Splinter guard strips on metal tracks repeatedly falling off

[Roadster Man]

Good tip on taping the ends down. The cut strip repeatedly comes loose on both of my tracks, which is very annoying! One trick I use on my no-skid strips for cleaning them when the get dusty is a simple lint roller. Does a great job cleaning the non-skid strips in a minute or two.

 

[Peter_C]

Good tip on taping the ends down. The cut strip repeatedly comes loose on both of my tracks, which is very annoying! One trick I use on my no-skid strips for cleaning them when the get dusty is a simple lint roller. Does a great job cleaning the non-skid strips in a minute or two.

I have found rounding the ends to work well. Keeps them from catching on things, and the ends are never used for locating.

 

[Birdhunter]

I read somewhere that the plastic razor blades worked well for removing the adhesive left when replacing the splinter strips. I bought some expecting to replace the strips on one of my rails. Turned out I didn’t have to replace the strip (just pressed it back on). I did use the plastic razors to remove some stubborn blue masking tape On a recent project. They worked great. Got the tape off and didn’t scratch the wood.

 

[RJNeal]

I have received brand new rails with the clear strips falling off.
I have been known to use blue masking tape keep the ends on.
Found it a pain(  blue tape)  to clean off upon replacement.
I only replace with the makita black tape now.

 

[Bohdan]

Got sick of the clear strips peeling off at the ends of my rails, unlike the black strips on my older rails which work perfectly.

Peeled the strips off, cleaned any residual glue off with lacquer thinners and stuck the old clear strips back on with Nitto Denko 512 adhesive strip. Normally used to attach plastic badges to cars.

Have done a couple of rails and so far there has been no hint of delamination as the glue really grips. The real test will be when summer returns and the rails are subject to temperatures in excess of 100°F but I don't expect failure as cars are often out in the sun's heat and their badges don't fall off.

The original strips were moved slightly out on the rail to enable a new saw cut to form a new splinter edge.

 

[ultane]

I have received brand new rails with the clear strips falling off.
I have been known to use blue masking tape keep the ends on.
Found it a pain(  blue tape)  to clean off upon replacement.
I only replace with the makita black tape now.

Source?

 

[ultane]

I have received brand new rails with the clear strips falling off.
I have been known to use blue masking tape keep the ends on.
Found it a pain(  blue tape)  to clean off upon replacement.
I only replace with the makita black tape now.

Source?

 

[RJNeal]

Ultane, I picked some up off of amazon.
I buy the 118” ones. That way I can make different sizes. Cheaper that way.
Definitely need to use a lacquer or acetone for cleaning.

 

[Rick Herrick]

Ultane, I picked some up off of amazon.
I buy the 118” ones. That way I can make different sizes. Cheaper that way.
Definitely need to use a lacquer or acetone for cleaning.

If you mean this one, that price is great.  Less than half of the price I just paid for the FT 118"

Makita 118" splinter guard strip

 

[ultane]

Thanks RJ and Rick.

 

[RJNeal]

Yes that’s the one. I’m not very computer savvy on sharing other sites. Thanks R. Herrick

 

[Mark]

FWIW I sent a complaint to Festool USA about the splinter guard and they kindly are going to send me a new set... of the same splinter guard. I'm pretty sure they are aware of the problem but maybe its a marketing thing to not be shamed into going back to the old design. Or a way to force us to buy more splinter guards as a consumable Something along the lines of, "We at Festool strive to enable you to do your best work and by using fresh splinter guards, you can be assured of accurate and splinter free cut"

I've always had Mafell-envy of the features you see on their tools that sometimes end up on Festool. But the splinter guard is one of the main reasons you get a tracks so that you never have to guess off sets or get a fuzzy cut.

Fix the bugs like the splinter guard and not make stuff like branded swag that take resources away from your core business.

 

[luvmytoolz]

I don't know why they changed the adhesive for the splinter guard, I have the original AT55 and tracks from the early 1980's and the guards haven't lifted at all despite numerous uses, in fact the rubber cushioning has just about been rubbed away over the last 40+ years from the use and abuse, but the guards are still spot on.

And yet the later tracks I have all have the guard lifting.

 

[Cheese]

[mad]  Sometimes you just have to shake your head.  [mad]

Up until today, I cut Festool some slack with the splinter strip issue because maybe...just maybe, they'd never experienced the 11(?) year old problem themselves and thus all the talk & grousing about failing splinter strips was just noise as far as Festool Corporate was concerned.

Well, Festool no longer gets a free pass on this problem. Yesterday, Sedge just hosted Festool Live Episode 195 where he gives a tour of the latest Bott racking and storage solutions for vans, trailers & workshops. At the 25:27 time stamp of the video is this image...does this look familiar?  [sad]

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