The
Tracksaw Workshop playlist
has everything related to plunge saws and guiderails and there’s a specific video on rail compatibility
here
Long and short of it is that all saws work on Festool-pattern guiderails as it’s the defacto standard having been patented first, but they don’t necessarily all work well. If you want to avoid compatibility issues buy one manufacturers track and stick to it. More expensive tracks tend to be better quality - shocker - but in terms of keeping the saw located on the rail I haven’t found much to choose between them, and I use a mix of Festool and Makita tracks, generally.
The Festool track has an upward facing t-slot on the left-hand edge which makes it very useful for accessories like parallel guides and rail stops; tracks without this (Bosch, Mafell, DeWalt, many of the rails that come with entry-level saws etc…) will find it harder to use these. Makita has the t-slot, but also has an anti-tipping lip that can get in the way of these accessories, and some saws too; the Makita pattern is the most widely copied track (no royalties, I believe) by third parties who ‘manufacture’ the Titan/Triton/MacAllister style saws. Evolution rails have the left-side t-slot, but downward-facing which makes it a lot less useful.
Be cautious about mixing and matching third party saws and rails; the ‘badge engineering’ that goes on in the entry level leads to some anomalies, eg the Excel branded saw (an Einhell/Parkside clone) comes with 2 x 700mm guiderails, but this saw and rails are incompatible with the Excel 1400mm rail, which is a Makita clone.
If you’re planning on joining rails a lot then the Bosch/Mafell system will definitely be a time saver, but as a long time Festool user I’ve never had an issue joining their rails accurately - you must use two joining bars though, and treat it carefully when moving a joined track around; many of the problems that people report seem to stem from just using the one bar, and expecting it to hold straight when lifting a 2.8m length of rail from one end. If you’re looking for a long rail them the Makita 3-metre is still the best value.
Despite the similarities between the Makita and Festool tracks, I’ve always found the Festool to be more grippy. I prefer the Festool splinterguard over the Bosch/Mafell as it can be edged out and re-trimmed. AFAIK Festool is the only saw that maintains blade position as it’s bevelled - if you expect make a lot of bevel cuts that may be important.
The AMS rails look interesting, but being Russian I don’t think they’ll get a lot of business somehow.
For context I own a lot of tracksaws and have used most of the ones available here in Britain. HTH P
