Hello all. Having just acquired a Makita plunge saw with guide rails etc. it strikes me that 1.4m guide rail is a little cumbersome, especially in a confined area. Most of my work is fitted kitchens so I’m cutting 600 w/top and panels etc. I’m contemplating cutting one of the guide rails down to 800mm. for ease of handling. Has anyone done this without problem, or is it a case of “NO! It’ll cause…..whatever”? As ever, any input appreciated. Cheers.
Yes not a problem, cut a couple down before on a chop saw, no reason for it to have any ill effects, if possible I'd say do it on a chop saw rather than by hand, it'd probably be fine doing by hand but think there would be a slight risk of flexing/bending the rail if you're too heavy handed.
Go for it, I did. You can also drill and countersink holes in the track so you can cut doors or whatever in walls.
Thanks for the replies guys. I shall cut in confidence. I take the point about b/bars but I have two guide rails so I figure to use the 1.4m lg when that situation arises., plus the 1.4 m joined to the 800mm covers for larder panels. Many thanks
just make sure you know the minimum length you need for your saw to work smoothly for example i have a dewalt track saw and you need somthing like 200mm at the front and about 75mm at the end the overlap at the front stops the base hooking up on the end off the rail as well as helping the accuracy off the cut the overlap at the end is purely to aid accuracy so could be reduced slightly if required in otherwords a 600mm cut would require 875mm and 1220 would require 1495mm and the rails are 1500mm i have a pencil line at the start off the rail that i line up with the board edge to give me the correct overlap
Good point Big All. I haven’t used the saw yet but it had occurred to me that I need to check the length req’d front & rear for the saw to seat the whole cut. Seeing your post has just reminded me how important that point is. Cheers.
You are going to want ideally +200mm either side of the work piece so the saw has a steady start and finnish