118" Makita Guide Rail

[Jack Clay]

I have been looking at the 118" Makita Guide Rail to use with my TS 55. Has anybody bought this rail insted of the Festool? If so what do you think of the rail. Where did you buy it and did you have any problems with shipping problems. Thank you for the help.

[Jack Clay]

Has anybody bought the Makita rail for the festool saw?

[Van Huskey]

My reply is as much a bump as a real reply.

I bought the cordless Dewalt because I got a killer deal on it, but when looking at tracks (it came with none) I went with Festool because even at the price it was the only tack that allowed all three manufactureres saws to work on them. The Festool will not work on the Dewalt track. Before I decided on a saw I did research them all and found the Festool tracks to have better (visually) extrusions, but I also didn't have to consider the Makita track later since the Dewalt will not work on it. The Festool's long rails are shipped pretty bulletproof, I don't know about the long Makita rails. For me the Festool rails made sense because it left my options open later since I could run any of the three saws on it AND I know they will be around to support them with replacement strips.

Hopefully, you will get a real answer to your question!

[Mark Denovich]

I personally have used the 55" Makita rail with the TS55 and I can report that it works fine. I believe buying the 118" Makita version because it's cheaper is fairly common practice for those who aesthetic sensibilities are not offended by a rail that is the wrong color green.

[Craig Michael]

It will work as well as the festool rail. It does have an anti tip lip that the makita saw uses. It does not affect the ts using the track. It will affect you uses festool routers and other accessories. I would just cut the exta aluminum lip off. I believe someone on FOG did that.

[Jack Clay]

With the Makita 118 inch rail at 130 dollars cheeper it seems like a way to go since i will be useing the 50 inch rail most of the time. Thank you for the help.

[Jack Clay]

My Makiita 118 inch guide rail came in yesterday. I was very pleased how they had packed it. I was a little concerned with it being shipped. They had packed it in a plywood and hard board box, it was huge.

Then they warped the rail in foam packing, I do not know what has changed but this rail dose not have the anti tip part on the rail. This rail is the same as my 55 inch Festol. I also ordered rail clamps and they all arrived at the same time. Over all I was very please with my order from Tool Barn, Thanks guys for you input and direction on research on these rails.

[Jamie Buxton]

Now that you have the guide rail, here's the test: whether it is straight. Rip a piece of plywood the full length. Then fold the two pieces together, so the two cut edges are aligned. If the edges mate perfectly the rail is straight. If they don't quite, you're seeing the non-straightness of the rail. For comparison, my Festool 106" rail has about .02" of bow in it. That doesn't seem like much, but it occasionally causes me some problems.