Anyone in SE Mich area with an LR32 guide rail I could borrow to check out?...

Julian Tracy

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Oct 25, 2007
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I have a bit of a machine shop and would like to see whether it might be an easy proposition to mill the needed holes (or slots) in my existing rails.

Give me a call if that might be a possibility at 313-283-5908.

I live in Redford and am working in Plymouth right now.

Julian
 
Julian, I did consider milling my own LR 32 guide rail. Like you I own a sophisticated machine shop, with a CNC mill large enough to add holes to the 2700mm rail.

Then I started to study the Festool pricing. The LR32 1080mm rail is USA$1.50 more than the non-drilled 1080mm. The LR32 2424mm rail is USA$4.00 more than the non-drilled 2700mm rail. It only took me a few seconds to conclude I could not do the milling myself for the price Festool charges.

Perhaps if you needed to make a lot of parts with some other hole spacing than LR32 it might make sense to custom mill a rail.

Before my CNC nested router arrived I needed to make 24 double-sided Media storage units. The shelves are adjustable, but standard 32mm spacing did not work. To make those I put pencil marks on a standard 2700mm rail. The LR32 Guide Plate (cat 494 340) slides on any rail and has an index for use with pencil lines. Best of all those pencil marks can be erased when another custom job requires different spacing.
 
I don't have a sophisticated machine shop, how dare you suggest I do :)

No cnc over here.  I just figured I'd set it up somehow with a repeatable stop of some sort and mill/move, set/mill, etc.

I mean, they're just shelf holes, right?  A few hundredth's or thousands of an inch off, and it'll still be fine...

I have (3) 55" rails, a 32" and a 44".  I certainly have no use for anymore rails.  I already own a Delta Line boring machine with a Blum attach, but really don't use it much as I'm not much of a believer in adjustable shelves.  I'm more of a commit to how you want it now and build it that way kind of guy.

Shelf holes are ugly and make for a less sturdy product imo.

However, recently picked up a OF1010 router off CL, and do like to have  the doodads that go with it.

I'd just like to have and hold an official rail to inspect and compare when I start milling/drilling my rails.

JT
 
Julian Tracy said:
I mean, they're just shelf holes, right?  A few hundredth's or thousands of an inch off, and it'll still be fine...

If you were to use the rail always in the same direction, that would be no problem. But if you had to flip the rail over to access it from the other side, you'd have a problem. 
 
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