The new Festool parallel guides are great!

[nickao]

For people that need to move fast some of the Festool setup is just never going to please, I know it will not please me anyway. Even if you could do everything with this thing it just takes to much time and effort, especially if you are in a rush.

Certain operations are always going to be cumbersome using this new guide accessory, just like certain operations on my table saw are cumbersome. I think it's just another thing you could put in your arsenal when the need arises. I do not see this item having the impact on me that say the mft has, it may for some, but I think I will get it to mess around with just the same to put in my bag of tricks.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Jerry, thanks for another enlightening Festool user manual !!

The new parallel (and perpendicular) guides certainly appear useful and an official Festool answer to the many shop-made accessories described in many other posts on FOG, including Jerry Work's MFS manual, and the Mafell guides which are installed to set the guide rail then removed when making the saw cut.  But to me they appear to be rather inefficient if you are having to work with stock of various thicknesses, especially compared to a tablesaw.  More so, if compared to a tablesaw equipped with a Wixey digital fence.  The need to set up separate supports under both the guide rail and under what will become the off cut piece when that is the component you are cutting to exact width seems overly laborious to me.

To minimize or eliminate the need to recalibrate the parallel guides for each saw blade may be a key reason driving Festool's recent introduction (at least in France) of saw blades for their TS 55 and TS 75 saws that have the same kerf width.  (The recent introduction of such blades by Tenyru may be another reason.)

Dave R.

 

[Jerry Work]

Hi Todd,

I rarely use man made materials so am a long way from an expert on the 32mm cabinet system.  There are many other posters who could do a better job of addressing your question.  These will mount on the hole drilling style guide rails just as easily so they would serve well to locate a row of holes referenced off of either the back or the front edge of the work piece so long as you account for the offset in the hole drilling sled itself.

Jerry

Very Cool....  Thanks for posting Jerry.

I assume these would also improve the use of the hole drilling setup to create both balanced and unbalanced sides for euro style 32mm cabinets.  Would love to hear your thoughts on that subject...

Best,
Todd

 

[petiegolfer]

I have these and Jerry that was my thoughts exactly. I went for the minimal LR32 package because of this. You do need to have a guide rail longer than the work peice...this is another reason for me getting my 3m rail doctored.

I have used the parallel guides on 8x4 sheets cut up on the garage floor. The sheet raised up off the floor with sevral off cuts of ply and the guides kept level with some packers. Alot easier than measuring and then trying to line up the 3m guide rail to a couple of pencil marks...we have all played the backwards and forwards game!!

Piers

 

[tbellemare]

I got the Parallel Guide Set yesterday.

Jerry is spot on about how robust they are. The photos don't do them justice. He also nailed it about how easy they are to set up an how square they are.

I wouldn't want to use only one guide to square up the side of a pantry cabinet, I'd use both. But, for small work like cabinet doors or especially, drawer pieces, I could see using only one of them.

As has been said before, they make a TS Plunge Cut Saw a lot like an upside-down table saw.

Tom

 

[wnagle]

I saw the parallel guides at the Hartville Hardware tool show here in ohio yesterday and today.  They worked very simply with little fus and were really accurate.  When cutting thin strips with Plywood, you could not feel any difference at all when stacked side by side.  Also when only using one guide it becomes a squareing fence for 90 degree crosscuts however the purchase of the long rail on the plywood edge is significant.  Its like a 90 degree stop on your rail thats about 30 inches long.  These really look like a great addition.

 

[Notorious T.O.D.]

Wayne,

Thanks for the report...sounds like they may get added to my Festool list too...

Best,
Todd

 

[wnagle]

Todd,

At the sale yesterday, I ordered my vacuum press and veneering supplies!  I picked up a few other odds and ends as well.  To bad you weren't in town, It was a pertty good size show all week and really busy. 

 

[honeydoman]

tom or jerry,  (wow sounds like a cartoon)

I rip down a lot of sheet goods.  from 4x8 to  11 1/4 or 15 1/4 or 23 1/4 when making bookcase units.  so as I understand these parallel guides, I can set them up at 11 1/4 or what ever,  on the long rail and set it up againt the edge, rip and then reset on the rest of the sheet rip and continue and rip 4 pieces at 11 1/4 or whatever, over and over again.  is that correct.?  cuz that is what I would use them for. and therefore I will have to buy them?  dam

 

[Frank-Jan]

Well, my name isn't Tom, nor Jerry, but I can say the things will work great for that use.
The scale goes from 134 mm (5.61 inches) to 650 mm (25.61 inches), but you can set it to cut less (to about 10mm) or a bit more (up to 668 mm) And is well readable (I don't like the scales on the OF/FH router thing for example)

Here you can see how I've been using them.
The thickness of the profiles is 18mm, so if you're sheets are of a different thickness you'll have to find a way of supporting the ends that works the easiest for you. (I can hardly wait to see the methods Jerry and John come up with)

 

[honeydoman]

hey thanks just the picture I wanted to see.!  I guess on march 1  I head to woodcraft to pick one up.

 

[butzla]

Thanks for posting a link to your great tutorial, Jerry.  A much needed accessory that I think, should be packaged with the rails.
Am I the only one disappointed that there's only metric?

 

[Warrior]

They sound like they are perfect for 18mm or 3/4" stock, which is what the majority of us is working with for cabinets. the price is a little out of reach for me right now. but if cabinetry orders pick up I think I would get some and dedicate them to a 3000 rail at the ripping table.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

I saw the parallel guides at the Hartville Hardware tool show here in ohio yesterday and today.  They worked very simply with little fus and were really accurate.  When cutting thin strips with Plywood, you could not feel any difference at all when stacked side by side.  Also when only using one guide it becomes a squareing fence for 90 degree crosscuts however the purchase of the long rail on the plywood edge is significant.  Its like a 90 degree stop on your rail thats about 30 inches long.  These really look like a great addition.

I also saw that parallel guides demo, and confirm what Wayne said above.  However, flipping one of the several identical offcut pieces end for end while keeping the same cut edge up revealed that the stops of the parallel guides were not set at exactly the same distance.  So, event though there are accurate built-in scales, care in set up is critical to perfectly even offcut strips if that is important to you.

It was not that clear to me how the whole setup and especially the offcut piece would best be supported if, for example, it was 7 inches wide by 8 ft long by 1 inch thick laminate.

The Festool representative confirmed that a single parallel guide mounts very squarely to the Guide Rail, and that it can be trued up if needed with the adjustment mechanisms built into the head that mounts on the Guide Rail.  The head of the parallel guide is a wide, substantial casting, and the extrusions of the parallel guide are about 11/16 inch thick by about 3 inches wide which makes everything very resistant to any flexing or deformation when in use.

Someone earlier posted that he intended to put some Loc-tite (thread locking compound) on the nut that holds the cam action clamp on the underside of the parallel guide.  That nut had fallen off one of the parallel guides of the Festool representative during his travel from Michigan to Hartville, OH.  But even without that underside clamp mechanism, the representative was still able to use that parallel guide to make several identical narrow strips about 2 ft long from a piece of 3/4 inch plywood.

Dave R.

 

[Jerry Work]

Yup, just as simple as that.

Jerry

tom or jerry,  (wow sounds like a cartoon)

I rip down a lot of sheet goods.  from 4x8 to  11 1/4 or 15 1/4 or 23 1/4 when making bookcase units.  so as I understand these parallel guides, I can set them up at 11 1/4 or what ever,  on the long rail and set it up againt the edge, rip and then reset on the rest of the sheet rip and continue and rip 4 pieces at 11 1/4 or whatever, over and over again.  is that correct.?  cuz that is what I would use them for. and therefore I will have to buy them?  dam

 

[tbellemare]

tom or jerry,  (wow sounds like a cartoon)

I rip down a lot of sheet goods.  from 4x8 to  11 1/4 or 15 1/4 or 23 1/4 when making bookcase units.  so as I understand these parallel guides, I can set them up at 11 1/4 or what ever,  on the long rail and set it up againt the edge, rip and then reset on the rest of the sheet rip and continue and rip 4 pieces at 11 1/4 or whatever, over and over again.  is that correct.?  cuz that is what I would use them for. and therefore I will have to buy them?  dam

I defered to Frank-Jan because he has had his significantly longer than me.

Tom

 

[Steve Jones]

I received a set the other day for evaluation purposes. I'm selling my custom cabinet business and all tools except the Festools and a few other choice items go along with the deal. So I was interested in whether this system could replace my hefty cutting table (of which several members have made very complimentary remarks)

I had fairly high hopes once I finally figured out what it's actually supposed to do. I am working on site cutting panels for cabinets and desks, I resisted the first couple of days because time is critical, don't have any spare for playing withe new toys on the job site etc. but once I tried them I was hooked.

Ok, couple of limitations that keep it just below fantastic, the metric scale means you need a metric tape measure (a calculator that converts from inches to mm works, but it's a PITA)

And the length limitation gets in the way sometimes (I was cutting several pieces to 53 1/4" and it don't stretch that far)

But for 99% of the cuts I do, this thing hooked on a rail on top of a stack of plywood (with a couple of scraps under the top sheet) replaces my cutting table for on site work. - fast, accurate, and easy to use.

Honeydokreg - buy them!

 

[fshanno]

Some pretty hefty endorsements.  My Festool guy has two on order and one is for me.  But I'm getting cold feet.  I realize that people are using them successfully but still questions are popping up in my head.

How do they handle 1/2" in 1/4" thick sheets?  Can you rip 8 feet with a 106" guide?

Currently I'm using two rules with the width of the guide cut off and stopped with the stair gauge thing.  I set the gauge on one rule, then set the second from the first.  I may be off a little on width but I'm dead parallel.  I square them with a small framing square and clamp them to each end of the sheet.  Since they are clamped I can bump the guide up against them.  Pretty fast, pretty accurate and repeatable.  If you don't mind the math you don't have to cut the rules.

[attachimg=1]

The only costs were the rules.  From a functional standpoint the clamps make all the difference as well as using one rule to set the other so the cut is exactly parallel.  An upgrade would be the extra long combination squares from Eagle American @ $36.99 each.

Material thickness and device support are not issues for this simple sit-on-top solution.  And, of course, it's imperial instead of metric.  How is the FS-PA better?

 

[honeydoman]

Steve.

I ordered one today after reading the post and also speaking to the festool rep, dan the festool man and called woodcraft and they will have one for me on sunday  when they open their doors.

I have sheet goods to cut up on monday so I will get to work using them asap.  thanks for all the info it was helpful.

 

[Frank-Jan]

...  How is the FS-PA better?

I don't know if that was ment to be rethorical, but speed when doing multiple cuts of the same width would be an advantage. Using the system you describe you have to clamp both of the rules to the workpiece you're about to cut. With the PA's they're attached to the guiderail, so you don't have to go to both ends of the board, and you don't have to clamp. And off course, they're metric instead of imperial 

BTW, the scale seems to be a stainless steel rule glued on a recess in the aluminum profile, if festool doesn't plan on making an imperial version, it wouldn't be too hard to modify a metric version into an imperial one.