Track Saws - Moving on from Scheppach

[HexusOdy]

I've had the Scheppach PL55 track saw for about a year now. The saw itself is generally fine, the guide rails in isolation are fine since they fixed the guide strips being close together. The issue I have with it is that its pretty hard to get a straight cut using multiple track sections.

I have both 0.7 and 1.4m guide rails and none of them fit together well. I'm not sure its a slop issue, they seem rigid enough, or the end of the rails not being exactly 90 degree which is most likely. I could mess about trying to recut all the rails to 90 but there are no guarantees. There is also the issue with the cut line at 45 degrees being off the normal cut line. All in all my advice would be don't go with the Scheppach.

What is everyone else using that's not break the bank Festool price? Does anyone else do a 2.7m long rail like Festool?

 

[MikeJhn]

Have you tried cutting the ends of your rails square using your track saw mounted in the other rail set up carefully at 90degs? seems an easy fix to me.

Mike

 

[Doug71]

Even Festool don't guarantee that the ends of their rails are square, they recommend leaving a slight gap between them when joining. I have a 3m Festool track and would not be without it, gets a lot of use.

Makita do long tracks cheaper but I have seen a couple of reviews questioning their straightness, might just have been Festool fanboys though.

I remember seeing on here somewhere a firm in Europe who produced cheaper basic tracks, like the Festool originals.

Shipping is often an issue with the long tracks, my first one turned up with a big kink in it.

Doug

 

[HexusOdy]

Have you tried cutting the ends of your rails square using your track saw mounted in the other rail set up carefully at 90degs? seems an easy fix to me.

Mike

I did consider it, I have a a mitre saw I cut cut them with but it doesn't fix the problem with cutting 45 degrees. Although I never considered leaving a gap as suggested above. Will try that first.

 

[Eric The Viking]

FWIW, my Makita 3m track is +/- 0.5mm over its length. I have tried to measure it more accurately than that and couldn't easily. If it is off, it's an extremely gentle curve.

I have tried the obvious ideas to measure it: laser (waste of time), fishing line, latter offset by blocks (better), sighting along it (pointless). I might, one day, possibly, find a need for a more accurate measure, but as-is it'll do for breaking down sheets.

Oh, and I did try running it along the edge of a sheet of ply, too. again really hard to tell because of parallax.

It'll serve, and anyway, Festool don't quote brilliant straightness for their rails either.

E.

 

[Bodgers]

I've had the Scheppach PL55 track saw for about a year now. The saw itself is generally fine, the guide rails in isolation are fine since they fixed the guide strips being close together. The issue I have with it is that its pretty hard to get a straight cut using multiple track sections.

I have both 0.7 and 1.4m guide rails and none of them fit together well. I'm not sure its a slop issue, they seem rigid enough, or the end of the rails not being exactly 90 degree which is most likely. I could mess about trying to recut all the rails to 90 but there are no guarantees. There is also the issue with the cut line at 45 degrees being off the normal cut line. All in all my advice would be don't go with the Scheppach.

What is everyone else using that's not break the bank Festool price? Does anyone else do a 2.7m long rail like Festool?

For the 45 zero clearance you need to have one rail reserved for that where you've done the initial cut at 45 degrees and leave that one like that.

Are you regularly cutting lengths of more than 1.4m?

I think with any of the tracksaw systems you still have to make sure to connected tracks are flush and level. I have the Dewalt, and I use a 1m straight edge to push them up to to make sure they are straight.