Do my new Parallel Guides need to be calibrated?

[Patrick Cox]

I just received my new Festool Parallel Guides and when I just look at the scale of each guide it appears that they may be off to each other.  If you look at how the scale lines up to the back of the guide attachment, they are off by about 1 mm.  See the pictures below.  Does this mean that I need to calibrate the guides and if so, any tips on doing so?

Thanks!
Pat

On this one you can see 193mm..

And on this one you can only see 192mm...

 

[sancho57]

Yes they do. There are a number of videos on FestoolTv describing the process along with quite a few threads here on how others have found how to do it.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Yes they do. There are a number of videos on FestoolTv describing the process along with quite a few threads here on how others have found how to do it.

I found directions and was able to calibrate long and short cuts.  Now to test to make sure!    Thanks.

 

[peter halle]

Calibration is a process so don't be shocked or mad or kick yourself if it isn't absolutely correct on the first try.

Peter

 

[truck90278]

yes they do.  simply goggle Festool parallel guide calibration. it is fairly quick and simple

 

[Patrick Cox]

Calibration is a process so don't be shocked or mad or kick yourself if it isn't absolutely correct on the first try.

Peter

Well, you were correct.  I am having challenges here.  And I guess I should start with - "what is considered parallel?"  So when I calibrated my short guides, after three attempts the best I could get is a roughly 0.2mm difference.  100.1mm on one end and 99.9mm on the other, as measured with calipers.  So is this parallel enough?  I assumed so but after my long calibration I am not sure.

Now when calibrating the long side, my final measurement is not so straight forward because my calipers aren't that large.  So I tried to cut 250mm and the two picture below will show you the result from each end.  The way I measured the final cut is with a woodpecker rule with an end stop and an adjustable stop.  So I hooked the end stop over one edge then took the final measurement with the adjustable stop tightened against the other edge.  Then I slid the rule across the length of the board.  The pictures below are of my measuring setup and then of the first and 2nd measurement.  They are close but not exact. 

I would prefer to be closer then but would appreciate comments.

Thanks.

"E" is for End of Cut

 

[Holmz]

...

Well, you were correct.  I am having challenges here.  And I guess I should start with - "what is considered parallel?"  So when I calibrated my short guides, after three attempts the best I could get is a roughly 0.2mm difference.  100.1mm on one end and 99.9mm on the other, as measured with calipers.  So is this parallel enough?  I assumed so but after my long calibration I am not sure.
...

I would think 0.5-mm is fine.
You would never see it unless it was up against a straight edge.

Many rails are bend more than what you are quoting.

 

[sancho57]

How did you joint the board. For ply I will use my TS to clean up the factory edge (joint). Then use that edge to set my guides on . Rip from there.

If the piece isn't jointed 100% straight the PGs will reject the jointed edge

 

[Patrick Cox]

How did you joint the board. For ply I will use my TS to clean up the factory edge (joint). Then use that edge to set my guides on . Rip from there.

If the piece isn't jointed 100% straight the PGs will reject the jointed edge

I did as you describe.  I checked my stops again in a different way (using the woodpecker ruler and ruler stop against the splinter guard on the rail) and I can see the two guide stops are very slightly off so I am going to try to calibrate that way and see how close I get.

Thanks.

 

[Patrick Cox]

Well, Hallelujah!  I finally got this figured out.  My issue was that my Woodpecker ruler was really too thick to effectively measure from the stop to the inside edge of the blade while measuring under the guide rail.  So, I bought a new ruler that I actually really like.  It is easy to read and well made.  Below are my final board checks at the Beginning and End of my cut as well as pictures of my new ruler and how I used it to measure each stop.  So, now back to my project!

New ruler...  (I found this on Amazon and it is similar to rulers they have at Woodcraft but the measurements are much easier to read.)

How I set the guide stops...

Beginning of cut and End of cut checks...

Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

[peter halle]

Glad you got it worked out!  Now go and enjoy!

Peter

 

[Naildrivingman]

I have a follow up question.  Once calibrated to one rail, should I have to calibrate it to another rail?  I'm guessing that the answer is yes or at the very least I should check.  Thoughts?

 

[Bob D.]

I too have a question. The OP spoke of being off by 0.5 mm then 0.2 mm at each end of the cut but this seems like only half the required information to determine how accurate the cut is. You need to know over what distance or the span between the cuts to have a sense of how inaccurate 0.5 or 0.2 mm is. Big difference between 0.2 mm over 300 mm as to 0.2 mm over 1500 mm. Same goes for a measured difference of 0.0 mm. If those two measurements are taken only 300 mm apart that does not mean you are dead on at 3000 mm.

So my question is what was the span between those measurements?

 

[McNally Family]

i'm just hanging out to see the answers. 

 

[DrD]

I used to fuss over the scales on the Festool Parallel Guides until I watched a You Tube video by Stanton Taylor titled "Adjusting the Festool parallel guide system."  What he shows is: 1) fast, 2) very accurate, 3) very simple.  I check mine every now and again (engineer by education) and have found, once set for a particular rail - the 1st part of his video - it's good to go, for that rail.  Set the measurement you wish on one of the guides, follow his procedure - the 2nd part of his video - you're good to go.

 

[Bob D.]

That's a quick and foolproof method of setting the guides to the same length, thanks.

 

[Naildrivingman]

I have a follow up question.  Once calibrated to one rail, should I have to calibrate it to another rail?  I'm guessing that the answer is yes or at the very least I should check.  Thoughts?

 

[Hugh]

Wow how did I miss that video, awesome idea.

 

[SS Teach]

Handy to know, I got mine at Christmas. Just a small learning curve. One of the many reasons to keep reading the FOG.