Recently i bought the Mafell Aerofix and am loving it.  Takes a little bit of getting used to it.  Like once you position the rail, have to start the saw so the vacuum kicks in providing the required clamping force giving it an additional second or so before you engage. But the joy of not using clamps makes the work flow go quick. Also the additional unit that's shipped let's you use it from the top allowing you to position the rail at floor level. 

So, I'm curious if once the Mafell rail is placed on the pencil line if the rail moves with the Aerofix?  I suspect not but I am curious.

The Mafell clamps will move the rail a smidgen.

Here's something that's difficult to do using a Festool guide rail because the clamp slot is 5" away from the splinter strip. On the Mafell guide rail that clamp slot to splinter strip distance is less than 1".

I was cutting up some wide birds eye maple boards into strips 1 1/2" wide and in this case I was left with a piece that was 1 19/32" wide. So I needed to clean up the edge and remove 3/32". Pretty simple to do with the Mafell rail.

@Cheese your drawer fronts are only 1-1/2” tall? Are you making flat files?

LOL...ya with the 1/4" bottom ply and its dado there isn't a lot of space available...

For art, large photo prints and sketches of the coming projects I presume 

Thanks for the insight of the clamps, but I suppose if not careful the FT style will also shift the rail sideways. The potential shift of the Mafell I can see. You’ll need to have the clamp set to 90° to the rail below before engaging pressure due to the high rise of the lower foot? I did also notice that they are prone to slightly lift the center of the rail, since they attach at the edge of the workpiece.

Well @FestitaMakool you and @Michael Kellough are very good at hedging your bets...a wink and a nod, quite a pair to draw to. 

I knew Michael was going to be all over me on this posting but what the hey...I'll give him some more fodder tomorrow. 

When it comes to the rail shifting, you don't know what you don't know...and I'm still trying to understand the implications. Some of the implications are indeed deep in the weeds if you're used to machining metal versus wood. Wood is so much more forgiving. 

Because the Festool splinter strips become so "beavered up" through use, it's difficult or impossible to reliably place them on a pencil line and say they are "exactly" on the line. My experience has been that they are usually close, that being within 1/64" to 1/32".

The Mafell splinter strip on the other hand, because of the material it's made from, is extremely smooth and thus it's really simple to place it on the pencil line.

If accuracy in aligning a pencil line with a splinter strip is your mission in life    then by all means the Mafell splinter strips complete that task in spades. It's dead nuts...

Looking forward to Sunday’s posts, reply #65 was less than satisfactory 

The congruence of the splinter guard to the kerf was what drew me to Festool in the first place. But we all know that relationship degrades, sometime rapidly. I learned to move the splinter guard out with the aid of a heat gun but I haven’t done that in more than a year to any of my rails.

Sometimes I stick a Post-It note to the bottom of the rail to get a fresh indication of where the kerf is but often I just use a steel rule butted against the aluminum rail to register the appropriate increment to the mark. A metric rule usually works best.

Well @Michael Kellough  this doesn't answer your first issue but it does address the 2nd & 3rd issue...in a round-about fashion. 

Recently, I've been using both the Festool rails & the Mafell rails with the MT 55. When using the Festool rail it's been very difficult to decide which part of the splinter strip I should align with the pencil mark because it's so chewed up. I should note that I changed the splinter strips on all the Festool rails last fall, so this shows the amount of damage over 1 year with only intermittent use.




When I place a straight edge along the strip this is what it looks like. Dimensionally that's about a 1/32" gap.




Here's what the Mafell looks like.




Zooming out a bit this is the view. Note that there is a gap of various widths starting at the 2 3/4" mark and extending to the 10 13/16" mark. This makes aligning the splinter strip with a pencil mark difficult. The semi-solution would be to mark the splinter strip in 2 places and then use those marks to align to the pencil line.




In comparison here's the Mafell rail.




This issue started after I ripped several long pieces of maple to the same width using both brands of rails and noticed a difference in width between the pieces. The Mafell rails produced very uniform widths while the Festool rails produced scattered results. Some of the pieces from the Festool rails even had a different width on each end of the board.

I don't think the source of the problem is caused by the saws (MT 55, TSC 55 & HKC 55), by the manufacturer of the rails or by the fit of the saws on the rails. I think it's the material that Festool chose to use as a splinter strip is the issue. I believe it's HDPE and it tends to be on the brittle side.

It would be interesting to attach a material similar to what Mafell uses, to the Festool rail, cut the splinter strip and then compare. 

@Cheese said, “ I don't think the source of the problem is caused by the saws (MT 55, TSC 55 & HKC 55), by the manufacturer of the rails or by the fit of the saws on the rails. I think it's the material that Festool chose to use as a splinter strip is the issue. I believe it's HDPE and it tends to be on the brittle side.

It would be interesting to attach a similar material, similar to what Mafell uses, to the Festool rail, cut the splinter strip and then compare.”

I’m still using the old black neoprene strips (so I can’t compare) and they get torn up plenty.

My guess is it’s the difference in the saws/blades. Difficult to say for sure since you can’t run the Festool saws on the Mafell rails but since there is so little erosion on the Mafell strip it’s unlikely that the Mafell saw contributed to the erosion of the Festool splinter guard.

The splinter guard only gets chewed up when the blade wanders out of it’s proper path so there will be commensurate damage to the wood. I haven’t used my cordless MT55 all that much but so far so good as far as the cut surface goes, and no noticeable wear of the (Bosch) splinter guard.

Quote from: yetihunter on July 02, 2020, 03:17 AM

@Cheese

Now that you have the rail, you should get the KSS40 to go with it.  It’s my most used saw.

+ 1

I get a little disappointed when I can’t make the cut with the KSS40.

One thing I like that I haven’t seen mentioned is that you can stand the whole thing up on it’s butt.



I just wish it was easier to set the bevel precisely.

I think the best results are as FestitaMakool said, but also have the blade actually cut wood. Still, that condition is short lived.

The material in the Mafell splinter guard seems to be better suited.

One thing strikes me; do you cut your fresh/new splinter guards fully plunged?
- I know I did, per FT instructions.. but it think it’s wrong: I’ll cut as if I was cutting thin material next time, with the blade protruding maximum 1-2 mm’s below. It seems that the splinter guard easily gets tear out, and it might help cutting it plunged just below the thickness of the splinter guard.

For both Festool & Mafell rails, I placed the rail on a sheet of foam and then cut the splinter strip so that the kerf in the foam was maybe 3-4 mm deep.

It might just be me, but you need new twist knob

Quote from: Michael Kellough on July 10, 2020, 11:07 AM

That is a great bracket Rob! Perfect for people who want to build their own MFT style table.

Can it be fitted to a Festool MFT for those who want to upgrade?

Yes. It's a direct retrofit for the MFT.

Just saw this.  What a great system!  I suppose one can continue to use the Festool fence or use Parf Dogs, etc.  Is that correct?

Quote from: Michael Kellough on August 09, 2020, 12:43 AM

Looking forward to Sunday’s posts, reply #65 was less than satisfactory 

The congruence of the splinter guard to the kerf was what drew me to Festool in the first place. But we all know that relationship degrades, sometime rapidly. I learned to move the splinter guard out with the aid of a heat gun but I haven’t done that in more than a year to any of my rails.

Sometimes I stick a Post-It note to the bottom of the rail to get a fresh indication of where the kerf is but often I just use a steel rule butted against the aluminum rail to register the appropriate increment to the mark. A metric rule usually works best.

Well @Michael Kellough  this doesn't answer your first issue but it does address the 2nd & 3rd issue...in a round-about fashion. 

Recently, I've been using both the Festool rails & the Mafell rails with the MT 55. When using the Festool rail it's been very difficult to decide which part of the splinter strip I should align with the pencil mark because it's so chewed up. I should note that I changed the splinter strips on all the Festool rails last fall, so this shows the amount of damage over 1 year with only intermittent use.

(Attachment Link)


When I place a straight edge along the strip this is what it looks like. Dimensionally that's about a 1/32" gap.

(Attachment Link)


Here's what the Mafell looks like.

(Attachment Link)


Zooming out a bit this is the view. Note that there is a gap of various widths starting at the 2 3/4" mark and extending to the 10 13/16" mark. This makes aligning the splinter strip with a pencil mark difficult. The semi-solution would be to mark the splinter strip in 2 places and then use those marks to align to the pencil line.

(Attachment Link)


In comparison here's the Mafell rail.

(Attachment Link)


This issue started after I ripped several long pieces of maple to the same width using both brands of rails and noticed a difference in width between the pieces. The Mafell rails produced very uniform widths while the Festool rails produced scattered results. Some of the pieces from the Festool rails even had a different width on each end of the board.

I don't think the source of the problem is caused by the saws (MT 55, TSC 55 & HKC 55), by the manufacturer of the rails or by the fit of the saws on the rails. I think it's the material that Festool chose to use as a splinter strip is the issue. I believe it's HDPE and it tends to be on the brittle side.

It would be interesting to attach a material similar to what Mafell uses, to the Festool rail, cut the splinter strip and then compare.

The lack of precision that you mentioned in some cuts with the festool guides is not due to the anti-chipping strip but is due to the anchoring of the saw on the rail, in the mafell guides it fits more precisely and does not oscillate easily even when high forces are applied on the festool rails there is oscillation

Quote from: periquito on January 21, 2021, 07:31 PM

The lack of precision that you mentioned in some cuts with the festool guides is not due to the anti-chipping strip but is due to the anchoring of the saw on the rail, in the mafell guides it fits more precisely and does not oscillate easily even when high forces are applied on the festool rails there is oscillation

I disagree. Both saws can be adjusted on their respective rails with zero side to side movement. FYI, I have both saws.

Not true, with the Mafell MT 55 saw.

No matter how much the adjustment wheels are tightened, the saw nods if force is applied, the oscillation is clearly visible visually, not even by tightening the maximum that it is very hard and is impossible to use like that. I have checked it and there is no doubt.

And if you have this saw, check to intentionally move the saw and you will see that the saw oscillates and the same does not happen when you put the saw on the mafell rail, there is no oscillation that can be seen visually.

Festool rails do not allow very high precision. Its should not be used for cuts that require high precision or for demanding cuts in wood

Festool rails do not allow very high precision. Its should not be used for cuts that require high precision or for demanding cuts in wood

I've used FT saws for many years on everything from softwood to aluminum and from large sheets to tiny parts. They have proven to be extremely precise, able to consistently shave off 0.1 mm if needed. I'm sure tens of thousands of woodworkers worldwide would agree.

I have the festool DSC-AG 125 that comes ready to use with the festool guides so tomorrow I will check if it fits accurately without any oscillation.

However, in this forum there are many festool users and many complain about bites in the festool anti-splinter piece, the same thing has happened to me with the Mafell MT 55, for me it is proof that sometimes the cut can be twist slightly and that is what produces those irregularities.

I maintain that the Mafell guide has a superior precision and for what I have read and in other posts in this same thread, the majority in this forum supports it, a forum in which it is assumed that there are many more users of Festool tools than of Mafell and yet there is no problem in recognizing superiority and that happens because this superiority is unquestionable.

And what is more, if demanding cuts were made, for example in tropical, hard wood and large widths. This difference in precision would be much more evident because entering the saw in hard material creates greater torsional forces and this is where festool guides have their vulnerable point.

I have both guide systems and say that the Mafell / Bosch guides are far superior to the Festool.

I have more Festool guides than Mafell so I'm not particularly happy to have found this little problem with the Festool guides.

However, I do not know if I explain it well, I am talking about putting a Mafell MT55 saw, the best plunge saw in the world, on a Festool rail, adjust the slide in such a way that it is very rigid and grab the saw from the front and the back and try Turning it with force, the saw oscillates slightly visibly during force so adjustment without movement is impossible. On the Mafell rail, an adjustment is possible without visually appreciating an oscillatory movement.

I will limit myself to saying that with this configuration MT 55 and rail festool it is impossible to achieve a very high precision and it is because the saw does not fit so precisely.

I understand that as a consequence of the design of the festool channel, the tools have a contact surface much greater than that of Mafell, the friction is higher, perhaps the developers of Festool preferred to sacrifice minimally the precision to achieve a better sliding for their rail, this is something that anyone notices from the first moment, extreme precision does not have to be a priority for the majority, it is not something that one can be sure of from the first minute, it requires demanding the machine and the guides.

As this post tries to compare both systems, in the comparison, for design reasons it is very difficult that with this design the festool guides have as precise a guide as the Mafell / Bosch guides

As I said I will check it with a specific tool for festool rails and here I will say it

But as I said in another post, festool guides have the advantage of better grip