Makita, Dewalt & Milwaukee Router Adapters for Festool Guide Rails

[Greenhoe]

Trim routers are some of the most used tools in our shop and the latest line of cordless trim routers are extremely versatile. I designed a set of adapters for all the major trim routers so you can drop them in on your Festool or Makita guide rails to make straight accurate dados anywhere on your workpiece.

Makita Router Adapter

Dewalt Router Adapter

Milwaukee Router Adapter

Bosch Trim Router Adapter

Bosch 1617 Plunge Base Adapter

 

[CeeJay]

Nice - that will be really useful. Thanks!

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[Chainring]

I was wondering about this within the past week or so and here's the answer.

 

[Bob D.]

Ordered for my DeWalt cordless router.

Thanks for making these available.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

That is a pretty slick looking solution. The only issue that I see with style of guide is that the only way to make a dado/groove wider is to move the rail itself rather than move the router in relation to the rail. This can introduce the potential for errors. Nudging the rail over a tiny amount is hard enough in the first place, but it could also introduce an unwanted taper in the dado/groove.
If all you need is a cut the actual width of the bit, it's probably is quicker to set up, especially if you had a spare base to leave it on all of the time.

 

[Greenhoe]

That is a pretty slick looking solution. The only issue that I see with style of guide is that the only way to make a dado/groove wider is to move the rail itself rather than move the router in relation to the rail. This can introduce the potential for errors. Nudging the rail over a tiny amount is hard enough in the first place, but it could also introduce an unwanted taper in the dado/groove.
If all you need is a cut the actual width of the bit, it's probably is quicker to set up, especially if you had a spare base to leave it on all of the time.

The micro adjustments would be nice and may be something I look into adding in the future but I've found usually when using for dados guys are using the same size bit needed such as 1/2 and 3/4in bits.

 

[mino]

A high level comment here.

What we often miss is that compared to the routers the FS/2 rails are huge.

This means it is not a problem - actually desirable - to take advantage of that to have the slide bigger/heavier as you could be directing the router with both hands - one on the slide (horizontal stability) second on the router (vertical/rotation).

This consumes time and material for FDM, but that is were features/value are. Just look at the LR32 slide or the Bosch equivalent. Especially the Bosh one is simply HUGE. Yet is works very well as the bulk of it is over the rail where it does not matter.

Secondarily, the only precision-straight surface on the FS rails is the "inner" vertical rib against which the saws press. Benefit of making the slide bigger is you can configure it that the slide uses this reference surface instead of the outer track which is a bit less precise generally. Another benefit using the reference surface is you can have a more universal slide that will work also on Makita, Triton original FS and other non-exact rails. For that as well as precision you want proper slide with cams between the ribs like a TS55 or LR32 plate have.

Making this for selling, I would consider two separate product lines:
- a simple/cheap minimalist basic plate similar like you have now. Laser-focused on cost and strength/rough handling scenarios while being "good enough" on accuracy.
- a more advanced "big" plate with cams, using the proper reference surface, micro-adjust, etc. for precise work with price in the 3x to 5x range of the "simple" one.

You will need really only one "complex" slide design with different router-mounting parts to go along which will have the same model with the simple ones.

 

[cpw]

The outer rib is also used by the Festool jigsaw guide rail runner.
https://www.festoolproducts.com/festool-497303-guide-rail-adapter-for-carvex-jigsaws.html

 

[mino]

The outer rib is also used by the Festool jigsaw guide rail runner.
https://www.festoolproducts.com/festool-497303-guide-rail-adapter-for-carvex-jigsaws.html

I have it too. A jigsaw is an inherently imprecise tool, so it is a non-issue there, same as with the "simple" adapters.

My FS/2 rails all have between 0.1 mm and 0.2 mm (0.0005"-0.001") differences along the rail length between the back surface and the reference one with the reference one being straighter. That is a bit less than the play cam-less adapters like the Carvex one or the simple adapters shown here require to be able to slide reliably. I.e. it is indeed a non-issue in the simple cam-less approach.

However, once you do a no-play attachment with cams, you want to remove also that 0.1 mm of inaccuracy. You need to place the cam somewhere anyway ... and with FDM it is easy/free to do it the better way from the get go.

 

[Steve1]

I made my rail adapter out of a scrap piece of plywood.
Actually, its for a full size router.
Long distance between the guide pads, so zero play.

 

[Greenhoe]

One of the more requested routers was the Bosch 1617, I've just added a new rail plate for the Bosch 1617 plunge base adapter.

Bosch 1617 Plunge Base Adapter