BORA 50” NGX Circular Saw Guide Rail, Clamp Edge for Circular Saws, Great for Straight Cross-Cutting Plywood Sheets and Routing Dados, 544050

I got this with the saw guide, to make an "affordable track saw".Works pretty darn well for that purpose, once you get the edge guidealigned with your saw.BIG TIP:The clamp always seemed to be "sticking". Sometimes it would slide easily, butoften it would jam up and stop sliding at all. It took forever to figure out the trick.Now it slides easily all the time. The trick is this:* The orange part of the clamp has two little tabs sticking out at the back end.* I had no idea what they were for, and none of the instructions mentioned them.* You put the heel of you palm against the back of the gray handle (in the "open"position), and then pull back on those tabs with your fingers, as though pullingon a hypodermic needle.* Voila! The internals of the clamping mechanism (whatever they are) COMPLETELYdisengage, and the clamp slides freely in its track.Important Notes:1) In the pictures, the "edge guide" looks like thin tape that could go anywhere.It's not. It's a nice, thick piece of plastic, with adhesive on one edge so it is ready toapply, and there is cut-away on the bottom of the clamp to attach it to, so it works well.2) You NEED the edge guide. If you use the clamp for cutting sheet goods, you darnwell want that edge guide in place. It is the ONLY good way to align the clamp forcutting. (There are blade-markers on the saw guide, but they're not really useful forlining up the cut when the saw is on the guide. (If you take the saw off, they may work.I didn't.)3) To attach the edge guide, it's best to remove the clamping mechanism. (Easily doneby taking out two screws. The instructions don't say that (they could use improving),but it's pretty easy to figure out there is no way to attach the edge guide the fulllength of the clamp, until you do.4. The tape on the edge guide doesn't QUITE go to the end. It's maybe 1/4" short, butthere is an inch of extra tape, so do yourself a favor and cut off the end of the guidewhere there is no adhesive, before you start applying it to the clamp. That will removethe slight tendency of the edge to lift up--something I may have to trim off, eventually.5. Don't bother with the T-Square attachment! Total waste of money, if you're using theclamp as a track-saw. (For details, see my review of that attachment. It works fine whenit makes a "T", but it has to be in an "L" configuration to work with your saw. And in thatconfiguration, it fails miserably.)6. Now that you know you CAN'T depend on the T-Square for alignment, and you MUST havethe edge guide in place, do yourself a favor and mark BOTH sides of the panel you're cutting.Then put the clamp in place, and cut away. You'll save yourself the half-panel I ruinedbefore I figured out those steps.7. But there is still ONE MORE PROBLEM to solve, if your saw is like mine.The edge guard projects 1/2" beyond the edge of the clamp.The instructions for mounting the saw to the saw plate don't SAY to put the bladeas close as possible to the edge of the plate, but they should.What they DO say is to make sure the blade guard is free to move.That's a darn good idea. BUT...On my Ryobi saw, "reasonably close" puts the blade 3/4" from the plate.The blade guard is pretty thick where it is close to the plate, so I can get itthe saw MAYBE 1/8" closer, while still being able to move the guard.I KNOW I can move it 1/16" of inch closer. And I MAY be able to move it 1/8".But I NEED it to be a full 1/4" closer, for the edge-guide to be of any use.In "short" (pun intended), the edge-guide is 1/4" too short for use with myRyobi circular saw. Will it work with other saws? Don't know. But I wouldcheck the width of yours. If your blade guard is more than 1/8" from theedge of the blade, it won't work.There is a WORKAROUND, though. So check your saw before installingthe plastic strip that comes with the clamp. If it won't be wide enough,double-sided carpet tape and a strip of linoleum are the perfect size.Here's the procedure:a) Get a linoleum remnant from your nearest big box store, along withdouble-sided carpet tape.b) Cut a 2" strip of linoleum the length of your clamp.c) Put double-sided carpet tape in the groove under the clamp.d) Turn the clamp right-side-up and use your razor-knife to trim the excess tape.e) Turn the clamp over again, peel the backing from the tape, and put down thestrip of linoleum, shiny-side pressing into the tape.f) Find a nice long piece of wood you can cut the end off, and do it.Voila! You now have a perfectly-trimmed edge guide!

Works very well. Now, I regret receiving mine with a broken handle.

Overall this is a well built saw guide. The basic instructions are almost worthless since it is just images and iconography. For example, it was not obvious to me how to loosen the clamp after use for repositioning. It took me a while and a few tries that i actually is quite easy. There are small arrows on the clamp with a lock/unlock symbol. Squeezing the handle to unlock resets the clamp.The other complaint I have is regarding the non-chip strip. First off, the ends have a tendency to curl up since the strip arrives in a tight curl. Second, my non-chip strip is already show signs of wear and tear after just a few cuts. I'm beginning to feel I would be better off not using the non-chip strip and simply use painter's tape on the cut line to minimize any chipping.Despite the shortcomings, I am still much happier with this edge guide compared to a competitor's blue edge guide.

The media could not be loaded. I really like this clamp. I did not buy the track saw guide but only the 544100 saw guide clamp. I’ve only had one glitch, and that is after locking it in place and unlocking it to remove, the clamp does not slide along the track until you release it. I thank Eric Armstrong for his review and his “BIG TIP”. That addressed the problem that I was having. The last time I used this, I put a note on the instructions on how to release it, but didn’t understand my note. Now I have a video that shows exactly what I need to do. Full disclosure: in order to get it started I used a rubber mallet and tapped the clamping piece to release it. My husband sprayed silicone into the clamp to try to get it to release more easily.

Great product

These are terrible in many ways.1. The locking mechanism makes me very angry. You might assume you can just slide it to the wood and clamp, but this is a lie. If you dont want the flimsy body to flex and leave a gap, you have to slide it to about 1/8in from the wood. Once locked, you cannot slide it again by unclamping, you have to take both hands and undo a separate lock (which is very loud and inconvenient). Not easy to use at all.2. Not straight. At a bare minimum, straight edges must be straight. This one is off by about 1/16in.3. Not low-profile. The clamp requires lots of space underneath to close, which makes it useless for many use cases, unless you use sawhorses rather than a table.4. Bad finish. My plastic router guide scratched the finish on first use. Pathetic.5. Impossible to square. Because of the crappy clamp mechanism mentioned earlier, it always throws itself out of square, and you cannot nudge it because it is now clamped.

This product is easy to use, clamps at different angles, and gives you a straight edge to hold tools against. The groove on either side can be used with some of their sleds. Other ones ride on top of this. The problem that I had was that the two parts that connect didn't quite come to the same level on top. That caused their sled to bind when it got to the middle. Lifting the sled slightly allowed me to continue. In retrospect, I might have gotten it to work if I started off on the other side or rotated the guide so that the other end would be where I start, having the sled drop down by an insignificant amount in the middle, but it makes me question the quality control on this.I can't say whether other guides that use the side grooves would have had the same problem, but I'd suggest a practice slide in each direction all the way down prior to using this to make sure that nothing binds. The same might be an issue with a tool held against the edge, but since those likely have rounded corners, it probably won't snag.