Is there a guide rail square accessory

andyman

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Joined
May 23, 2012
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Is there anything that locates in the guide rail slots available, to provide a stock to keep the rail square whilst offering it up to the material ???
 
Protool used to offer to types of angle guides for the guiderail. I have This version

You have to make sure the edge of your workpiece extends past the edge of your cutting table a bit, because the aluminum profile is 35 mm thick.
The other version was flatter I think, and had detents. (The one I have does have a scale, but no detents) I'm not sure if these things will remain available under the festool brandname.

Festool also offers an angle guide, but that's more an angle transfer tool. (you can use it to position the guiderail, but it doesn't firmly attach to the guiderail)
link

Dewalt offers a 90° attachment for their guiderails, and I think I saw people use them on a festool rail, but I don't remember if they needed to make modifications to it.
 
This one: http://www.qwasproducts.com/QwasSquare.html looks pretty good to me.  I plan to make something similar soon out of plywood.  The Festool Angle Unit is beautifully made and ideal in how it should function.  Unfortunately it doesn't hold square and is not effective.  There are several ideas to make your own, most similar to the Qwas unit, on this forum if you search around.
 
The Dewalt attachment works with the FS guide rails. I have one somewhere, but don't tend to use it. Instead I butt the guide rail to a Woodpecker square or a shop made (2" by 1/4" aluminum bar stock)  T-square.

My only issue with the Dewalt was that the 90 degree "leg" was somewhat short, limiting accuracy.

Not even sure it is still available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J34IQ4/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RMW
 
Richard/RMW said:
The Dewalt attachment works with the FS guide rails. I have one somewhere, but don't tend to use it. Instead I butt the guide rail to a Woodpecker square or a shop made (2" by 1/4" aluminum bar stock)  T-square.

My only issue with the Dewalt was that the 90 degree "leg" was somewhat short, limiting accuracy.

Not even sure it is still available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J34IQ4/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RMW

Oh boy, that thing is ugly! I do like the idea of the shop made T-square, what did you use to square it up? the Woodpeckers?
 
h.gil said:
Richard/RMW said:
The Dewalt attachment works with the FS guide rails. I have one somewhere, but don't tend to use it. Instead I butt the guide rail to a Woodpecker square or a shop made (2" by 1/4" aluminum bar stock)  T-square.

My only issue with the Dewalt was that the 90 degree "leg" was somewhat short, limiting accuracy.

Not even sure it is still available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J34IQ4/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RMW

Oh boy, that thing is ugly! I do like the idea of the shop made T-square, what did you use to square it up? the Woodpeckers?

Don't recall how I initially got it square, made it before I had the big Woodpecker square. Adjusting to square is simple, the "X" pattern of screws has a little slop to move the arm before tightening it down. It's easy to make one with hardware store stuff, a hacksaw, drill and tap. There is an old thread on guide rail squares here:

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-jigs-tool-enhancements/guide-rail-t-square/?all

These are more recent photos showing a chunk of Incra track that was added to give it a scale/stop for setting cuts:

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Minimum cut is around 9.5" with the scale, I think the widest is just over 24". You can use longer Incra track but it gets a bit unwieldy.

I leave this mounted to the short guide rail and hung on the wall, these days I mostly cut panels to width with parallel guides and then use this to rip the ends square. Most often the panels being cut are longer than 24" making the scale/stop of limited use for cabinetry.

RMW
 

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