Anyone else have an issue with differing Makita track profiles?

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Yeah I tried mating the opposite ends as well to the same result. I just ordered a 1m section of rail, and hopefully it's profile will match 1 of the sections, then I can use that combo for ripping sheets, and keep the odd one for one offs.

Going back to FFX will likely have no effect, and Honestly it's Makita that packaged up the combo so it's really on them. I might try and make contact, but I don't have a ton of time to be chasing down manufacturers.
Your Contract (as in legally binding Contract) is with FFX so they have to sort this out. Peter Millard has said it is unacceptable and he has loads of experience on different makes of tracks. Personally I would just send the the text you have already written and photos you have posted on here to ffx. Then decide if sending them back and the hassle of being without the saw is worth it.

These tracks were bought together, they should match perfectly. I have a Makita sds drill, bought through a Makita rep, it was a b&q return, checked by Makita as being perfect, “probably bought for one job then returned as being faulty”. They get perfect stuff coming back so faulty tracks should be no problem.
 
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Contract FFX. As the previous poster said, your contact is with them as the retailer, their contact is with Makita as the manufacturer.

I would be requesting a new set of rails, and would expect them to be inspected before shipping to confirm they match.

Had you received the rails separately you would be unlucky, but that's life. As a set purchased together they should be matched, or they are not fit for purpose.
 
I agree with the people above, I would contact FFX first as you've bought the product from them - that's what retailers are for! I have had a good experience with their customer service, so I hope they'll take care of your situation.

I have two 1.5m Makita tracks and they have very slightly different profiles, and if I don't use two connectors to hold them in a sweet-spot position the saw will not slide correctly but will stop. With this kind of difference I can manage a straight cut just by adjusting the two wheels that tighten the saw to the rails, and I can do it without causing excessive wobbling.
 
I agree with the people above, I would contact FFX first as you've bought the product from them - that's what retailers are for! I have had a good experience with their customer service, so I hope they'll take care of your situation.

I have two 1.5m Makita tracks and they have very slightly different profiles, and if I don't use two connectors to hold them in a sweet-spot position the saw will not slide correctly but will stop. With this kind of difference I can manage a straight cut just by adjusting the two wheels that tighten the saw to the rails, and I can do it without causing excessive wobbling.
I have a “track” saw which comprises a strip of aluminium bar bolted to the underside of a standard Makita circular saw. The tracks are made from mdf and I have lengths of 1m, 1.4m and 2.4m. OK for 90 degree cuts but not bevel. They work well but have to be clamped down in use.

I have been thinking about upgrading to a plunge saw and would probably have gone for a Makita with two 1.5m rails. I would expect perfect alignment of the tracks from Makita and clearly that may not be the case. It also seems that Festool can have similar problems. All food for thought.
 
I have a cheap Grizzly track saw and when the two 55" tracks are joined there is a slight twist in one such that the edge where the blade is is lifted 3mm or so. When cutting the base of the saw will hit it and stop unless I remember to get a finger on it to keep it flat to the wood I am cutting. Might be the cheap bars used to join the sections together but it is easy enough to deal with, at least until I can machine some more connectors.
 
I have been thinking about upgrading to a plunge saw and would probably have gone for a Makita with two 1.5m rails. I would expect perfect alignment of the tracks from Makita and clearly that may not be the case. It also seems that Festool can have similar problems. All food for thought.

The two Triton 1500mm tracks (bought together) I use are identical and may be an alternative for use with Makita, Festool and other saws which it appears fit these tracks. Anyone had problems with Triton tracks?
 
I have three sets of rails in use.

The first is a set of 2nd generation Festool rsils (1 x 3m, 3 x 1.4m and 1 x 800mm) which replaced my original 1st generation Festool/Hilti rsils about 12 years back. They get used with my two Festool corded saws. There is very little variation between these rails where they join

The second is a set of Makita rails (3 x 1.5m and 1 x 1m) which get used for the cordless DSP600. Again, no noticeable variation between rails.

The third set is a budget set by Evolution (2 x 1.4m and 2 x 700mm). They were bought for use with a secondhand Bosch GKT55CE cutting cement fibreboard fascia and flooring. On those, whilst the profiles are the same, two ot the rails suffer from a bit of twist at one end which means that the saw "bumps" a bit as it goes over the joint. In view of the application, I am not unduly worried by this, but I'd be less happy if I was using them to cut wood panelling.

I have used other people's stuff over the years as well as my own (mainly firm's stuff), often with two joined 1.4/1.5 metre rails, but never noticed significant differences. A quick straw poll taken at work yesterday, where we have one more Makita user and two Festool users also revealed no issues with guide rail profiles. My feeling is that this discrepancy is a where a single sub par item (possibly from the beginning or end of a run) has slipped through the QA net, but that both rails should be returned to the vendor and replacements requested. These things do happen, but I don"t feel that changing to Festool rails would make any real difference, and it would lose you the Makita's USP - that tiny lip on their rails, which combined with the retractable tab on their saws, allows you to do full 8ft bevel rips without the saw trying to tip over anf fall off the rail for the whole cut (significant if you do a lot of bevel rips)

As an aside, back in the late 1970s, when I was between jobs (the construction industry can be a bit like that), I did a short period working for an aluminium extruder, on the production line. The process is that billets of aluminium are heated in an oven then dropped into a hydraulic press (which to all intents and purposes resembles the breech on a battle ship's guns). The hydraulic ram then squeezes the hot aluminium through a large steel die causing the profile(s) to exit the die at speed. Part of the trick to getting a consistent extrusion is apparently to run the press at a consistent pressure (and therefore speed) with as few stoppages as possible (every time there is a stoppage, the restart can cause a mark, blemish or even a change in thickness which needs to be cut out and scrapped). The beginning and end of each extrusion, which were up to 30 metres long, was generally pretty ropey (thin, bent, etc) especially on complex "weld back" profiles, so would be cut away with a gas torch and sent for recycling, but the majority of the extrusions, once cut off, were pulled across the tracks towards the saw station, cooling as they went. When they reached the cutting station the saw man would cut extrusions to length per the job sheets and stack them in trolleys. Obvious flaws, such as marks, variations in thickness, twisted or bowed pieces, etc were again removed at this point. The last stage in the process was to anneal the completed and cut to length profile sections overnight in an automatic oven. I was told that this was to destress the extrusions and that it also reduced or removed any minor twists, etc.

What did surprise me was the amount of human judgement there was in the process, especially from the press operator, and how little (relative) waste there was.
 
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