Router guide stop on Makita rails
- Thread starter RNEMTP
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I am pretty sure the Festool accessories will work. The Festool rails and Makita rails are almost identical except for the the guide the tool rides on. I don’t remember which is slightly bigger but, you can still adjust the play on the guide stops.
Corwin
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- Jan 22, 2007
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The Makita and Festool Guide Rails both have two T-track slots built into their extrusions; one T-track along the back edge of the Rail (left edge opposite the splinter strip) with the slot accessible from the top, and a second T-track toward the middle of the Rail (the one your track saw uses) with the slot accessible from below. On the Makita Guide Rail, the T-track along the back edge has a lip on the inboard edge. This lip serves as an anti-tip feature when using their track saws. However, this lip will prevent you from using a Festool Guide Stop on that outer T-track slot. Some people have actually cut off this lip so that they could use Festool's Guide Stop on their Rail.
The Festool Guide Stops fit over a T-track slot with more of the Stop's body on one side than the other. When the Stop is mounted on the middle T-track slot on a Festool Rail with the wider portion towards the outer T-track slot, the body consumes all the space between the two T-track slots, so it cannot fit this way on a Makita Rail due to that lip. Now, I don't have any Makita Guide Rails, but it looks to me that the Festool Guide Stop will fit on the inner T-track slot when oriented the other way around with the narrower side towards the back edge -- this, however, places the micro-adjustment screw towards to back edge thus won't allow you to use the micro-adjustment feature of the Guide Stops.
So, as far as I can tell, you are able to use the Guide Stops to mount your Router on a Makita Guide Rail as long as you only use the Rail's inner T-track slot with the Stop facing the wrong way to utilize the micro-adjustment feature -- Rather limiting compared with the Festool Guide Rails.
I hope this is all correct, and that it answers your question. [smile]
The Festool Guide Stops fit over a T-track slot with more of the Stop's body on one side than the other. When the Stop is mounted on the middle T-track slot on a Festool Rail with the wider portion towards the outer T-track slot, the body consumes all the space between the two T-track slots, so it cannot fit this way on a Makita Rail due to that lip. Now, I don't have any Makita Guide Rails, but it looks to me that the Festool Guide Stop will fit on the inner T-track slot when oriented the other way around with the narrower side towards the back edge -- this, however, places the micro-adjustment screw towards to back edge thus won't allow you to use the micro-adjustment feature of the Guide Stops.
So, as far as I can tell, you are able to use the Guide Stops to mount your Router on a Makita Guide Rail as long as you only use the Rail's inner T-track slot with the Stop facing the wrong way to utilize the micro-adjustment feature -- Rather limiting compared with the Festool Guide Rails.
I hope this is all correct, and that it answers your question. [smile]
Corwin said:
Thank you for the reply. I may just buy a festool rail with the holes in it for the lr 32 anyways. I was just hoping to use my Makita rails. I have 2 of them, the 55” and the 118”. I bought them because they were cheaper and I have a Makita track saw that I’ve been more than happy with. I’m looking to buy a mft/3 and will probably equip it with a rail with the holes. That way I could use it for both, the router and the saw.
Yep I am in the same predicament that you are, I learned this one the hard way last year. I have a 31" festool as I needed it to build the Paulk benches and other accessories so I will be using that rail exclusively for the 1400 but will eventually get a 55" festool to boot.
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