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Festool Guide Rails same as ?
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04-05-2019, 12:34 PM
Somebody makes a guide rail that is an exact match for Festool's. Anyone know who it is?
Thanks, Curt
----------------- "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." -- Soren Kierkegaard 
04-05-2019, 01:51 PM
(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.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
04-05-2019, 02:29 PM
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.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
04-05-2019, 06:07 PM
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.
Thanks, Curt
----------------- "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." -- Soren Kierkegaard
04-08-2019, 10:53 AM
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.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
04-08-2019, 11:37 AM
(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.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
(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 ![[Image: festool-496939-1.jpg]](https://www.festoolproducts.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/1200x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/e/festool-496939-1.jpg)
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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