Rutland track guides

[Andy1T]

Hi all
I am considering buying a track saw. I aleady have decent cordless and mains powered circular saws. I so have a decent 1/4 and 1/2 routers.
I came across the Rutland guide rails with adapters for circular saws a nd routers.

Has anyone experience of these a accessories? They look like they are very well made and Rutland seem to have a pretty good reputation.

I'd love Festool TS55 but cannot justify the cost. The facility to use both a circular saw AND a router on the guides is certainly very attractive.

Thanks all.

 

[Spectric]

The Rutlands 1400mm track is £79

https://www.rutlands.com/sp+routing...ils-premium-guide-rail-1400mm-rutlands®+r9501
The Makita 1500mm track is £50 MAKITA 199141-8

You can buy router plates for several makes of routers to run on a track from this Scottish company Accessories Archives - FC Tools

Makita does this one Makita 194579-2 Router Guide Rail Adaptor for £37 and there are others like this one for the Bosch system https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-Professional-1600Z0000G-Adapter-Routers/dp/B00FLC4HCO

What make of routers as it would help people to give advice.

 

[Andy1T]

The Rutlands 1400mm track is £79

https://www.rutlands.com/sp+routing...ils-premium-guide-rail-1400mm-rutlands®+r9501
The Makita 1500mm track is £50 MAKITA 199141-8

You can buy router plates for several makes of routers to run on a track from this Scottish company Accessories Archives - FC Tools

Makita does this one Makita 194579-2 Router Guide Rail Adaptor for £37 and there are others like this one for the Bosch system https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bosch-Professional-1600Z0000G-Adapter-Routers/dp/B00FLC4HCO

What make of routers as it would help people to give advice.

Sorry should have said.

Routers are an old but good 1/2 Ryobi and a Trend 1/4 inch.

Saws are Bosch GJS 18V 57 and a Makita MG 5008. Makita have told me they don't make a guide rail adapter for this saw which is a pain.

Hence looking at alternatives and the Rutland seems to offer the router option as well.

If relevant I have made an MFT/3 style worktop using the UJK kit and have the UJKbench dog kit to go with it. I will mount this into a bench using the IKEA tracks as shown by Peter Millard. May stretch to the Festool spare partside rails and the hinge system at a later date.

 

[Spectric]

Makita have told me they don't make a guide rail adapter for this saw which is a pain.

Marketing, what they are saying is you could buy our tracksaw instead. Before I purchased the Makita tracksaw I was using a Bosch circular saw and a length of angle iron which delivered good results, the benefit of the tracksaw which I did not initially see is that it is very easy to setup and with the extra's like a rail square and parallel guides gives a great all round method for cutting up sheet goods. But in reality they only make the job easier and with less effort because we tend to forget that the normal way once upon a time was the hand saw and muscle with a dose of skill.

May stretch to the Festool spare partside rails and the hinge system at a later date.

Rather than that system which fixes to the side rails look at this great system from Benchdogs,

https://benchdogs.co.uk/collections/hinge-system
This locates on the top and this video shows how it works

 

[Spectric]

It is worth mentioning that the other aspect of a tracksaw is it's ability to plunge, that with the rubber strip seems to give cleaner cuts on some sheet goods.

 

[Doug71]

I would be tempted to look at the budget track saws, I have never used one but get the impression they are more than capable.

Rails like the Festool or Makita are kind of the industry standard so if you could use one of those there will be more accessories available, it would be quite easy to knock up a jig to use your routers on it if one isn't available.

I would take Rutlands 5 star reviews and the fact they use the word Premium before all their products with a pinch of salt.

 

[Andy1T]

Thanks all
#Spectric. The Bench dogs quad is interesting but then how to mount the Makita circ saw? Accuracy is my main objective here
#Doug71 I was looking at Macallister and the like but the likelihood that spares are not going to be available at the end of two years warranty puts me off.
Have you experience of using Rutland products?

 

[sams93]

I ordered two of these two weeks ago as I needed a new guide rail for my TS55. The picture on the website is different but the product they send is actually the makita rail, so I was very pleased with that.

The makita tracks are compatible with the Festool, Makita, Evolution and possibly some other track saws, so they will work with my TS55, and are MUCH cheaper than the festool ones.

The router adaptors are available very cheaply to fit all the guides and router brands i.e this

Separately I would highly reccomend the TS55, I bought mine used for about £200 and I have had it for about 2.5 years now. If it ever broke I would replace it with another used TS55 the next day happily!

 

[Andy1T]

Thanks #sams93

Excellent advice thank you very much. I'll get one ordered now with circ saw and router adapterds

Do the Festool rail f clamps fit as well?

Do you know where they are made? I try to avoid Chinese stuff if I can.

 

[sams93]

Thanks #sams93

Excellent advice thank you very much. I'll get one ordered now with circ saw and router adapterds

Do the Festool rail f clamps fit as well?

Do you know where they are made? I try to avoid Chinese stuff if I can.

The ones they sent are the actual makita ones, so wherever makita make them! (They are a Japanese brand but have factories all over the place). I’d recommend ordering two because then you can cut down full ply sheets by joining them together.


Yes I use the Festool f clamps with mine and it is fine, the rails are the same profile

 

[Andy1T]

Thanks again
Planning to use them on an MFT workbench but will get extra length when I have learned how to use these first.

 

[Andy1T]

So is there any advice on mounting the circular saws on the track? Especially the Makita as that is my real workhorse saw. Is it back to Rutland?

 

[sberry]

I have a Rutlands track saw with rails, bought in 2019. Works ok, though you might want to replace the blade with a better one for cleaner cuts (it's a bit rough). Also, check the rail profiles. Mine do not have a channel down the left side, like the Festool ones, which mean you cannot use various dog addons, such as the clips that keep the rail snug against the dog when cutting. I'm considering buying festool compatible rails so that I can make full use of my MFT table.