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Somebody makes a guide rail that is an exact match for Festool's. Anyone know who it is?

Makita guide rails work for a Festool track saw.

(04-05-2019, 01:43 PM)sbarlin Wrote: [ -> ]Makita guide rails work for a Festool track saw.

I read that too.

This thread points out many of the differences:  http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-ji...ide-rails/

This article tells you how to modifiy the Makita tracks:  https://www.swedishwoodworking.com/tips-...tachments/

From what I've see the Festool rails are anodizes and the Makita rails are not.

Anodizing not only imparts a finish, it penetrates and hardens the surface to make it a better bearing surface.  Really deep anodizing is called "hard anodizing" and race car engines have hard anodized aluminum blocks  with no cast iron liner.  The engines are only good for one or two races, but the cooling effiency is much improved.  It does point out that the anodized rails will run smoother and last longer.

I was unaware that any of the other tracks were identical to the Festool ones. I'll be interested to see if someone has an answer.

Read through the FOG links that Cooler provided. Makita tracks have almost the same form as Festool. They have a rib that interferes with Festool's parallel guides. You can, however, grind, cut, or rout the rib away. Apparently, Festool's rails are anodized while Makita's are not and Festool's green glide strips are much smoother than Makita's. OTOH, Makita's price is 2/3s of Festool's and some folks on FOG rate Makita's black anti-splinter strip as being superior to Festool's clear strip.

Inasmuch as router operations are likely to be important to me (unless I can master molding planes) I guess I'll just stay with Festool. Am trying the black Makita strips though.

One thing annoys me about the Festool track.  The indexing holes are oblong.  If they were round I would use them with a vix bit and make my holes with a electric dirll.  But since they are oblong that will not work.  It seems that they did that intentionally so that the track would not have a dual purpose.

(04-05-2019, 12:34 PM)cputnam Wrote: [ -> ]Somebody makes a guide rail that is an exact match for Festool's.  Anyone know who it is?

The Shop Fox rail works with the Makita saw, so it should also match the Festool. I bought the 55" version on Amazon.

(04-08-2019, 10:53 AM)Cooler Wrote: [ -> ]One thing annoys me about the Festool track.  The indexing holes are oblong.  If they were round I would use them with a vix bit and make my holes with a electric dirll.  But since they are oblong that will not work.  It seems that they did that intentionally so that the track would not have a dual purpose.

What indexing holes are you referring to? My tracks have none.

(04-08-2019, 11:37 AM)fredhargis Wrote: [ -> ]What indexing holes are you referring to? My tracks have none.

This is the shortest video that I could find that demonstates the shelf pin  boring jig:  https://youtu.be/XSTQlFKtP4o

(04-05-2019, 12:34 PM)cputnam Wrote: [ -> ]Somebody makes a guide rail that is an exact match for Festool's.  Anyone know who it is?

I wonder if the new Kreg tracks will work?