Parallel Guides and HK55

[nj_five]

Bought the parallel Guide system with extension and trying to make it work with the HK55. Did notice will need to make slight adjustment for the base guides but when I try to calibrate with the extensions they just don't have enough play to move them forward enough.

What am I missing? I get the TS55 has the 2.2 vs 1.8 blade but I'm off by more than 1/4" on the extensions.

 

[Spandex]

The parallel guides have nothing to do with the saw really. They mount to the rail and they need to be calibrated to the rail (so that the distance between the parallel guide stop and the cut edge on the rail splinter guard strip matches the distance markings).

Obviously, your saw also needs to be calibrated to your rail - either by making adjustments (if you use multiple saws on a single rail) or by trimming a new splinter guard strip.

The main thing to bear in mind is that you are not calibrating the parallel guides to the saw. You calibrate the guides to the rail and the saw to the rail.

 

[mino]

...
The main thing to bear in mind is that you are not calibrating the parallel guides to the saw. You calibrate the guides to the rail and the saw to the rail.

Actually, not really.

One should calibrate the PGs (of any make) to an actual cut line done with a clamped rail.

Sure, if you have multiple saws, you need them to both be calibrated to the rail for this to work. But if you have only one saw, only the actual cut line is what one needs to be concerned with.

In this context the splinter guard should, but does not necessarily need to, be exactly where the cut line is. This property of the various PGs - that they remove the dependency on the splinter guard being exact - is one of the reasons for their accuracy potential.

Bought the parallel Guide system with extension and trying to make it work with the HK55. Did notice will need to make slight adjustment for the base guides but when I try to calibrate with the extensions they just don't have enough play to move them forward enough.

What am I missing? I get the TS55 has the 2.2 vs 1.8 blade but I'm off by more than 1/4" on the extensions.

I guess a photo of the problem will help. Pretty hard to imagine what is the exact issue just from the text description.

 

[Spandex]

...
The main thing to bear in mind is that you are not calibrating the parallel guides to the saw. You calibrate the guides to the rail and the saw to the rail.

Actually, not really.

One should calibrate the PGs (of any make) to an actual cut line done with a clamped rail.

Yes, I understand that in practical terms you can completely ignore the splinter guard,  but I don't think it's helpful in this situation to recommend doing that, particularly as we currently don't know how many saws the OP uses on this rail. Also, the amount of adjustment in each component is finite, so by adjusting each 'pair' of components separately, you ensure that you don't try to take up all the slack in one adjustment.

Just to be clear, in Festools own instruction videos for the FS-PA, they calibrate to the cut splinter guard, not to a 'practice cut'.

 

[pixelated]

I agree with the above that a picture may help for diagnosing.

My saw is an HK, and I had no particular problem calibrating my parallel guide to it.
I just took a look at mine, to try and ID any problem area, there isn’t a lot of adjustment room, but my extensions aren’t at the limit of the available adjustment.
My guides are an older metric set, it might be possible that newer ones don’t have as much adjustment, but that seems doubtful.
Festool has a couple of videos on calibration, have you looked at those to see if you may have missed something?
You would want to calibrate the long end first, because that effects where the guide sits on the rail.

 

[squall_line]

Just to be sure, you're using this on a standard FS/2 rail, not a FSK rail, correct?

 

[nj_five]

OK figured it out and yes I am using the FS/2 rail.  Went and watched the video and now all squared away. Thanks for all the good pointers.