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.

As advertised, pleased with this item.

Where was this thing all my life! I struggled for years with the old-style primitive straight with the turn type of clamps. But the single clamp does take some adjusting to. It tends to hang up on itself. But after you get used to how to work it, it's great! Highly recommend it.

This clamp is an awful product. My main issue with it is that the sliding locking mechanism jams all the time. This renders the clamp unfit for purpose. The last thing you want when you have lined up your work and are ready to set the clamp is for the sliding locking mechanism to jam. This means you have to remove the clamp and fiddle with the mechanism till it moves again, and then you can't be sure it will not re-jam before you can set it on your work piece. There has not been one occasion on which I have used the clamp that the sliding locking mechanism has not jammed. I deal with this by hitting the locking mechanism with a soft plastic mallet to move it. But obviously one shouldn't have to do this to when working with a clamp. It means that instead of lining up your work and then applying the clamp, you have to fiddle with it several times before you can get it to fit your work. Another problem is that, if you can get the mechanism to move, you have to be very careful when applying the clamp as it cannot be relied on to clamp the work accurately. It seems to me that the fixed end piece is too small and can easily move when you tighten the clamp--that is if you can tighten the thing!--so that the long edge of the clamp is not square to your work. If you do use the clamp be careful to check its position when you have tightened it. As soon as I can find a clamp that is easier to work with and less prone to movement I shall ditch this one.

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.

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