TSO Parallel Guides

[kwakefield]

I originally bought the TSO 20” long parallel guides with drop-on connectors (also have their rail square). I went with the 20” set because most of my work is on shallow-ish cabinets for tool and utility room storage. However, I am now anticipating making some deeper cabinets and furniture and thought I would just pick up the 30” rails. The TSO website indicates that you can mix and match the parallel guide parts to make the set you need. So I thought no problem on adding just the rails. But no, it seems the 30” rails are not available outside of the $$$ kit. I’ve emailed them twice and both times have been told simply that they are not sold separately.
At this point my options are to buy the 50” rails or sell my TSO guides and buy another brand (probably Benchdogs uk … I see they have a new revision out that looks appealing). I’m already selling my Festool parallel guide set because they are too long and heavy and unwieldy so going all the way to 50” rails if I only need 30 or less seems kind of excessive.
Any suggestions or reviews/comparisons to the newer Benchdogs UK parallel guides?

 

[WillettBarrel]

I recently divested most of my Benchdogs for similar reasons. A new Mk II or MkIII is always around the corner. They put a product out, collect feedback from users, then redesign. Effectively, they make customers pay to be part of R&D as opposed to paying internal design teams prior to product release.

On one of their new versions, I asked for a conversion kit to upgrade the equipment I had already bought from them. The conversion kit would have amounted to a few spare parts. They said no. I bought the whole new kit because it fixed a major flaw in the original design (a flaw I pointed out to them through prior feedback no less).

I'll also point out they heavily curate the product reviews on their website. I've posted mediocre and poor product reviews. They've been deleted and all their products only show five star reviews. I received no offer to "make it right", request to reconsider feedback, or any explanation/notification of the deletion.

Depending on your setup, you may want to look at how Dashboard sets their parallel cuts.

 

[usernumber1]

I agree with what @WillettBarrel said. They are all half baked. Once you accept the game I've been modifying them more freely. In your example I would get the 50 and cut them down to your size. They are consumable products if that makes any sense -

 

[MacBoy]

If you want to DIY a simpler cheaper solution, then watch Guido Henn use T-Tracks as his “measurement system”.

Turn on CC, then go back into CC and enable Auto Translate. Then go back into Auto Translate and select English.

Or simply watch it without CC because Guido explains very well with just hand motions.

Guido’s parallel guide technique starts at the 9:50 mark, I’ve already put you at that time spot:

 

[4nthony]

I’ve emailed them twice and both times have been told simply that they are not sold separately.

They have an existing customer who wants to spend more to increase the capabilities of their kit yet they're told no?

Seems like a missed opportunity for TSO. Product is product. SKU it up and sell it.

Would love to hear the reason(s) why they don't allow it.

 

[mac sparrow]

It feels like something is different with TSO in recent months. I've seen many posts on the FOG where TSO are tagged in but then never reply. This is in stark contrast to earlier TSO where they were always replying to posts where they were tagged in or trying to help with an issue even when they weren't tagged in. It's merely an observation and not a dig at anyone. There may be reasons I/we are not aware of. We must all make an effort to maintain high standards. Whatever they may be.

I have several of their products and like them.

@TSO_Products sending best wishes and I hope business is going well and family are well.

 

[luvmytoolz]

They have an existing customer who wants to spend more to increase the capabilities of their kit yet they're told no?

Seems like a missed opportunity for TSO. Product is product. SKU it up and sell it.

Would love to hear the reason(s) why they don't allow it.

This is just bad customer support in my book. Regardless of the reason, if there's no physical incompatibility, and the response effectively boils down to nothing more than "just because", it's a bad look for any company.

 

[johnmpf]

This is just bad customer support in my book. Regardless of the reason, if there's no physical incompatibility, and the response effectively boils down to nothing more than "just because", it's a bad look for any company.

I agree. My guess is that TSO is not a very big company. They cater to a pretty specialized market. Bending over backwards to satisfy a customer should be their normal mode of operation. Its not like the multinational company I worked for that claimed it cost $5000 to create an sku. They know the cost of the part and can just apply their normal margin. Very strange indeed.

 

[onocoffee]

They have an existing customer who wants to spend more to increase the capabilities of their kit yet they're told no?

Seems like a missed opportunity for TSO. Product is product. SKU it up and sell it.

Would love to hear the reason(s) why they don't allow it.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with Woodpeckers. I've got two of their Hex Scale Rules and have come to really like them. I want to buy the other two, but I also want to get their RackIt to hang all of them together. Woodcraft said they didn't stock it, so I called Woodpeckers directly, spoke to someone on the phone and asked about buying one. They said No - it was only available if I bought the entire set. WTF?

I've purchased two of the Hex Rules at full price and am willing to buy the other two at full price AND buy the RackIt, and they aren't interested in selling it? Instead I have to buy the entire set???

I decided then that I would not buy the other two Hex Rules (now I'm very okay with seeking out a Chinese version), nor would I need to buy any other Woodpeckers product. I won't be forced into spending unnecessary money because of their greed.

 

[johnmpf]

I guess Woodpecker and TSO have hired recently graduated MBA's or worse consultants. Forcing customers do buy things they don't want. Classic short term business stupidity.
(No offense meant to MBA's or consultants, most are very good at what they do, but there is a large minority that are just plain stupid in their thinking).

 

[kwakefield]

If you want to DIY a simpler cheaper solution, then watch Guido Henn use T-Tracks as his “measurement system”.

Turn on CC, then go back into CC and enable Auto Translate. Then go back into Auto Translate and select English.

Or simply watch it without CC because Guido explains very well with just hand motions.

Guido’s parallel guide technique starts at the 9:50 mark, I’ve already put you at that time spot:

Thanks for that video. It was interesting to see how he used the third piece of t-track to ensure the other two were exactly the same. I should probably go ahead and make something like that up

 

[kwakefield]

They have an existing customer who wants to spend more to increase the capabilities of their kit yet they're told no?

Seems like a missed opportunity for TSO. Product is product. SKU it up and sell it.

Would love to hear the reason(s) why they don't allow it.

I know, I can’t figure it out either. They already sell the other two lengths as separate products. Why not the 30”? Seems like it should be pretty easy to do.