Sometimewoodworker said:
Your reasoning strongly suggests that you are using the rails in a professional setting.
Actually a pure hobby use and not plans for commercial. That why bothered to put up the "stages" concept, as the rails are not cheap.
The selection above is done to allow the purchase of the least of rails while getting the most of value. If you look, already by "Stage 2", with just 2 1400 holy rails, one gets:
- full rip capability
- a handy 1016 rail for most post-rip work
- optimal cross-cut length option (an issue with having pure 2 x 1400 as one is short and two are too long)
- holy-rail single-joint option up to 2424 equivalent
As to accurate cutting of rails, chopping a bit off is easy I agree but cutting a holy rail (the ends must be accurately square and holes perfectly spaced from the cut end unless it’s always going to be a standalone unit) is a different case and you will always have to chop out a longer section to achieve that.
The thing is, I found the practical squareness (granted, I used the GRS rail square) of cutting a rail with a tracksaw is actually better than how they come from factory. I think this is because the rail ends are not considered "reference edge" hence Festool does not bother with super-accuracy there. The only real need is to have the cut rail "upside down" below the rail on which saw goes and have it supported where it is thin.
The second thing (I did not know before did it) is that when you join holly rails, there is - by design - an 8 mm (3/16") gap between the rails and the 32m system holes are actually what you use as reference to join them exactly. Not the ends. I advise to make the ends same distance as the factory rails have just for simplicity, is not strictly required.
This "8mm design-gap" is a plenty for accurately cutting a holy rail via two precise cuts anywhere "in between the holes" and getting thus an arbitrary length split which is still fully compatible with the factory endings.
I chose the "376" (11.75 x 32mm) as the "shorty" size because it is the biggest that fits in a Systainer. Any length above 350 that is XX.75 x 32mm would be OK for the "shorties". You just need about 250mm/10" after the connector end for T-slot clamps to fit
You seem to be arguing that your situation is in any way universally true or applicable.
Thanks for this. Should reword the post as that was not the intended message.
It is a "hi guys, here is how I would do it based on my learning from past mistakes my acquired understanding of what is possible with the least of budget".
I have thought this approach as a reaction of how I have wasted a lot of money on rails (for a hobby user) while still missing key functionality - like buying the 2700 only to realize it is too short for rips and too long for full-cross-cut while 1400 is too short for the cross-cuts instead. [/quote]
As for the Festool bars making any kind of problems, they never have for me in 15 years, I don’t have a torque screwdriver, I only found out about them a couple of months ago, and am perfectly capable of judging the correct tightening of most fixtures. The only time I will use a torque wrench is in a case like automotive engine fittings where it is needed.
Had the Makita or TSO ones been available I would quite possibly have bought them, they weren’t and the case for them is rather exaggerated IMNSHO as is the Festool “damage”.
You are right the Festool ones "work", but I cannot recommend them to anyone while the Makita ones are at 1/2 cost *and* are just fool-proof unlike the Festool ones.
The TSO ones are an upgrade over both in speed and so is the Betterley. But come with a cost and their theoretical accuracy is no better than Festool/Makita ones + straight edge used correctly.
So I do not think they make economical sense for hobby use. A hobbyist is much better to use the saved money for an engineer's straight edge which is good for other uses too.
EDIT: A bit more clarity ref. the 8mm, "spacing" when holy rails are connected for LR32 work.
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