3m guide rail conversion to LR32

[petiegolfer]

I have recently purchased a 3m guide rail to save d1cking around when carving up sheet goods. At the same time I got the LR32 system with the short rail.

Having just made up some wardrobe inserts for my parents I realise how useful a long rail with the holes would be. Matey here or at the other site who had his BIL sort his long rail got me thinking....

Then a couple of weeks ago Grand Designs a home building programme on TV here in the UK had a house where they had a bespoke steel walkway made....the walkway had holes cut in it by laser!!! Eureka...mega accurate perfect alignment etc etc.

http://www.jslaserprofiles.com/

Anyway a quick google and I have found a local company with the same kit. ?60 cash will get me a holely 3m rail! A 2.4 rail in the UK....?179. I have to convince the MRS its worth spening ?60 to make a load of holes in a rail that she doesnt know about :-\.

I will hopefully be doing it next week and will try to take some pics / let you know how it went.I was really quite surprised how inexpensive it was. I might get all my rails done!

Piers

 

[joesan]

Brilliant idea Pete. Those laser services are super accurate and give an excellent finish. Did you have to give them a CAD drawing or are they doing that for you?

 

[petiegolfer]

I took my 1080 rail and the sled down to the works to check out the feasibilty. All they will need when I do it is the rail and they will write up the programme from measurements they take off it. They will centre the holes on the 3m length just as on the other rails.

I cant wait to get it done...I have 4 built in wardrobes to do at home and quite a few other built ins in the future!

Piers

 

[tbellemare]

Piers:

Make sure they notice that the holes are elongated. That allows for adjustment of the Guide Plate to the rail.

I strongly suspect that you have hit on just how Festool makes them.

Tom

 

[petiegolfer]

Tom

Yes re the elongated holes I pointed that out to the guys I talked to explaining why they are elongated ie to allow the sled to be snugged up to the guide rail. I also explained what the guide rail was for...which they found interesting.

You are right about this probably being the way that Festool does this in the first place. Its incredible what these machines can do. Water jet cutting is also very impressive!

I suspect that if this goes well I will use the company for other things in the future. They will fabricate anything that pays!!

Piers

 

[tbellemare]

Back in the '80's & early 90's I worked for Schlumberger when they got a laser mill that was used primarily for tubular stock. It was cutting fine detail out of pretty substantial tubing and the accuracy was astounding. It was pretty cool to look at the "off cut", it might be little pieces of metal that kind of looked like somebody broke off a piece of pencil lead.

Tom

 

[Dave Ronyak]

This is a very intriguing idea.  I have the short (1080mm) LR 32 Guide Rail, and I own a 3000mm Guide Rail.

Fr long work such as your Guide Rail that is to be "holed", is their machine equipped with a long bed?

How is the work piece (your Guide Rail) to be advanced and indexed precisely from one hole position to the next hole position to be machined (laser cut)?

Is there a length limitation to their machine and method?

Can this shop laser engrave indexing marks on Guide Rails and other components?

Can they take aluminum extrusions, such as common C-shaped channels and add scales to them? 

Can they take aluminum hex-shaped rod stock and add scales so they can be used with Festool's Side Stops for the LR 32 hole Drilling system so you can accurately and quickly set them for repeat rip cuts at widths greater than is possible with the rods supplied by Festool?

And of course, can they do this at reasonable cost?

Dave R.

 

[bruegf]

Dave,

You ask as many questions as a 5 year old )

Great questions though, I'm anxious to hear the answers as well.

Fred

 

[petiegolfer]

Dave

from looking at a couple of other sites for manufacturers who have these machines they tend to be able to do 2x3 3x4 meters.

The work peice is stationary and the laser head moves.

as far as etching scales....I dont know

anything one off is going to be more expensive than batch work....get together with peeps and things could be cheaper.

More than likely anything is possible the only limiting factor is always going to be the cost...that can only be judged by an individual

Piers

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

I have a 20 watt laser and while it will not cut metal it can cut very nice markings into the anodizing of anodized metals.  In some cases you can also just paint the metal and do the etching by burning the paint away with the laser.  For laser such as mine you are likley looking at about a $1 per minute of laser time and some who do custom cutting also charge a setup fee for setting up and test cutting the job.

Best,
Todd