Make your own, I used a homemade one for years before I finally bought a track saw. Get a 4x8 sheet of 3/16" thick hardboard from menards. Cut a 1 1/2" rip off the factory 8' long edge. Then cut a 8" or so rip. Glue and clamp or screw the 1.5" piece on top of the 8" piece so the factory straight edge will be your cutting guide. Once glue is set run your saw along the guide board to trim the bottom 8" piece to the exact cut of your saw. Now you have your own track guide and extra wood for 20 or so bucks.
see Signcrafter's post above. Guide doesn't care if the blade is left or right.
That’s what I thought, then I bought one. It’s incredibly useful, much less hassle than a clamped straight edge and does nicer cuts.
This was literally what the original Festool saws seemed yo be designed for maybe 20-25 years ago at this point when I first saw the saws demonstrated.
^^^^ This ^^^^
I guess it depends on what you are doing but I use my track saw all the time and table saw way less, pretty much only for specialty cuts. Just the other day I was making a butcher block island countertop with a sink in it. Used the track saw to cut it to size, cut the sink out, and miter the corners so there were no sharp edges. I realise this thread was probably mainly for 4x8 sheet goods but use my track saw for them also mostly. Just find it way easier and faster for me to throw the sheet on some sawhorses or on the ground on top of a 1" thick piece of foam insulation. Mark each side and throw a light weight track on the sheet and move the saw across the sheet. Maybe I just got used to using it so much on jobsites that I grab it first even in the shop with table saw. To me it's just more versatile and easier to use for most things. Still need table saw for specialty cuts like dado and splines and other stuff like that.
Liar, Liar, pants on fire. YES YOU DO want a track saw. On the other hand I do agree with your original sentence.
I have the Makita double battery model and it's fine. But, to be honest, the current hotness is the Milwaukee. My reason that I feel this is the case is because Milwaukee waited so long to come out with their version that they had time to study the competition and improved on the weaknesses they saw in them. If I were to buy again it would be the Milwaukee.This was literally what the original Festool saws seemed yo be designed for maybe 20-25 years ago at this point when I first saw the saws demonstrated.
Ultra accurate clean cuts, for finish carpentry and cabinetmaking, with the dust collection attachments and ability to due work on site, in a finished location, such as a home or office, with minimal cleanup necessary at completion, and an accuracy similar to what could be achieved with an average decent cabinet tablesaw.
The Hilti version at the time seemed slightly less capable of dust elimination, and maybe slightly less accurate, although using the same Festool type guide tracks, but maybe slightly better suited for more accurate than normal carpentry cuts.
Mafell offered both options, but I have never used either.
I don’t know what the current Festool motors are like.
The older ones have decent cooling, but are way less powerful than the average Milwaukee circular saw, and the same likely true regarding other standard “professional” circular saws from Skil, Bosch, Dewalt, Makita, etc., unless Festool managed to completely overhaul the motor design.
I’ve not used any of the cordless saws, so
You can also use the rip guides made for the circular saw to cut off the stock edge off of a sheet of plywood, and use that as the “straight edge” and glue or nail that to the bottom piece of plywood the saw runs on.Carpenters for years and years made their own shooting boards for circular saws before track saws became common.
Take a piece of nice, smooth plywood the length of whatever you want the “track” to be. I like some run-off, so I do 5’ to cut a 4’ length and so on.
Screw on a length of aluminum angle as a fence, leaving enough material so you can do a clean up cut.
Saw the length of your new shooting board using the fence. This gives you a “zero clearance” edge.
Now you just put the edge of your shooting board up to where you want the blade kerf and cut.
I used to have to cut sheets and sheets of corrugated aluminum for a job we did. I couldn’t justify a custom shear blade for the part as we weren’t doing enough volume but we did enough production that I still needed something that cut straight and square. Enter the circular saw and shooting board.
I cut both sides of the angle so I could use either side of the shoe. I also found a sheet of foam insulation works excellent for a sacrificial table that is still reasonably stiff and supportive.
Plus at most, it might get uses once or twice a year !
That'll be fun to apply stain to
The Bora NGX looks very nice, especially with their shoe. Kind of pricey, but nice. Maybe next project !
Why would you need to strain the homemade cutting track for your circular saw?
I misunderstood what you were describing. I thought you were running the saw sled directly on the workpiece. My bad
The point was that wax rubbing off onto the wood panel would greatly interfere with the later application of stain to the wood panel if it touched.
The wax goes on top of the track were the saw rubs the track, and the plywood edge, rather the bottom of the track that rubs the workpiece.
I bought the Milwaukee and kinda regret it. I think I would have been happier with Makita.
