Amazing video, my friend, you cover so many important details. Furthermore mention that you can easily cut your hand on the corner edge of those guide rails, so the caps are critical for many reasons , including your good point about scratching trucks!
Really good video, useful, clear and well presented. The rail protective caps were a great shout, I didn’t even know they existed. I think they’re going to save me a lot of potentially expensive grief, so thanks!
I believe Makita’s sprinter guards are made out of some kind of rubber whereas Festool ones are some kind of plastic. I tried both and went back to Festool ones. They seem to stick better and be able to take off and turn it around for 2nd use.
Do you keep the end guards on when making cuts or just to transport / store them? If so, does it have an effect on the cut due to not being flush with the stock? Thanks Nick
How do you like the powertec rail? I’m thinking of buying it for my Dewalt because my Dewalt rail is difficult to get squared on my project and the Festool style rails accept accessories to help. The powertec looks to be the same style but less money.
I have the Powertech and the Makita rail. The grip tape on the Powertech is not as grippy as the Makita. Other than that Powertech rails work just fine. I had a Festool extension rail and the tape was also more grippy than the Powertech.
Is it required? No, but you might have wished you had. Ever cut across the top grain of a piece of cheap plywood with just a circular saw? Splinters on both sides of the cut. The splinter guard prevents almost all of that splintering on the guide rail side of the cut. The Festool TS55 has a piece of plastic that can come down on the non guide rail side to help prevent splintering on the waste side of the cut. Works well with melamine to prevent chip out as well, especially when combined with a scoring cut that track saws make almost full proof. I don't have a splinter guard on my LR32 rail as I only use it for shelf pin and hinge cup hole boring when building cabinets. There's was a $200 savings for not having the strip on there. I don't have the Festool Spacer jigs for the LR32 system ($90 each). Instead I use a 64mm spacer block from the cabinet edge to the edge of my LR32 guide rail (no splinter strip). Once I put my Festool LR32 Router adapter on on the rail, it gives me a perfect 37mm Center line in from the edge for boring my holes. I have other jigs for boring the middle and back line of holes for pins or drawer slide holes as needed. Works real good, lasts a long time.
The saws can be used on both sets of rails. However, the Makita saw and guide rail have an anti-tip lip and tung feature that prevents the saw from tipping over when making angle cuts. You can make or buy from an Etsy vendor, an anti-tip add on for the TS55. There are some accessories that will only work with each vendor's guide rail because of the lip on the Makita guide rail. Check before you buy.
