Thank you for the write up. I have the Mafell system. Losing or breaking the end clips has crossed my mind every time I join track. I do like that I can stow the track connector inside a section of track, without fouling the operation of the saw.

Jim

I have both systems and each as its pros and cons.

The FT rails have more grip on the bottom and the saws glide on them better.

The Mafell's antisplinter is FAR better and the dual slots on the bottom allow for clamping thin material right on edge for safer cutting.

With the TSO guide rail connectors, it is not a big deal to connect Festool rails. It is fast with the Mafell system, though.

The narrower Mafell rail can cause some complications if using rail dogs since the side of the motor will hit the dog if cutting thinner material.

"have both systems and each as its pros and cons.

The FT rails have more grip on the bottom and the saws glide on them better."

Interested in knowing: If you were to take the saw on site to a job would you prefer the Festool rail over the Mafell?

Great question - if I were cutting prefinished ply or melamine and not able to clamp I would probably give the edge to Festool rails. If working solid lumber, being able to clamp right at the cut edge gives an advantage to the Mafell-style rails.

There are also more accessories for Festool style - the guide rail squares, parallel guides, etc... are all available for Festool. Mafell is still limited in this area - there are some companies across the pond offering setups for this style rail, but not readily available in North America. Hopefully this will change in the future.

@Cheese

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

Ya that's pretty funny...I was thinking the same thing yesterday while cutting some 2x materials. I really like the HKC but was interested in what the Mafell equivalent was. It looks like it's the KSS 50.

You mention the KSS 40 and I looked at the pricing of it and it's whacky. The bare KSS 40 is $915 while for an additional $84 you receive 2 batteries, a charger and a Flexi-Guide. 

https://www.timberwolftools.com/mafell-kss-40-18m-bl-cordless-cross-cutting-system

My neighbor asked me to cut a couple inches off the length of some readymade Melamine shelf boards.

Following the make it quick and easy principle I got out the KSS40. So nice to have it all in one easy to carry box. Only to find out length of cut was an inch too short. The Flexirail is way too long and floppy for a one foot plank and then I have to get a square.

Got out the HKC 55 and short rail. That rail is also too short. The medium rail is long enough but discovered that the cut qualify of the standard blade would be embarrassing to present.

Got out the TSC 55 and an 800mm rail and TSO square. Using the standard fine cutting blade. Set depth to 1mm below the rail to score coating then made another pass deep enough to cut through. The result was excellent and easily achieved.

Think I’ll get a fine cut blade for the HKC and KSS40 but I really wish the KSS40 could cut a little farther. I’d put up with a Sys 5 container to have a little longer rail.

The full kit of the KSS40 is obviously the best deal but it might make you start buying Metabo stuff. It did me...

\Set depth to 1mm below the rail to score coating then made another pass deep enough to cut through. The result was excellent and easily achieved.

That's a cool function of the MT55cc.  It has scoring function built in with the flip of a lever. 

Just to follow up on @socaljohn ’s comments.  I’m not sure I agree that the Festool rail grills better.  On bare wood I haven’t found much of a difference in how the track grips the work.  Maybe the surface of the material being cut can bring out the difference?

I do agree the saws don’t ride on the Mafell tracks as smoothly (at least mine doesn’t move as smoothly as the Festools).  I’ve waxed the rails and it helps, but not for very long.  I purchased some ultrathin clear UHMW tape to see if a few lines run down the track will improve things, but I haven’t tried it yet.  I suspect that will help.

@Cheese  so maybe that tool is the difference between the Mafell track and the cheaper Bosch track?

Hi all,

FYI this bracket set is compatible with Festool and Bosch/Mafell rails:

https://dashboardpws.squarespace.com/products/guide-rail-brackets

Cheers,
Rob

I do agree the saws don’t ride on the Mafell tracks as smoothly (at least mine doesn’t move as smoothly as the Festools).  I’ve waxed the rails and it helps, but not for very long.  I purchased some ultrathin clear UHMW tape to see if a few lines run down the track will improve things, but I haven’t tried it yet.  I suspect that will help.

It's not just the plastic strips, it's also how the saw contacts the guide rib of the rail. Newer Festool saws have plastic pads on both sides of the groove. Older ones still have a bump in casting across from the green adjustment knob. On Mafell the entire length of the machined groove grinds against the rail causing greater friction. There is not much you can do about it.

Thanks for the post, Cheese!!
I just got a KSS60 2 days ago, and I was wondering about the regular Mafell rails.

I'm still getting used to it, but since I appear to have been forced into carpentry rather than just finish work, I treated myself to a nice dedicated saw. Besides, trying to bang out cuts of 2x4's etc with a plunge saw and no rail was horrifically dangerous. I was fighting the TS55 blade retraction while I tried to follow the line and keep the baseplate planted. An alternative was to bring each piece back to my MFT which was taking way too long and I didn't need that level of accuracy.

I like the saw so far, but there's still a lot I'm getting used to.

Question: Do Mafell saws on regular rails cut right at the edge of the splinter guard? My KSS60 cuts about 1/16" away from the rubber edge of its special guide track. Maybe there's some adjustment mechanism that I missed seeing in the manual, or maybe the saw on that carpentry guide track is just different from the saw on the regular guide rail.

The full kit of the KSS40 is obviously the best deal but it might make you start buying Metabo stuff. It did me...

LOL -- I went the other way around. I had my eye on a KSS-something as some wish-list, far-off-in-the-future possible purchase, and the Festool stuff were still in battery-transition, and I was absolutely fed up with the horrendously uncontrollable throttle on my Milwaukee impact driver, so I tried Metabo because of the CAS cross-compatibility. The first drill I bought, though, was the 18V hammer drill since the batteries on my older V18 Milwaukee hammer drill had died. Oh wow what a powerhouse. I even abused it by mixing concrete in a 5-gallon pail. It did that without any trouble at all!  Then I got the little 12V drill. Very nice and able to drive finish screws carefully. Superb trigger modulation on both. So I bought the impact driver. Beyond fantastic. Immediately I was no longer stripping screws! For once, the problem was actually the tool, not the idiot at the other end. Milwaukee can make some nice stuff, but gosh I hated that cheapo impact driver. (e.g. I just bought their cordless framing nailer, which is magnificent. I can now return my very kind friend's 20-yr-old Porter Cable and 80 lb compressor.)

Great drills, though I will gripe that I'm frustrated by the current fad of putting the giant battery pack forward toward the business end of the drill. I am so very often swearing at not being able to wedge the drill into a tight corner because of that stupid battery placement. I curse "BEING A FOOT IS NOT ITS MAIN PURPOSE!" and then I climb down from the ladder to go find the right length extension rod so I can get my job done. And Festool's done the same thing with their new ones. Ugh.
Sorry -- Total digression there. Back to Mafell saws and rails...

So while I was going broke on tools, and getting pushed further into carpentry duty while there aren't any *real* carpenters available for our remodeling project, I splurged on the KSS60 without the batteries & charger, since I already had those.

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.

Ya that's pretty funny...I was thinking the same thing yesterday while cutting some 2x materials. I really like the HKC but was interested in what the Mafell equivalent was. It looks like it's the KSS 50.

You mention the KSS 40 and I looked at the pricing of it and it's whacky. The bare KSS 40 is $915 while for an additional $84 you receive 2 batteries, a charger and a Flexi-Guide. 

https://www.timberwolftools.com/mafell-kss-40-18m-bl-cordless-cross-cutting-system

Yup, it’s part of a special promotion for summer of 2019.  Suffice to say, they extended the promotion. 

The KSS 50 is, indeed, positioned against the HKC55.  It’s jab at Festool is that it can cut a 2x4 at 45...I haven’t used it but I’ve handled it a bit, it’s nice but if you have an HKC55, @Henrik R / Pingvinlakrits can probably chime in because he has owned both and has a betty and veronica relationship between the two.   I understand that the cordless version isn’t that much more powerful than the HKC.   I like Mafell’s depth adjustment (two router like rails) infinitely more than the common pivot style but Henrik feels the opposite. 
 
Also ran, I run HK blades in my Mafell tracksaw.  It should work the other way around (just not the included blade that is a bit wider).

The KSS40 has a tiny blade and so it performs very well with only one battery (it is as powerful as the <900 watt corded version).   I’m not going to lie, it isn’t the most balanced or ergonomic tool
but it gets 90% of the job done.  Crosscuts at max depth all day long, but also powerful enough to rip 3/4” and 1” material.  Blades are Leitz like Festool, so good stuff. 

Let me tell you the bad stuff:
The systainer that the kit comes in is practically exploding.  It was a tight fit with the older Mafell/Metabo batteries.   Now it’s shipped with the new more gigantic batts and you can’t put the tool in with a battery attached.  Add that to the height having to be adjusted a certain way and the flexi rail having to be wrapped the right way and in a perfect position...I’m telling you these things so that you won’t be surprised when you inevitably buy one. 

I bought one of these and now I don’t miss the Festool rails.  I have one of these too. Rad device, just don’t rely on it for perfect 90.

As a side-note, lots of people who buy the newer cordless Mafell products find themselves going on a Metabo purchasing tangent despite my protests.  Don’t fall into that trap.  They sell a lot of bad tools to fill out their line.

Excellent points on the Mafell rails. The amount of rubber contact the wood is rather lean and I noticed it when I ran my MT55 for the first time. The connector with no jig required insert makes up for it as does it not putting dents in the rail.

I have both types of rails and there is no question the Festool ones are more solid, but the design elements of the Mafell beat it in every other design area one of the most important being the length of usable rail for cuts.

1. The connector with no jig required insert makes up for it as does it not putting dents in the rail.

2. I have both types of rails and there is no question the Festool ones are more solid, but the design elements of the Mafell beat it in every other design area one of the most important being the length of usable rail for cuts.

1. Ya the Mafell rail connector is beyond awesome...leagues above other solutions. The option for the Festool rail is to use the TSO GRS-12 rail connector as the screws have a large flange on the bottom so they resist denting the rail.




2. Another thing I noticed is that because the clamp slot is very close to the anti-skid strip on the Mafell rail, narrow pieces of wood are easily ripped. Anything wider than 3/4" is doable. Here's what I was left with yesterday.




Another observation is that the Mafell splinter strip when cut by the saw, is a lot smoother than the Festool version. The Festool strip seems to have some smooth spots, some rough spots and is sometimes missing material. The Mafell splinter strip is ultra smooth which makes rail alignment with a pencil line a much easier task. Also the red color contrasts nicely compared to the Festool clear version.

Installation of a new splinter strip in the Mafell is also a breeze. Strip out the old, lubricate the slot and install the new splinter strip. It's a 3-4 minute task at the most.    No need for the removal of old adhesive. 

The only thing lacking in the Mafell rail is the lack of a TSO Guide Rail Square...however, I'm sure Hans @TSO Products is working on it as we speak.