LR-32 Conundrum- Short Rail or Long Rail

[BobKovacs]

Ok, so I'm thinking about taking the plunge on the LR-32 setup, and I'm debating on whether to buy the 55" rail or the 95" rail.  The majority of my stuff consists of upper sections for built-ins, for which the 55" rail would be plenty long, but there's the occasional 7' or 8' tall bookcase that would need the 95" rail to get all the holes drilled in one pass.  It'd also be nice to have the 55" rail to use for crosscutting 4x8 sheets, as it would allow me to leave my two current 55" rails ganged together for use in ripping in the 8' dimension.  I currently leave them joined together even for short direction cuts, rather than constantly joining and unjoining them, but that gets a bit cumbersome at times, especially for times when I may be cutting a piece thats only say 30" long.

I know the obvious solution is "get both rails", but I hate to drop the $235 for the long rail if its only going to get limited use (it's obviously useless for ripping 8' sheet stock down).  I guess the question is, is there a way to use the 55" rail and shift it down the workpiece to continue a row of holes on a long workpiece?  I haven't seen anything that would indicate an easy way to do that while maintaining a consistent hole spacing, but maybe I'm missing something??

 

[Mr Jones]

No easy way that I could think of, however you can get two short ones and join them but you have to space them carefully in the middle. You won't get away with joining the LR32 to a normal rail because the spacing issue requires you have the hole sin both rails.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Bob, Forget the idea of just getting the long rail, it would be a major hassle on shorter panels that you'll do most often.  I'd get two 55" rails and join them, sell off one of your regular 55" rails to help offset the cost.  The new LR32 end stops double as spacers to set the proper space between the rails.  You'll still need two guide rail connectors. 

 

[ccarrolladams]

Bob,

I do own the 2424mm/95" "Holely" rail, as well as the original shorter 1080mm/42" Holely rail. When the 1400mm/55" Holely rail came out I bought one of those as well. The fact is every day I drill a whole lot of LR32 shelf and other holes.

It is hardly absolutely necessary to use the long rail when making tall pantry cabinets of book shelves. When I started I would use a pair of conventional Festool rail connectors (cat 482 107) to add a non-drilled rail to an end of my short drilled rail so I could clamp it in place to drill one end of the side piece. Then I would rotate the combined rail to drill the other end, using the 5mm bit in my OF 1010 to index the position of the rail before clamping.

Once I was sure the number of jobs justified the long rail I bought one.

In early 2011 Festool introduced the marvelous LR32 Guide Rail connector (cat 469 938) which spaces the rail holes exactly 32mm when connecting two rails. Once the rails are appropriately connected, then this same part can be used as the end stop, to index the holes relative to an end of the wood.

My suggestion to you is that a rail longer than 55" is really awkward for drilling normal cabinet lowers or uppers. Current LR32 kits include a pair of the cat 469 938. So all you would need to have is a pair of the ordinary rail connectors (cat 482 107) and perhaps a second Holely 55" rail. This would save you some cash. Unfortunately the 2424mm rail is too short to help making the long rips in 4x8' sheet material.

 

[BobKovacs]

Thanks guys.  I'll probably just roll with the 55" rail for now, and if the need arises, I'll grab a second one later.

 

[builderbob]

Bob, I totally agree that you could start with a 55" & expand if the need be with the new rail joiners for the LR32 system. I purchased the long & short before the 55 came out and found the long one too cumbersome @ times but the 1080 was just too short...so I bought the 55 too.

I do a lot of various height custom builds and it's always handy to have rails kicking around!

Bob