squall_line said:
RussellS said:
As for 4.5 hours of your time being worth at LEAST $200, that must mean you earn at least $44.44 per hour. Or $92,444 per year. Assuming it took you 15 minutes to read this thread and write your reply, you lost/wasted a potential $11.11. I would guess most/many of the people participating in this forum are hobby woodworkers. Not paid woodworkers. So their woodworking time in the shop or participating in forums such as this or shopping for tools is free. A hobby, diversion from real life. They do it on the weekends when not at paid work. So I don't think you can assign an hourly wage to that time.
I make less than $44.44 an hour at my paid job. If I were to charge for my time independently doing what I do for a living, or using other skill sets that I have, it would likely be at a much higher rate than that (I charged significantly more than that per hour just to DJ weddings 15 years ago).
My son is less than 2 years old. A 4.5-hour round trip plus shopping time at a woodworking store without him (because, let's be honest, neither he nor his mom are going to just hop up and jump in the car for that long and for that purpose voluntarily and if they did, it's not exactly quality time in the car)
is worth a lot more than $200 when it comes to missing out on spending time with him at this point in his life, especially when it's also a weekend.
Reading this forum at night after he's gone to bed is practically free by comparison.
This right here.
It's not necessarily about assigning an hourly wage to your spare time.
If you're going to pay for something you should be considering the total cost. Everything it takes to get it.
If I have to drive an extra 1/2 hour to save $200, sure. Unless I'm going to miss something important.
4 Hours to save $200? That's a different story. My spare time is valuable also. Probably more than my work time.
Going on the computer while I'm winding down, or sitting around waiting for something anyways is different. It's not costing me time.
Quasinerdo said:
Some that come to my mind... Accessories that won't fit due to the extra extrusion that prevents the Makita saw from tipping (does that prevent any of the TSO squares fitting?); I think some have issues with the guide rail cams not being able to lock in on the makita track sufficiently too... that would mean slop and error.
Cams not locking isn't slop and error if they're designed for the Festool tracks and won't work correctly in the Makita ones. The Makita tracks aren't marketed as a direct replacement and are slightly different. As are the Milwaukee I believe. And possibly others.
I looked at the bottom of my Makita saw this afternoon and noticed the grooves in the Makita slide material are starting to wear into the bottom of the saw. -1 For Makita. However someone suggested installing the Festool slide material (green replaceable material on the top of the rail.). I may try some of that since I already have the Makita rails.
The Festool saw blades (HK, TS) are roughly 3/64 inch further from the closer edge of the guide rail groove in the bottom of the saw than the Makita saw blade (This is with original blades). So the Festool saws cut further out from the rail than the Makita. There is adjustment, at least with the Festool. But I don't think there's enough to completely close the gap. Which is a problem if you're running different brands on the same rail, at least as far as precision cuts go.
Also, I haven't done any test cuts to confirm, but I'm pretty sure with the Festool saws on the Makita rail the pivot point for angling the blade is different. So if you have the splinter strip lined up for a 90* cut with the Festool, and you want to make a 45* cut, it will cut on a different line. Which it doesn't do on the Festool rails.
One other potential issue. Today I ran into a situation where I had to make a cut where the guide rail wasn't sitting horizontal and I couldn't use clamps. I needed either screw holes in the rail to mount the rail to the material (which I intend to drill) or a way to attach the rail to the material.
Festool has other (slightly more expensive) rails that have holes (they're designed for alignment pins so I don't know if they'll readily accept screws), and they also have rails that have openings that use sticky material to attach the rail to the surface.
Two things you can't get with the Makita ones.
One good thing about the Makita rails, at least the one I got. The shipping box for the 118" rail is fantastic. Picture below. The smaller rails didn't get the same packaging, they were just in cardboard like the Festool.
[attachimg=1]
