Ferm FKS 180

[John Greenwood]

Hello,

I have just bought a Ferm FKS 180 circular saw from Screwfix and I am not happy with it. Before I send it back to Screwfix I am wondering whether the problems are with my particular saw or with all saw of that model. So any comments from other FKS-180 users most appreciated.

Problems:

1. Saw blade does not seem perpendicular to axle.

1. Mitre needs to be set at about 4 degrees to get a 0 degree cut.

2. Riving knife slightly off alignment with saw blade. When cutting you need to jiggle the saw a bit to get the riving knife in the cut.

Actually these could all be due to the same problem.

Never having owned a circular saw before I have nothing to compare it with. I realise the saw is cheap and maybe I am expecting too much.

Having said all this I did manage to cut my worktops satisfactory. Glad I tested on a scrap piece first!

BTW, what is the purpose of the riving knife???

Thanks,

John

[Andy Milner]

Riving knife to stop wood closing on saw blade and jamming

Ferm is not the best quality by any stretch of the imagination but cheap and cheerful, but that is neither use nor ornament send it back and tell them it is utter s**te, I've sent alot of ferm's stuff back to screwfix no arguments at all

[gandalf]

----- Hi, I've got one of those.

-------- Haven't measured it but mine seems OK.

Mine was/is also out. I think it's just the crappy gauge they've got. This I do check now as it stuffed up a joint I was ploughing out. No big deal, only my bench that I was making, but it did teach me to check before use and ignore the gauge.

--------- Mine is OK. Thankfully. If the riving knife is out of true then the back edge of the blade may bite into the workpiece. I wouldn't like that to happen!

---------- Could be. Maybe the saw blade is not fitted/seated correctly. Try taking it off and then put it back on. Won't solve the mitre issue but may help out with the riving knife and the perpendicular thing. If it doesn't - send it back and get another one. My saw does not have all your problems so I don't think the saw is intrinsically flawed. I don't think it's the dog's boll**ks either, but it does what I need of it.

[IMM]

Best to buy a good make.

[Alan James]

I ordered one of these from Screwfix a year or so ago. It displayed all the same problems. Looked as if somewhere along the line it had been dropped quite heavily. Returned it to Screwfix same day. Eventually got a B&D Firestorm which was on special offer at B&Q. Fine apart from uncommon size of blade and dust extraction port which doesn't fit any adapters known to man.

Alan

[Danny Monaghan]

"John Greenwood" wrote in news:3f0c389a$0$15041$ [e-mail]:

I've just bought one. Having used my Dad's Bosch for a year, it was a bit of a come down, but money matters :( Ignore the angle gauge. Mine was way off, but it squared up easily enough. Haven't had any other problems with it yet though.

I do miss the Bosch saw though!