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To drill the hole in the right location I held the VL guide on the end of the FS-PA. I used the hole for the thumb screw in the VL guide to drill the hole in the correct location. Then I used a 1/4" X 2" bolt and wing nut to attach the two guides together. You can't use the scale on the VL guide, no big deal given this modification only costs a few minutes of your time. Now I was able to gang cut the 1/4" sheets as I did with the sheets of OSB.
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I'm drilling the 1/4" hole in the body of the FS-PA in this photo.
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Here is a shot of one of the VL guides mounted to the end of the FS-PA to extend the range to just under 37".
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Another use for the guides is to make right angle cuts. Since the guides can be adjusted to be a perfect 90° to the rail you can butt the guide to an edge of your material to make square cuts, I use just one of the guides on my rail to quickly line up 90° cuts. You can use the stop on the guide or just measure then slide the rail to you mark, then make your cut and you'll have a perfectly square (or very close to it) cut. You can use both guides (this might give you a little more accuracy), although I've gotten pretty good results with just one guide.
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The FS-PA can be used to make 90° cuts, here I'm using just one of the guides.
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While the main use for the parallel guides is for cutting with the TS plunge cut saws you can also use them for routing applications. I could image using the guides to align a series of dados or sliding dovetails for a cabinet or bookshelf.
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One of things that I'm pretty excited about trying the guides for is use with the Festool LR 32 hole drilling system. The LR 32 is great for drilling shelf pin hole however, the system has one drawback, its limited distance you can drill holes from the edge of your panels (around 110 mm). With the parallel guides I hope to be able to extend that distance so I can easily drill all the holes needed across the panel for drawer slides. I haven't fully explored this yet although I did briefly test the concept out and it seems like it should work just fine.
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Here I'm exploring the idea of using the guides with the LR 32 hole drilling system.
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After using the guides for a few weeks I was able to come up with a new way of setting the stops to improve the accuracy (and it's much faster too). I use a square to bridge the gap between the stop and scale to set the stop on one of the guides. Then with both guides on the rail close together I'm able to set the second stop very accurately to match the other by aligning the two by feel with my finger (thanks to Greg Mann for the idea).
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The guides are about 3/4" thick so when cutting thin stock on a cutting table there a gap between the guide rail and the stock. This gap doesn't allow the rail to sit on the stock as it should to be able to make the cut so I use scraps of plywood to shim to stock up.
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The stock I'm going to cut here is about 3/8" so I'm using a 1/2" rip of plywood to shim the stock up. The idea is to have your stock and shim measure 3/4" or slightly so there will be no gap under the rail.
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Final thoughts
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As we in North America waited for the parallel guides to be released for sale discussions on the message boards seemed to ask the same question, "can these new guides replace the need for a table saw?" The answer for me is no, as a renovation contractor I still have need of a table saw (or two in my case) for certain tasks. I will say that need is now reduced (I might go as far as to say that need is reduced considerably.)
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As I see it the table saw excels at cutting relatively small and/or pieces with a profile (like window trim) where the guide rail won't sit flat. The table saw also has the advantage over the parallel guides when it comes making numerous cuts to different dimensions. Table saws have two major down sides, they require a lot space and the potential for dangerous kickback.
On the other hand the Festool parallel guide and TS plunge cut saw requires much less space to set up. With the table saw you need between 18 and 20 feet to rip sheet goods where as the Festool setup only requires half that much space. On the jobsite the only place to find twenty feet of uninterrupted space is outside in the driveway or on the lawn. Outside is the best place for my portable table saw because it doesn't collect dust very well, that's fine on a warm sunny day. It's nice to be able to take the sheets inside the house or small garage when it's cold, raining or snowing to make the cuts. The parallel guides and the dust collection of the TS 55/vac allows me to do that.
Where the guides will make the biggest difference for me is I'll be able to make cuts on full sheet goods in my small basement work shop without rearranging the entire space. To cut sheets goods at home on my table saw meant moving almost every stationary tool to make room for this operation. Now I'll only need to move the table saw out of the way, set up a cutting table and go to work with the guides and TS 55. This will save me a good 20 minutes every time.
The best part of having the guides is that I can safely (and accurately) cut sheet goods by myself. With a good cutting table and a TS plunge cut saw there is very little risk of kickback.
For the guy with a small shop that doesn't have the space and/or want for a table saw the parallel guides can, for the most part, eliminate the need for one. On the jobsite the guides will likely only reduce that need. For me, I'm already invested in both table saws and the Festool guide rail system so I will continue to use both choosing the tool(s) that best suits the job at hand.
So what don't I like about the guides, well, two things. The first is the small gap between the scale and the stop that makes it a little harder to precisely set the guides. The other thing is that it can be a bit slow if you need to keep resetting the stops for different measurements (compared to the speed of resetting a table saw.) The guides really excel when cutting numerous pieces at the same measurement. These two things are easily out weighted by the advantages the guides offer.
The parallel guides fit nicely into the Festool system and have met the expectations I have for a Festool product. The guides are well engineered and manufactured, they're portable and can be used for cutting or routing applications. I think these guides filled one of the few voids in Festool's rail system. I've found the guides to be an asset to my Festool collection and I'm well pleased with this purchase.
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