I bought the
Makita bevel for their rails (almost identical* to the Festool one):
.
It is horrible and almost unusable. This is for several reasons:
1.
Design: The gauge/guide just sits in the back rail slot, located by a strip of nylon that's wedge-shaped vertically, so that it jams in the slot. It is staggeringly difficult to use it single-handed, because the bit that needs to slide--the rail--is designed to stay put and has sticky rubber strips underneath to ensure that happens.
2.
Manufacture: it's cheaply made, and in particular the scale is silk-screened onto the aluminium. Precision relies on a tight joint between the two parts, and concentricity between the scale, the axis of the pointer, and the actual pivot. Needless to say mine is off by miles. I very much doubt the Festool one is any different.
3.
Size: there simply isn't enough meat to it to make it precise. The bit that indexes on the edge of the workpiece is barely 6" long, and that's simply not enough, even if the board has a perfectly straight and smooth edge.
It looks like the Triton one would be much the same, as it has similar weaknesses.
So what's the alternative? I'm going to buy
a worktable with 20mm dog holes, like the Festool MFT, but made by CNC design in Warrington. I'm taking my lead from Steve Maskery, who recently bought their router template, but I'm lazy and getting the whole thing rather than making it up. It also means I needn't worry about errors introduced by me!
There's a lot of stuff out there on YouTube, etc. on how to use such a system, and it's worth mentioning that the principle of a grid of dog holes probably goes back to Noah's carpentry (so no patents on that!). It was used extensively in shipbuilding, for example, on a huge scale, for bending the steel ribs of ship's frames to precise curves. the point being, if you apply simple geometry, you should be able to cut at any angle, with great precision, simply by packing out from one of the dogs, holding either the rail or the workpiece. It is far easier to get your cut bang-on in the right place, and can be easily set up single-handed.
For what it's worth, I doubt the Festool MFT system, specifically the rail and protractor arrangement, will be easy to use precisely, either. It has a similar issue as the thing I have, in that there's only a small sliding part clamping to the rail - it would be rather easy for this to become misaligned in use. Note that I don't have a Festool MFT, so it's an educated guess; your mileage, etc.
The dog hole system is still very good though, and the attachment system and hinge for the rail would all be wonderful, just too expensive for me.
Hope that helps,
E. (waiting for the flak to start!)
*I say "almost identical" but it looks like Festool have recently updated their design, addressing some of the issues. It's almost identical to the
earlier version of the Festool one.
Their shipping looks quite reasonable,however. It's overkill for most uses other than breaking down lots of sheet goods quickly and accurately.
