How to use the Parallel guides with the LR32 hole drilling system.

Brice Burrell

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How to use the Parallel guides with the LR32 hole drilling system.

All text and photos by Brice Burrell, copyright 2010.

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When I first used my Festool parallel guides I could see the potential to combined them with the Festool LR32 system to speed up the hole drilling process. The LR32 system is a great way to drill system holes for shelf pins or Euro style hardware. It is, however, a system that requires some setup time for each piece to be drilled. Take a look at the picture above, you can see I'm crouched down to clamp the work piece to the edge of the MFT. This setting the rail and clamping takes time, too much time. When combined with the parallel guides I'm able to simplify the setup and reduce the time it takes to clamp the work piece. This greatly speeds up the process without reducing accuracy. Another big advantage is I'm no longer restricted to the standard 16 mm or 32 mm offsets. I can now use custom offsets like that of the "Pearls" or "KISS II" systems.

Lets start by taking a look at setting up the parallel guides with the LR32 for a standard offset.

Initial Setup for standard 32 mm or 16 mm offsets.

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The Festool LR32 system is designed to work best with the work piece a multiple of 32 mm in length. This holds true when the parallel guides combined. My work piece is 736 mm (a multiple of 32 mm). I'll be using a 32 mm offset but the 16 mm offset can also be used with this technique.

The first step is to attach one of the end stops to the LR 32 guide rail. Then slide on one of the parallel guides and butt it tightly against the end stop. Important: be sure you have the end stop set with the correct offset towards the end of the guide rail for the parallel guide to butt up to. Lock the guide down and remove the end stop. The inside edge of the parallel guide should be centered on a hole in the rail for the 32 mm offset or centered on a space between holes for the 16 mm offset.

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Now, put the other parallel guide on with the work piece between the two guides. Butt the second guide tightly to end of the work piece and lock it down. You want the guides to be tight enough there is no side to side movement of the work piece, but, not so tight that it can't be slid out between the guides.

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Next, set and attach the LR32 side stops to the guide rail. I'm using a 37 mm setback for my holes. Now, butt the work piece to the side stops.

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With the work piece tight against the LR32 side stops, slide the parallel guide stop to the edge of the piece and lock it down. Do this for both parallel guide stops. You can see in the picture above I'm using my thumb to push the parallel guide stop tightly against the edge of the work. The LR32 side stops can now be removed.

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Clamping is next. I like to clamp the parallel guides down with the quick or screw type Festool clamps then use one of the Festool clamping elements to secure the work piece at the front.

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The initial setup is done, now I'll drill your holes just as I normally would. All I have to do it remove the clamping element and slide out the piece, then slide a new one in and clamp it to be ready to drill the next piece. This is a much faster process than having to reset the rail and clamp the piece to the edge of the MFT for each piece.

I can drill all of the work pieces with the same 736 mm length and 37 mm setback with this setup. I would batch process these pieces then move to the next setback or length piece. I want a different setback for the rear set of holes on all of these pieces to account for the thickness of the back of the cabinet, so I'll need to repeat the setup process for parallel guide stops and the LR32 side stops.

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To make setup much fast in the future I made spacers/stop blocks. I took a scrap and tucked it under the rail and butted it to the parallel guide stops. Then I marked the piece at the back of the rail.

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I nailed a block to the mark, now I can just slide the spacer under and but the parallel guide stop to my spacer. I wrote "save" so I know to keep the piece. Also, I marked the offset and since width of the piece the spaced works with. Since the parallel guide stops are indexed off the back edge of the work piece I'll need a separate spacer for each of the widths and setbacks I use most often (12", 18" and 24" widths and 37 mm and 56 mm setbacks).

Setup for non-standard offsets.

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As I mentioned earlier the ability to now use non-standard offsets with the LR32/parallel guides is huge advantage. In this example I'll be using the 12.5 mm of the Blum "Pearls" system. The first step is measure and mark for my 12.5 mm offset on the work piece.

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With the parallel guides loose on rail and LR32 side stops on I can carefully align the setup. I place the router with LR32 plate on the rail and lock it in the first available hole in the rail. Then I can move the work piece until the router bit is perfectly aligned with my 12.5 mm pencil mark.

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I need to be careful to make sure I keep the work piece indexed on the LR32 side stops and still have it line up with my 12.5 mm mark. Here's a close up of the bit aligned with the pencil mark.

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With everything aligned I can slide the parallel guide over to butt it to the end of the work piece, I just to make sure nothing moves out of alignment. Once the guide is in place I can lock it down. Then, the other guide can tightly butted on it's end of the work piece and locked. With the side stops still on the rail I can set the parallel guide stops. Once the parallel guide stops are set I remove the side stops and clamp everything down. The setup is now complete and I can begin drilling holes.

While I won't go into detail on the other systems that use non-standard offsets, I do want to mention this technique will only work with pieces that are multiples of 32 mm plus two times the offset in width (as per their system specs). Using non-standard offset has greatly improved the value of the LR32 system for me. I hope this might help you too.
 
Thanks John. I've been wanting to explore this idea for some time now. I haven't seen all that it has to offer or any hidden pitfalls, yet.
 
Thanks Brice for this great idea. 

I'm currently working on some floor to ceiling shelf units and can see the potential use of this, especially when the FS1400/2 LR32s arrive.

Makes you wonder if Festool has thought out all the potential combination uses of their tools?
 
Leland said:
Thanks Brice for this great idea.  

I'm currently working on some floor to ceiling shelf units and can see the potential use of this, especially when the FS1400/2 LR32s arrive.

Makes you wonder if Festool has thought out all the potential combination uses of their tools?

The mathematician John Nash ("A Beautiful Mind"), whose work on game theory culminated in a Nobel Prize (despite his having to battle mental illness in the interim), was once asked something to the effect of "was there anything you might have missed or regret not having been able to foresee?" He replied with words to the effect that he never could have foreseen how his work could have influenced such seemingly disparate fields like economics, political science, and even biology.

Now, it might be hyperbole to compare to Festool to John Nash and "A Beautiful Mind," but the "beauty" of any well thought out system is that it spurs ideas that its creators may not, or even could not, have foreseen before.

Of course, Christian might post a video refuting my blathering any minute now! ;)

EDIT: Brice, Nice Work! Thank you.

 
sroxberg said:
Tell me some more about the "Blum's Pearls", I haven't heard of them.

I'll shoot you a PDF file on the Pearls system, keep an eye out in your mailbox. If anyone else whats a PDF copy of the Pearls or KissII systems just let me know.
 
Nice job Brice, very creative.  That might just be enough to make decide to buy the parallel guides.

Fred
 
Brice,

Great idea!!  Thanks for sharing.  I now anticipate a modification to the Festool Advanced Cabinet Training sessions.  [big grin]

I would appreciate a copy of the Blum items, too, please.

Thanks!!!
 
Brice,

I had them, now? 

Begging - send via email please.

Peter
 
Great Idea, Brice!  Another use I can see is drilling for drawer slides.  After setting the guides for the front holes, simply subtract the interval to the next hole and reposition the stops accordingly to drill the back holes.  The slides should fit perfectly.  The stop settings can be recorded to facilitate quick setup in the future for the same slides.

See you in Lebanon in April!  [drooling]
 
Chris Rosenberger said:
Thank you Brice, your timing could not have been better.
I had a cabinet that was to small for my line drill so I was trying to decide how to drill the holes.
The parallel guides worked great. I took some short cuts, but it out worked fine.

Glad it worked out Chris and I'll see you next month. [thumbs up]

Wonderwino said:
Great Idea, Brice!  Another use I can see is drilling for drawer slides.  After setting the guides for the front holes, simply subtract the interval to the next hole and reposition the stops accordingly to drill the back holes.  The slides should fit perfectly.  The stop settings can be recorded to facilitate quick setup in the future for the same slides.

See you in Lebanon in April!  [drooling]

Thanks, looking forward to meeting you too Alex.
 
Brice,

Very creative...and useful. Well done, thanks for taking the time and effort.

Bob
 
After Brice's live demo in Lebanon, the technique is even clearer.  I think even Brian was wowed!  It's the system...
 
Wonderwino said:
After Brice's live demo in Lebanon, the technique is even clearer.  I think even Brian was wowed!  It's the system...

Shane video taped the demo so keep an eye out on Youtube for it.
 
Excellent video, and a fantastic idea, Brice!

I don't have either the LR32 or the parallel guides, but from what I've seen this is a far better method for production work!
 
That's really cool, Brice!

I think that idea would save close to 2 hours in a typical, modest kitchen.

Tom
 
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