I had posted an earlier version of my “poor man’s parallel guide”, but it suffered from a couple of deficiencies.
The guide was made from two aluminum yard sticks and a couple of stair stops. The cost of the yard sticks was about $4.00 each and the stair stops was about $6.00 per pair.
The first, and most telling deficiency was it did not make an adjustment for the width of the cut and I had to remember to add 1/8” to the measurements.
The second, and still important deficiency was the the cheap yard sticks I bought were thin enough to sneak under the splinter guide and would introduce an error of about 1/16” if I were not careful.
An obvious fix for the slip-under-the-splinter-guide would have been to buy the thicker and wider (and more expensive) version of the yard sticks. Instead, with improved finances available, I got the TSO right angle and parallel guide offering.
The TSO unit works exactly as advertised and I consider it a good investment. But if I am making a single cut, the yard sticks are quicker to use, so I never disposed of them.
The other day I was in the auto parts store and I picked up the protective edge guards (pictured below).
Installation was simple. I cut the vinyl to the approximately 1-1/4” length required and slipped it onto the ends. It relies on friction for retention and seems disinclined to fall off.
It adds 1/8” to the end of the yard sticks, the amount I needed to remember to add for my setups. It is also adds enough thickness that it is no longer in risk of slipping under the splinter guard.
The $10.00 per pair of parallel guides grew to $16.00 per pair. Which I think is still cheap enough to qualify for “poor man’s […]”.
I still think the better yard sticks would make a better poor man’s parallel guide. I think the friction fit of the edge guide will tighter. If these tips fall off, I may get thicker rulers or I may use a narrow strip of heavy duty clear packing tape to keep them from falling off.
The designs are offered with no accuracy claims. (But I have found the earlier version yielded highly repeatable cuts.) You will need two. I use squeeze clamps to hold them in place.
The images are probably sufficient to show how it is used. The stair stop is set for cutting a 3” strip.
The guide was made from two aluminum yard sticks and a couple of stair stops. The cost of the yard sticks was about $4.00 each and the stair stops was about $6.00 per pair.
The first, and most telling deficiency was it did not make an adjustment for the width of the cut and I had to remember to add 1/8” to the measurements.
The second, and still important deficiency was the the cheap yard sticks I bought were thin enough to sneak under the splinter guide and would introduce an error of about 1/16” if I were not careful.
An obvious fix for the slip-under-the-splinter-guide would have been to buy the thicker and wider (and more expensive) version of the yard sticks. Instead, with improved finances available, I got the TSO right angle and parallel guide offering.
The TSO unit works exactly as advertised and I consider it a good investment. But if I am making a single cut, the yard sticks are quicker to use, so I never disposed of them.
The other day I was in the auto parts store and I picked up the protective edge guards (pictured below).
Installation was simple. I cut the vinyl to the approximately 1-1/4” length required and slipped it onto the ends. It relies on friction for retention and seems disinclined to fall off.
It adds 1/8” to the end of the yard sticks, the amount I needed to remember to add for my setups. It is also adds enough thickness that it is no longer in risk of slipping under the splinter guard.
The $10.00 per pair of parallel guides grew to $16.00 per pair. Which I think is still cheap enough to qualify for “poor man’s […]”.
I still think the better yard sticks would make a better poor man’s parallel guide. I think the friction fit of the edge guide will tighter. If these tips fall off, I may get thicker rulers or I may use a narrow strip of heavy duty clear packing tape to keep them from falling off.
The designs are offered with no accuracy claims. (But I have found the earlier version yielded highly repeatable cuts.) You will need two. I use squeeze clamps to hold them in place.
The images are probably sufficient to show how it is used. The stair stop is set for cutting a 3” strip.
