[roofner]

As of December 15 2019 they went out of business . I went to buy new splinter guards for my track saw and got the message. Amazon my have the parts for a time? I haven't checked yet.

 

[tomp913]

Been an EZ user for a while, and felt that this was coming, a little disappointed though. My first track saw was the TrueTrac, perfectly happy with it (although all I really use it for any more is trimming doors) but went looking for something that had a little more options. I found Eureka Zone (and spent a lot of money there) but was always a little unhappy with their anti-chip edge (ACE) as I felt it was more brittle than the TrueTrac and chipped/splintered very easily. Based on some comments on their forum, I bought some vinyl trim at (I think) Lowes and made my own. Basically a two operation process, cutting a groove on either side to accept the internal lips of the track and then running both sides on the router table to reduce the thickness to fit in the groove along the edge of the track. It was a little finicky to set up so I went ahead and cut as many strips as I could out of the piece of trim - I ripped as many strips, slightly over the width of the finished ACE, as I could so I could trim to final size when installed in the track. Turned out that a thin-kerf 7-1/4" blade I had made the perfect width groove for the inner flange on the track, and I just ran the strip over the router table to reduce the thickness as needed.


The vinyl trim strip


Ripping the ACE strips


Cutting the grooves on both sides of the ACE


My first attempts at reducing the thickness gave me a part that was way undersize - a review of the set-up showed me that the featherboard was actually pushing the strip down into the opening in the baseplate so I had to install a bushing to close the clearance down.


Running the ACE through to router table to reduce the thickness


Testing a piece for fit - in retrospect, I should have gone with a little looser fit as it would have been easier to install in the groove as there won't be any problem with it falling out - but not going to have to worry about that for a while as the solid edge seems to be holding up pretty well so far.


A section of track with the ACE installed, prior to trimming with the saw to give the cut line.

I have their bridge and the SSRK - a router attachment that locates on the rail - and am working on adapting those two items to the Festool MFT, using bench dogs to align the bridge in the Y-direction (across the width of the table) and the panel being cut in the X-direction (along it's length), basically acting as a fence. The hope is that this set-up will let me quickly/easily cut panel dadoes.

 

[roofner]

I don't really have a problem if using with my mft table the table is the zero clearance. Its only when I use the track for ripping long stock no edge for cut line not accurate. Usually use table saw to cut to final width. The edges never did stay in place. Id hang them up on shop door they slide down. Wen just came out with a track saw $114 like grizzlies. No dust collection with ez anyway. I would get dust collection with wen saw.

 

[roofner]

I ordered the wen track saw from Amazon . So I'll have a real track saw and dust collection which I did not have with Eureka zone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VFXFTVP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[RainMan 2.0]

Nice work Tom, and I’m liking your zero clearance plate

 

[tomp913]

Nice work Tom, and I’m liking your zero clearance plate

Thanks Rick. The lift is a Bench Dog (I think now sold by Rockler?), I don't remember if the aluminum guide bushing adapter came with it or I had to buy it separately. First time that I've used it since I bought the lift many years ago.

 

[roofner]

Tom I think your solution is great for trimming strip. I was looking for a fix for dust collection when I found out about ez going out of business.

 

[roofner]

Breaking news

Here is new announcement.
https://www.routerforums.com/tools-woodworking/141345-eurkazone-new-info.html#post2083857

 

[tomp913]

I ordered the wen track saw from Amazon . So I'll have a real track saw and dust collection which I did not have with Eureka zone.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VFXFTVP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@roofner

I modified my saws by adding the hose port to the guard and it does a pretty fair job of collecting the sawdust - the attached photo is after ripping a 4 x 8 sheet into rips. I understand from those that cut on top of a sheet of foam that the dust is greatly reduced, and the same applies to the Festool plunge saw - if you're doing a through-rip, then there's a fair bit of sawdust thrown off under the sheet.

Second photo shows the dust port, but not very well though.

As I said, I have the Tru-Track, the EZ and Makita/Festool, and all have their pluses and minuses - the Festool probably more pluses (other than the cost of the saw which is why I have a Makita). I actually prefer the Tru-Track as the saw plate kind of self-centers on the rail because of the twin tapered ways, took me a while to adapt to the EZ, but I got away from Tru-Track because they didn't seem to be expanding the product in any significant way.