Mafell MT55 alignment, bevel cut, dissapointing

Svar

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Jul 22, 2012
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Most track saws allow for lateral trunion adjustment to match the saw to other saws or existing rails.
Mafell MT55 has such adjustment only on the rear trunion (about 5 mm wiggle room).

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The front one can not be adjusted. Plastic protrusions (Picture 2, green arrows) fit tightly between aluminum ones (red arrows). One could trim the plastic part though to allow for movement. Interestingly, aluminum base has elongated screw holes, which are useless as is.

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This is disappointing. In addition MT 55 cuts 1-2 mm away from the splinter strip at 45 degree bevel because its pivot axis located below the guide rail, regardless of type of rails. My is old, perhaps they fixed it later on, but it has been a well known issue for a long time. The only way to remedy this is to add spacers between the base and plastic parts of the trunions (lift the whole saw up).

On the bright side, the trunions are made of steel, employ non traditional design (slots and pins), and are much more rigid than on Festool.
 

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Recently bought the MT55cc but haven’t checked this.

The Festool TS 75 also bevels below the splinter guard but I don’t cut bevels with it enough to bother raising the saw above the base. I seem to recall that a credit card thick shim gets it pretty close.
 
Michael Kellough said:
The Festool TS 75 also bevels below the splinter guard but I don’t cut bevels with it enough to bother raising the saw above the base.
Yes, my TS75 does it a tiny bit. MT55 was almost 3 mm off!
What's the point of having trunions with pivot axis below the surface? A simple hinge would be simpler and more robust design (with added benefit of greater cut depth at 45).
 
To give a heads up, they have been talking about this exact same issue on MUF for a few years. I believe this is the achilles heel of the mt55.
Some one suggested, getting another rail with an uncut strip/splinterguard [eek], ( I know its crazy) and cutting the strip at 45 degrees and just pull that rail out to use when you do a 45 degree cut.
 
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