A generic 55” track for $28.00 on Woot! during Prime days. Is it any good?

[Packard]

Is this Festool compatible?  It also includes 2 C-clamps.

 

[mino]

Any good? No.

I can say that with absolute certainty just looking at the price. That price barely coveres the aluminum cost. So it will be from a cheapo aluminum alloy stock as well.

The Makita tracks are the best cost/value performer as are mass-made yet reasonable. But even those are cheaper mainly because they are made to a lesser accuracy standard than the Festool FS/2 series. Even though those are good-enough for many uses.

That said, having a cheapo/disposable track for rough/dirty work is useful.

 

[woodferret]

I have el-chepo Triton tracks.  They're bowed.  Good enough for loose construction use, but pales to Festool.  And yes, I've gotten bowed Festool tracks, but they're easily enough to return.  These are probably even worse than that.

 

[Svar]

You can find it on amazon and read reviews there. If you want cheaper knock-off try Powertec. Things I bought from them were surprisingly good (no affiliation, not sponsored  [big grin]).

 

[Cheese]

Packard, I tried to answer your question earlier but navigating that website is abysmal...if the website is that horrific why would one expect the product to be any better?

No search feature and all clicks lead to a dead end...that's enough for me to throw my hands up and move on.

 

[Packard]

That website is Woot!, an Amazon owned company.  The tracks ship from Amazon.

So, I assumed it had at least a reasonable amount of credibility.  I did not try to negotiate the site.

 

[mino]

That website is Woot!, an Amazon owned company.  The tracks ship from Amazon.

So, I assumed it had at least a reasonable amount of credibility.  I did not try to negotiate the site.

Thanks! I just had a very good laugh. Amazon and credbility in one sentence. Wonderful!
[big grin]

/context
Just came from reading an article on arstechnica how Amazon shipped diapers with poop included to a customer ... and pretended that is, kinda, fine. Ahem.

 

[Packard]

I have never been screwed over by Amazon. If the product is a problem, or if it has a problem, they have always taken it back. 

I did see a notice on a few items that they sell that says, “This is a frequently returned item”.

I guess this is an effort to get the shopper to read the specs carefully.

I expect at some time in the future they will have a policy change that says that they will not accept returns for reasons that are clearly identified in the specifications. 

 

[squall_line]

Packard, I tried to answer your question earlier but navigating that website is abysmal...if the website is that horrific why would one expect the product to be any better?

No search feature and all clicks lead to a dead end...that's enough for me to throw my hands up and move on.

The design of the woot! site is intentional; it's meant to be a place where one only finds products via wanderlust and discovery, or through social media posts and sites like FatWallet.  Most of the items are overstocks or refurbs.

Also, despite being owned by Amazon, the return policy is significantly different.  Many items don't qualify for free return shipping, and some are not returnable at all for any reason.  Caveat emptor.

All that said, it would not surprise me in the least if the Eastvolt business model is much the same as Vevor, banggood, and all of the other knock-off variants.  As others have mentioned, the price of the materials in that rail should exceed the sales price, assuming it's made of anything resembling medium quality materials.

Buying that rail just contributes further to the "race to the bottom", even if you just turn around and return it or scrap it.

 

[Cheese]

1. The design of the woot! site is intentional; it's meant to be a place where one only finds products via wanderlust and discovery, or through social media posts and sites like FatWallet.  Most of the items are overstocks or refurbs.

Also, despite being owned by Amazon, the return policy is significantly different.  Many items don't qualify for free return shipping, and some are not returnable at all for any reason.  Caveat emptor.

All that said, it would not surprise me in the least if the Eastvolt business model is much the same as Vevor, banggood, and all of the other knock-off variants.  As others have mentioned, the price of the materials in that rail should exceed the sales price, assuming it's made of anything resembling medium quality materials.

2. Buying that rail just contributes further to the "race to the bottom", even if you just turn around and return it or scrap it.

1. Seriously?  That would certainly explain why there is no search function.  [blink]  What a goofy deal that is, a complete waste of time. It's like walking into a maze in the middle of a corn field.

2. That's exactly what I was thinking when I tried to find the rail package yesterday at Woot. Supply chains are still broken all over the world and yet some supply house, somewhere is still able to get raw material to produce shoddy products at best while other legitimate manufacturers may be having supply issues.

 

[Svar]

1. Seriously?  That would certainly explain why there is no search function.  [blink]  What a goofy deal that is, a complete waste of time. It's like walking into a maze in the middle of a corn field.

It's more like walking into a grocery store in search of milk (which is always in the far corner intentionally) and passing by junk food shelves. They want you look through everything, but you can narrow items to a category.
I once bought Kapex blades on Woot at half the regular price, but I found them accidently. Never been back.