Parallel Guides vs Rip Guides vs Parallel Guide System

[JeromeM]

I have the Parallel Guides and the Rip Guides. They do not do the same job. I wouldn't give up either. FWIW I have just got 6 more sets of rip dogs.

 

[donwon]

I have the rip guides and love them.  THe plastic is very durable and personally, I do not see it wearing out vs aluminum.  Either one (Senca or Rip) are an excellent alternative

 

[shap]

Well, after trying the Festool parallel guides I decided to return them.

I dislike the Festool guides for several reasons:

• They don't sit flat on the workpiece.
• They're a nuisance to get on and off.
• Calibration, unless done with care, renders them non-square, after which they are no longer parallel.

I ended up buying the ones from Precision Dogs. These rely on Incra T-Track Plus. They resolve the issues above, but at the cost that I have to measure distances by hand and do a bit of calculation. I don't mind doing that, and the use of T-Track means that I can put other things on the tracks that have turned out to be handy.

One reason to go with Precision over some of the others is that they use a T-nut at the rail attachment point, which spreads the load and hopefully will avoid damaging the rail. I rejected the Seneca because the attachment to the rail is not simple to release, which makes moving the guide back and forth on the rail difficult.

They "lies flat on workpiece" issue is very much a matter of taste.

 

[LZ]

I have all three. There is nothing wrong with Richard's plastic parts. Please be advised that with Festool  parallel guides installed you will not be able to use Festool clamps to secure the rail to the piece that you are cutting. Festool parallel guides locking mechanism design will not allow you to slide the clamp far enough to reach. This may or may not be relevant since rail in general does not move.

 

[fritter63]

I'd like to know what genius at Incra decided to make all the measuring tapes only in 16" increments so for a 24" T-Track Plus you get two tapes that you have to overlap just right and hope they don't slide out of alignment.  Like it would have killed them to actually produce a 24" tape for their 24" rails.

Originally those scales were made for the incra router table fence system, which was obviously a lot shorter (16") than a typical fence system. For some reason they want to keep re-using those even though it's been a good 20 years since they started adapting the system to table saws,etc.

And I really do believe there is a genius at Incra...

 

[shap]

I've seen it said that the measure tape expands and contracts differently from the aluminum, and for this reason they didn't want to go with longer tape. I'm not sure how much to believe that. Kreg has very long aluminum-faced tapes with adhesive on the back. My hesitation on that is that once you stick them down they probably aren't that easy to calibrate properly.

 

[gnlman]

+1 on the woodpecker ruler and rule stop. I found the scales on the Festool and Rip guides hard to match up...eyesight....lol
I use the ruler against the non cut side of the rail and just subtract the width of the rail..(7 5/16 I believe..) rulestop against the edge of the plywood for example, and ruler end against the rail and I get perfect results in seconds....and no scales to try and read...kinda like a story stick for guides....have to go from the cut side for the narrow rip  guides, but it works just as well. I like both guides and also have some Seneca products as well.....all just fine and will give you excellent results.
Greg.

 

[shap]

+1 on the Woodpecker rulers and rule stops as well. That's how I plan to measure the depth when I set my parallel guides. Fiddling with the tapes on the T-Track Plus seems a little silly if I have an accurate ruler and stop on hand. 

 

[wow]

I could have used the Seneca ones today when I trimmed up a Corian sink.

For those who bought them, I see that they are 'marked down' to $189.95 on the Seneca website. Is that a deal, or is it just marketing?

 

[Tinker]

I use RMW's guides with great results.  I seldom go by the tape.  I measure from the cutting edge of the rail guide to the stop on the T-track for one end of the setup.  Once satisfactorilly adjusted, I measure from back track of the rail to the stop and then duplicate that measurement at the other end.  There is some deflection as the tape is pulled across the rail from cutting edge to the stop.  by equal adjustment from the back track to the stops, there is no need to guess how much the deflection influences equal (parallel) measurements.
Tinker

 

[jstockman]

I have the ones from ebay (RMW-Ripdogs) and they work perfectly.  The material that Richard use seems to hold up very well.  I do not see any future problem with them because of the material they are made from.

Rusty

Guys

Can the RMW-Rip Dogs be used to rip 4 by 8 sheets of plywood?  The videos show them on a MFT3 table. A 4 by 8 is too big for a MFT3.

Also, where can i purchase them?

Big thx

Jim

 

[sprior]

I don't think the RMW dogs would be good for ripping a 4x8 - I'd recommend the Seneca Parallel Guides or RMW Rip Guides for that - they don't need dogs and therefore MFT holes.

 

[JimD]

These seem similar to the Seneca for a bit less money:

http://precisiondogs.us/products/precision-parallel-guides-v11

 

[SoonerFan]

I have the Festool Parallel guides.  For me they are fine.  Maybe a little challenging to use but as a hobbyist its not too painful.  When I got mine there were not as many other options our at least options I knew about.

 

[peter halle]

I also use the Festool parallel guides.

Peter

 

[Corwin]

There wasn't any such thing as 'parallel guides' when I started with Festool, but I had a bunch of Incra Incremental Track and started out using those as story sticks. I soon made a base to mount the track and rail onto and spent too long looking for something other than a piano hinge to connect the rail to the base. I finally gave up the search and went with the piano hinge and haven't looked back. Here's my SketchUp animation that shows my old parallel jig.

Corwin's Parallel jig

 

[rustym]

Corwin,
Another great jig.  I think with this one you wouldn't even need the narrow strip jig.

Rusty

 

[Corwin]

Corwin,
Another great jig.  I think with this one you wouldn't even need the narrow strip jig.

Rusty

You'r right, Rusty. This latest animation accurately depicts the jig I made years ago, while the Narrow Rip jig is simply an idea I had based on my Parallel jig. And I do use my Parallel jig in conjunction with a sacrificial base with an included fence for narrow rips. I have one final animation that I'm finishing up on that shows this sacrificial base in use on the MFT along with my MFT zero-clearance fence system. I promise that this next animation will be the last animation that I will share here.

 

[rustym]

I hope it's not the last animation you share here.  I know they are a lot of work but it sure gets the point across in the best way. Thanks Corwin for all the work you do on this.

Rusty

 

[jmac80]

I just ordered some Seneca guides with 20%  off (black friday)
What size incra t-track plus do you guys tend to use most?
Was thinking about 24" myself as i imagine using it for long cuts on a 8x4 sheet so 24 would reach over halfway.
Could just use a 1400 rail and a square to get the wide cuts then working of my straight edge...
Or is it worth getting a 36 / 48 rail also?