Bora 36" NGX Clamp Edge 544036

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 guide aligned with your saw. BIG TIP: The clamp always seemed to be "sticking". Sometimes it would slide easily, but often 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 pulling on a hypodermic needle. * Voila! The internals of the clamping mechanism (whatever they are) COMPLETELY disengage, 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 to apply, 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 darn well want that edge guide in place. It is the ONLY good way to align the clamp for cutting. (There are blade-markers on the saw guide, but they're not really useful for lining 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 done by 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 full length 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, but there is an inch of extra tape, so do yourself a favor and cut off the end of the guide where there is no adhesive, before you start applying it to the clamp. That will remove the 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 the clamp as a track-saw. (For details, see my review of that attachment. It works fine when it makes a "T", but it has to be in an "L" configuration to work with your saw. And in that configuration, it fails miserably.) 6. Now that you know you CAN'T depend on the T-Square for alignment, and you MUST have the 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 ruined before 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 blade as 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 it the 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 my Ryobi circular saw. Will it work with other saws? Don't know. But I would check the width of yours. If your blade guard is more than 1/8" from the edge of the blade, it won't work. There is a WORKAROUND, though. So check your saw before installing the 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 with double-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 the strip 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!

When combined with the Bora NGX saw plate (for mounting a circular saw) this becomes a viable alternative to a high end track saw, but at a relatively low price. A good track saw is more accurate, but they can cost 8 times as much. I recently used this (with the addition of a NGX saw plate) to cut full plywood sheets for a Murphy bed project and the results were great. Much better than my old method of clamping a straight board the full length of the plywood and running the circular saw along the edge. That said, be aware that the clamp is narrow, so when used at full length it tends to inflect slightly in the middle if you are not very careful and this can affect cut accuracy. Also, tear out on plywood is still an issue, particularly when cutting against the top ply’s grain. If you are cutting 8’x4’ plywood frequently and need high quality cuts, invest in a track saw. However, if you do this only occasionally, then the Bora NGX system is a nice alternative and you will probably be happy you saved several hundreds of dollars that you can use for other tools you may also need.

!!!!!! Great product ! BUT THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE LACKING ! I almost sent this product back to Amazon cause the clamp was getting stuck and it seemed defective. However, to unlock it you need to press the orange and grey tabs towards each other ! I subtracted one star because of the lack of directions.

These are great. I bought them for my router sled which is mounted on a 50 inch hardwood counter board. They open up enough to clamp and have a rule on them. A perfect fit for my needs. The clamping mechanism holds tight.

I was a little hesitant to buy this item after reading some reviews. So glad that I ignored them and trusted BORA and their innovation and quality. Other BORA items have not disappointed and neither did this one. Clamping pressure was great, alignment needed a little adjusting but that was to be expected and my cuts were straight from the very first one. My only regret is not buying it sooner and maybe adding their saw plate to my kit. Great product and well worth the money. Great job BORA!!

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.

Funciona perfectamente con la guía para sierra caladora de BORA (542009) realizando cortes rectos cada vez

Muy bueno

As described

good Quality

bonne outil