www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

looks a good price
skill a good make
track looks plastic
no track record[pun intended] but for the money suspect it will be good for the diyer
the tracks for my dewalt cost more than that
http://www.tooled-up.com/product/skil-m ... lSaw_Email

It is plastic, and there's no plunge facility (which is pretty useful, not to mention safer), but at that price there's no excuse for DIYers to do wonky saw cuts any longer. A quick look and they also do a 110 volt version of the same saw. No Festool, but then......

thats a bit off luck then
i would normally say plunge saw but suspect most diyers would be unsure what a plunge saw was so called it track saw

Not seen one of those guides before, am I right in thinking it clamps onto the piece of wood and then you run the saw along wih and get lovely straight cuts?

If so are they specific to a particular saw or can you get guide tracks that can be used with any saw?

I'm wondering If I could get something to use with a saw my dad has?

they are saw/make specific
they normally use plunge saws with deep control ridges in the base
this is the first one i have seen that uses a normal saw

with normal track saws there is rubber edging and rubber grippers that mean you do not clamp you just lay the track and cut unless its somthing important like a worktop
the first pass off the saw cuts the rubber giving you a supported cut edge avoiding splintering

valve90210 wrote:If so are they specific to a particular saw or can you get guide tracks that can be used with any saw?

I understand that the track is particular to that saw. All the track saws I've seen to date have an extra groove (or sometimes two) in the base together with adjusters to allow them to ride on the track. Elu/DW did sell a rail system with a screw-on sub-base for several of their saws about 20 years back for a while, but that's long gone. Of course there are a couple of add-on systems in the USA which work in a similar way, but they are as expensive as Festool guide rails and in any case I don't think they are imported here.

valve90210 wrote:I'm wondering If I could get something to use with a saw my dad has?

You could always make something. there are several saw track designs around on the net. The simplest is just a 150mm or so wide rip of 4mm or 6mm MDF with a 2 x 1in PAR softwood batten glued and screwed down one side.

I made a saw track last year for a job I was working on out of mdf and ply works fine for what I need if for just a bit long to transport at 8foot long

big-all wrote:they are saw/make specific

Sort of, B-A. The two main systems in use now are the Festool system and the Mafell MT system.

The Festool system is compatible with rails from Hilti, Metabo, Virutex and Makita (although the Makita rails have an extra part on the edge of the rail so not all Festool-compatible saws work on it) with rail parts interchangeable. Current plunge saws from all the main industrial makers work on it, e.g. Festool, Makita, Virutex, Metabo, Protool, Hilti, Bosch and Mafell. The Maffell MT-type rail (they have two different designs of rail) is compatible with the Mafell MT55cc and Bosch GKT55 CE saws, whilst the deWalt plunge saws will work on either the current DW rails or Festool-compatible rails. More recent Bosch rip saws with a "G" suffix (e.g. GKS65G CE, GKS85G CE, etc) will also run on the Festool rails, but won't use the anti-splinter strip (I'm told). Bosch also have an earleir system which works with the non-"G" suffix saws together with some Bosch cordless saws

big-all wrote:this is the first one i have seen that uses a normal saw

The Metabo KS66 Plus and KSE68 saws have run on Festool-compatible rials for about 7 or 8 years (and the line up with the rubber strip, too). Rare, but they do exist

I'm fascinated by them, only being on my first real steps down the diy road, I had never come across such a thing before and seeing as I am useless at keeping any kind of tool going in a straight line it very much interested me.

Job and Knock wrote: You could always make something. there are several saw track designs around on the net. The simplest is just a 150mm or so wide rip of 4mm or 6mm MDF with a 2 x 1in PAR softwood batten glued and screwed down one side.

Hmm, I shall have to have a look into this as I have plenty of projects coming up that will require a fair amount of cutting and it would be great to cut things straight...lol

99% off the use mine gets is 6 and 12mm sheet material
and its fantastic 2 marks lay track and cut 10 seconds max
no plus 100mm no minus 100mm just lay and cut

Just knock up one of these.................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2hypJNYRQ