Another take on parallel guides,inspired by some i saw here.11"-32" capacity.Started with 2 48" rulers,had a slot milled in them...I guess its only as good as your eye-balling to a line,will probably make an adjustable stick to increase accuracy.Would love guide with positive stop notches?

Nice job!  And I'll agree with John's statements above on how your parallel guides have an advantage over those that Festool now offers.  If you want positive stop notches you may want to use Incra Incremental Tracks for your next jig.

 
Thanks,Yea the rulers lost some strength with the slot,they are a Johnson and are 2" wide,.125 thick.you can see a slight sag in the first picture,i wouldn't call it flimsy , but you wouldn't want to pick the assembly up by the end of the rulers.It wasn't ideal but it was the best solution i could come up with with what was on the shelves.I dont anticipate a problem, but,I think if you made them with a 24-26" capacity they would be alot stiffer,maybe i will make some shorter ones too,i don't know if i will need that much width often.I don't know how much grip the Veritas stops would have if you slammed up to your edge,not that we want to be slamming.  [blink]One more note on clamping from the back slot,its not perfectly parallel with the rest of the track,at least on mine(check with straight edge on bottom of track at the end ,off the rubber).The guides tilt up slightly.I have to correct for that yet.The Incra Track idea mentioned is definitely worth looking into also .Happy building...

John,

I put self stick imperial tapes on top of the metric one's on my Parallel guides.  In doing so, I placed the tapes so they just touch the pointer reducing parallax error.  The thickness of the line on the tape is about equal to the gap in the end of the pointer.  Since it almost touches it's really easy to get very accurate parallel cuts.  I calibrated mine cutting 4 inch strips by 8 feet long.  Once calibrated, end to end, the cuts were withing .004 thousandths of  an inch when I set the pointers by eye and measured the cut pieces with a digital caliper.

The self stick tapes were made by Starret and cost about 4-5 dollars each at Hartville tool.

Yes Yes Brilliant, that just looks shed loads less awkward............. than fessies original. 
 
Thanks for facing your public robed. Man Pink Floyd Dark side of the Moon rocks

Even though I have the Parallel Guides this thread set off a light bulb in my head.  I have one of those Johnson adjustable T squares that's 54" long.  I don't know where I'll go with this but it has a lip that fits in the Guide Rail channel.    Maybe one of you fellas can come up with something/suggestion to make this work for a longer setup.

Ali rule? surely clamp well put plunge slot cutter in your router drop speed and wear googles. Makes a lot of noise though.

Nice Terry! Your avatar pic is scary though. 

Hey John2532,was that head that is mounted to the rail a custom piece?Wish i had that to start with...The Home Depo here doesnt have half the stuff as a large US one.

Thanks Eiji, seeing your set inspired me,i knew what i wanted it to do,but it helps to see it implemented . If you think THAT one is scary...

I machined the head when I was working on a similar project. The goal then was to use only the one T-square mounted on the rail as a parallel guide. The weak link though was the original T-square setup, (not the mount to the rail or ruler to the mount) even with above average tightening forces it would work itself loose enough to cause problems. I've been sidetracked for awhile so I haven't pursued it lately but I think it still has potential to work on the shorter rails. Rails longer than 1400 would probably require a double set-up. One thing I did like though was using nylon screws to tighten the mount against the rail. Finger tight worked great and they screws did not mark up the rail.

John

Here are some closer pics. A bit on the "heavy-duty" side but it was the size material that was on hand. (please overlook the rough edges and finish)

If anyone wants some specs I will be happy to provide.

John

Edit--If there is interest I would be willing to work on a slimmed-down version to be used in a "double" setup. They key element would be to find rules available to everyone in the same width.

I really like the idea of using the inexpensive HD T-squares as a base for a parallel guide system.  I've sketched up a version that will allow cutting parallel pieces from 7-1/4" to 58" in width (flipping the slotted bar end for end).  By applying the Starrett stick-on scale tape they can be calibrated for direct reading measurement.  I'll make the brackets and the slide stops of aluminum. and the scale lens of Lexan.  The brackets will attach to the guide rail using the Festool guide rail connectors.

EDIT: I changed the shape of the slide stops so that I can cut narrower strips (from 7-1/4" (185mm) to 58" (1475mm) parallel strips).  

Looks great ,another thing you could think about adding would be an indexing pin of some sort at ,say .5" or 1" increments or .5 staggered on each side or somthing,where you would push a pin through the lexan into the track,take out any eyeball error....60" would be way too long for me,thinking of cabinet sides and such.Looking good...

Wayne,
The description at Hartville Tool says "1/16" graduations" -- I would like to find 1/32" graduations (or even 1/64") -- Does the tape that you used only have 1/16" grads?
Thanks,
Ron

(I'm also playing with making it a digital readout)
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Ron,

I've thought about making it work with digital...maybe with the wixey digital set up for a table saw fence.  But I've never really come up with a workable Idea.  As for the tapes at Hartville Hardware,  they do have increments of 1/32 of an inch on the first 12 inches only and only on one edge.  After using it as is, I can't see the need for 32nd increments.  It is easy enough to split the lines by eye and be very accurate.  Besides the Festool pointer is as wide as the ink on the line and doesn't come to a distinct razor point.  So having a finer scale to line up to is a moot point.  AS it is, I have found it incredibly reliable and accurate.  If I were doing something really critical and expensive, I suppose it would make sense to do some test cuts on lesser expensive material first to be sure your dialed in and nothing had been knocked out of whack.  I only had a .004 thousanths difference over an 8 foot cut the first time I tried it with this set up.

Edit:  Ron, another thought I've been churning is to make a digital story stick that once calibrated, you could use it to set the stops on the on the parallel guides one at a time from one digital adjustable stick.  If  both guides would be set to the same story stick, and the parallel guides were accurately set up,  Theoretically you would get accurate and parallel cuts.  But as I mentioned before, it really works quite accurately with the stick on tapes and my eye.

Ron,

When you order your tapes, I'd suggest setting your parallel guides  and looking at them the way your going to use them to make sure the edge of the tape what you want to use will be adjacent to the pointer.  It's not just a matter of left to right and right to left.  I learned the hard way.