Review: New TSO Parallel Guide system upgrades

[Bernmc]

I bought the original TSO parallel guide system for my Festool tracksaws. Like all of TSO's (pricey) products, the system is well thought out, beautifully machined and works well.

There were some frustrations with the original system which TSO have now fixed. The upgrades are retro-fittable to the original system. This is another thing I like about TSO - if they improve their products, they seem to do their best to make the original product upgradeable, so you don;t have to worry about buying early versions.

The original system attached to the TSO guide rail squares:

Attachment 488303

This made it quick and easy to get a square, accurately sized cut. However, I've never found the GRS particularly good when using long rails - once you've got a couple of meters of guide rail attached to the square, I find it quite difficult to get it all accurately squared, and you don't need to be out by much to end up with significant error at the end of a 2m cut.

A solution was to square both ends of the board, and then use two squares and guides - one on each end of the rail, but this was pretty cumbersome to set up - it was just easier to measure and mark, so the PGS didn't get a lot of use. Not to mention the cost of an extra GRS!

The other issue was with calibration, and swapping between 'conventional' and narrow cuts. When you first set the system up, you put it all together and then calibrate it to your setup. The flipstop has an adjustable pin that you move in and out to get an exact cut, and then lock it in place with a little screw. Once that's done, the system is accurate as long as you don't remove the stop pin.

Attachment 488304

This is all fine and dandy until you need to make a narrow cut - the track saw rails are around 190mm wide, so how do you make a 100mm cut using a parallel guide? TSO's cunning solution was to supply a long rod that replaced the pin, which then passed under the rail - so you now had an 'under rail stop' and could make narrow cuts as long as you supported the back of the rail with wood the same thickness as the piece you were cutting.

Attachment 488309

The problem with this is every time you did it, you lost the calibration of the small pin, and had to go through the whole setup process again when you switched back to cuts > 190mm. So guess what... the narrow-cut function just never got used. It was just too much of a fiddle to recalibrate the cuts each time you swapped the pin back in.

The upgrades to the system fix both of these issues - hooray!

You can now get a guide rail adaptor, so the guide works more like a conventional PGS - it doesn't need the Guide Rail Square to attach to.

Attachment 488310 Attachment 488311

There are two versions of the adaptor - one that works with all the usual tracks (Festool, Makita, Triton), and slides into the t-slot on the rail, and a second (pictured above) which only works with the Festool rail. This one doesn't need to be slotted into the t-slot - it just snaps onto the rail anywhere along the length. So it's a lot quicker and easier to get on and off the rail (and easier means it get used more!).

Assembled, it all looks like this:

Attachment 488312 Attachment 488313

And now, long cuts become much easier, and much more accurate:

Attachment 488314

I think it's still quicker and easier to use the guide attached to the GRS for cutting with the shorter rails - instant square and correctly dimension cuts - and then to use the new rail adaptors for longer cuts.

The other upgrade is to the flipstop itself: the knob and t-track locking wotsit is now spring-loaded, so there's a bit of tension even when the knob is loose, and the stop doesn't slide out of the guide track. More importantly, there's a little 'memory collar' for the short pin:

Attachment 488315 Attachment 488321

Now, once you've calibrated the system, you lock the little stop-collar on the pin, and you can swap it for the thin cut rod and back again without losing your calibration. It's so simple, and so effective.
The new bits can be purchased as a 'flipstop 2 upgrade' kit if you have the original flipstop.

As for accuracy - working with a bit of cheap ply, with a few conventional wide and narrow cuts...

250mm:

Attachment 488319

100mm:

Attachment 488320

Good enough for me!

An excellent system if you own a track saw, and well worth the money if you do a lot of cutting. It's made the process so much quicker and incredibly accurate. Recommended.

[Routerfan]

I have the same system using a Makita Track saw, and used it yesterday to cut 13 shelves from 2 2400 x 1200 18mm plywood 1167 x 270 all 13 exactly the same and perfectly square 1197 across the diagonal on each. So quick and easy to cut down a sheet of plywood only having to lift it onto the table once. As you said they are pricey and freight from the US is horrific at the moment but if you look at Axminster in the UK with free shipping over $200 it is worth a look. They use DHL and genrally its delivered within 5-7days from order

[mackaygtrs]

Hi,
I have the TPG Parallel Guide System, the 20, 30 and 50. I received the 30 and 50 first and noticed the numbers and inch increments were fuzzy. Some of the increments were also thicker than others making it hard to tell where to set the flipstop to. After calibrating both flipstops with my Woodpecker 1282SS at 10 1/2" I cut a trial piece 1" longer than needed and it was out by a 1/16". I recalibrated, checked to make sure the adapters were square with the rails and tried another cut setting both flip stops at the same exact place using the edge of the increment, again which are a bit fuzzy and I was still out by 1/16" from one side to the other and both were not even at the measurement I set the flipstops to.
I called TSO as I have bought lots of their products and they quickly sent out new rails mentioning they had an issue with the laser cutting on a few of the rail batches. I received the new ones and unfortunately they are the same with the fuzzy blurry numbers and increments on the 50".

From what I've noticed is, the 20" rails are extremely clear with crisp markings, the 30" is ok (a little blurry) but on the 50" I have to use a tape measure and go from the edge of my track to the edge of the flopstop on both rails to get a perfect cut.

I have tried so many different ways and calibrated using multiple squares and still not getting good results with the 50" rails.

Anyone noticed this?

Thanks,
Stuart