. On reflection I think it may be those less pretty cuts of mine were the ones I cut with the 12 tooth Freud ripping blade. I had been making rebates for picture frames and rather than turn the rebates to sawdust with a router, I cut the rebates with the TS55 and got some 5mmx20mm strips to turn into dominos. Since they were non-critical, I thought I'd try the coarser blade to see how it finished.

Here are the pieces I ripped with my finer saw (40 tooth Freud blade), which I think are up to scratch apart from some of my technique issues with the wobbly cut at the start. The frame pieces pre-rebate are about 19x40x450mm.

https://picasaweb.google.com/blouis7...99320015182930

(Can't figure out how to get a Picasa image to work inline.)

On my MacBook Pro, I was able to go to the link you provided to your Picasa photo and, with the cursor on the photo, right clicked my mouse to bring up the pop-up menu and selected the "copy image address" option. Then, back here on tF, I typed this reply to your post and included your photo by pressing the "insert image" button (the little icon with the mountains and sun above the edit window) and pasted the previously copied image address in the dialog box -- that simply places the bracketed 'img' code around the image's address.

NOTE: It is easy to make a mistake while pasting the image address in the dialog box. By default, the box contains the "http://" which is already selected (highlighted). If you place your cursor over that selected text and press paste, it will overwrite the default text. But, if you don't paste over that text correctly you may end up with the "http://" part twice, since the copied image address already contains that text.

It is late, and the above description is poorly written. If this is unclear, please let me know and I will try to explain again. I'd rather spend the time to help you to accomplish this than leave you unable to post your pictures here within your posts.