Parallel Guide Questions

[darbo]

I tried out the parallel guides over the weekend. I used them to rip 8' birch ply to make a long fence to support the Kreg stops system for my Kapex. I got decent results from the guides, but was disappointed that my boards ended up just a hair out of parallel over the 8' long cut. Try as I might to perfectly calibrate the rails to each other I just couldn't get them perfect. I think part of my problem is the (relatively) huge 1 mm wide expanse between the arrow on the stops and the measure, which makes it very hard to know if you've aligned the two stops perfectly in exactly the same way. And it's not just the space between stops and measuring line that is problematic; I also dislike the pointer itself on the stops. Why can't the stops have a fine printed/embossed black line matching the lines on the guides measuring rule instead of an open ended embossed arrow?  I can try to paint my own line on, but I'd rather Festool do it at the factory. After failing to get perfect results I set the not-so-parallel guides aside and went back to just placing tick marks at both of the boards...which did produce perfect results.

Anyway, all that to ask a few parallel guide questions:

• What is your preferred method for perfectly calibrating the main parallel guides and ensuring that the stops are perfectly aligned with each other? I was amazed that mine came a whole 1 mm out of alignment out of the box. I calibrated them and was certain I had done a careful job of perfectly aligning them, but my results told a different story.
• What improvements have you made to your parallel guides to overcome the product's weakness of that gap between the measure and the stop? I saw the example of someone attaching keys to their stops to bridge that gap (may have been on another forum), but household keys are about as precise as my thumb. I would love to see a mod employing a bit finer sort of alignment arrow. I wish that tool mfgrs would start doing what Incra does with their ribbed tracks (and lead screws) that allow stops to click to known increments (1/32" or 1/2 mm), while also providing micro-adjusting for obtaining finer results.
• Have any of you applied an imperial measuring tape over the product's metric one? I'm not opposed to metric and, thanks to my iPhones handy conversion app, making conversions is very easy. But if my design calls for a 15 7/8" cut then I prefer to make a 15 7/8" cut and not attempt to make a 403.225 mm cut. Anyway, slapping an imperial tape over the supplied metric one seems like it should be easy enough, so I'm interested to learn if any of you have tried it.

I'm sure I'll get the hang of the guides with continued use, but I also am sure that Festool could have done a much better job of making them easier to get perfectly aligned. Such as designing the tool without gaps between stops and measurring line. Seriously, who uses a tape measure and places their tick marks a full 1 mm or 1/16" away from the measuring tape? That's not a recipe for accuracy, is it? I hope the guides will be re-designed and improved to get that fixed.

 

[Wood_Junkie]

Brice Burrell posted an excellent review and user's guide for the parallel guides here:
http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/Review%20of%20the%20Festool%20Parallel%20Guides.pdf

On page 15 is a suggested solution to the indicator arrow issue.
See if that helps.

 

[fshanno]

First bullet.

I gave up on trying to get them dead on.  Here's what I do.

I make my first rip of the day with the stops set exactly 1/8" wider than necessary.  I measure the ends of the rip.  Usually one or both are both off a bit.  I stick a piece of blue tape on the arms reminding me how much off each is.  Add 1/64  or Cut 1/64 or what have you.  I call it the fudge factor.  I reset the stops to the width I want accounting for the fudge and cut.  For the rest of the day I apply the fudge when setting the stops. 

Second and Third bullets.

I tore the metric rules off and put on imperial ones and stuck them on so the edge of the tape is right out at the stop.  Now there is no gap. 

 

[clintholeman]

Measuring, in general is a really good way to introduce errors and to enhance them. While scales are nice and some times useful in a general sort of way, setting up the guides is easily and accurately done using a square or story stick.

I have a couple of "jigs" set up for the rails and stiles I cut often - they work very well for setting the guides accurately and repeatably. I would recommend using that approach and my guess is that you'll find both accuracy and repeatability increases.

Good luck!

 

[Wonderwino]

I cut a very accurate, 200mm guage block on my SCMS which I use to calibrate the guides, measuring from a marked saw tooth to a carefully placed stop on the 200mm mark on the parallel guides.

When setting up the guides to cut, I use Brice Burrell's method of setting on and sliding the other over, butting the stops together and setting the second by finger tip feel, ensuring they are both set identically.

 

[joiner1970]

I think part of my problem is the (relatively) huge 1 mm wide expanse between the arrow on the stops and the measure, which makes it very hard to know if you've aligned the two stops perfectly in exactly the same way.

I noticed a few people on here complaining about this gap and until I got my guides I thought that sounds bad. Now I have my guides I cannot see what all the fuss is about its a tiny gap and surely your eyes are not that bad that you cannot line the stops up over such a small gap, I havent got to use mine yet but I have had a close look and I cant see a problem.

 

[darbo]

I noticed a few people on here complaining about this gap and until I got my guides I thought that sounds bad. Now I have my guides I cannot see what all the fuss is about its a tiny gap and surely your eyes are not that bad that you cannot line the stops up over such a small gap, I havent got to use mine yet but I have had a close look and I cant see a problem.

I didn't make any statements about the gap prior to using the guides; my expressions of frustration with the gap was borne out of my practice with them. The greatest issue isn't merely setting one stop - in that case the gap isn't that bad - but, when you need to set the other one exactly the same, then that gap poses a problem, if you're trying to align them by sight using the rule. Simply put, the stops have to be perfectly aligned or else the parallel guides are non-parallel guides.

A work-around is to pull the two guides and stops together and align them by feel (per Brice's write-up), which seems like a good solution. I've been thinking about making a story stick with its own moveable stop and setting both parallel guides with the same story stick per Clintholeman's well-reasoned suggestion. I really like that idea because it should allow me to set the guides to the width of the workpiece and then calibrate the stops with the single story stick. I feel will prove to be a very satisfying solution. I just wish that Festool had worked it all out and not require its users to use other products/devices to make them work per the products primary purpose: creating parallel cuts. However, I don't mean to suggest that the product is defective; it just hasn't been manufactured in a manner to make perfect alignment of the stops easy. Something like this would probably do the trick: http://www.woodpeck.com/storystick.html, but a simple T-Track with some home-made stops would probably do just as well.

Give your guides a try and see if you're able to achieve parallel perfection by aligning the stops with your eyes...if so, good for you! If not, you can consider some of the ideas that other posters have suggested to improve accuracy.