How to Set Up the Festool Parallel Guides

In this video, How to Set Up the Festool Parallel Guides and get them calibrated to make clean, consistent and accurate cuts. There are plenty of that manufacture parallel guides, and they all seek to provide the same result - repeatable, parallel, accurate and consistent cuts on project materials. One of the most critical steps in achieving parallel rips is to calibrate the guides to your guiderail and saw. This process is pretty straight forward and can be done in only a few minutes.

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0:00 Intro

[cribbsprojects]

Really helpful. Thanks. Just getting into Festool tracksaw and this is just what I needed...

[mikevyvyan]

Thanks Ben for another helpful video. You have the knack of clearly conveying the key aspects of the process, for which I'm extremely grateful. Anything related to Festool is helpful to me as I begin to expand my range of tools and equipment. Hope you are able to keep posting and helping others to maximise our investment in these tools and of course improve the quality of our output and avoid those expense mistake. Thanks again.

[andymarshall]

Great video Ben, all the way from the UK

[pmelchman]

Great video Ben. I always pick up a trick or tip from your videos. Keep up the good work

[cuebj]

To be a bit more precise, how about setting adjustable square to 12"=305mm and use that to give two exact same marks instead of tape measure?

[andrebarbe]

Great tutorial! Wanted to ask what work apron you were using in this video, looks super handy and great quality.

[leroyjenkins]

What about the the two flat had screws that engage the side of the rail on each parallel guide do you tighten those?

[RasheedBarnes]

Thanks for the calibration video. I’m trying to decide on which system to get. Seems like festool missed the mark on the design of this product. It appears to rely on, not only the reference side, but the perpendicular sides as well. What if those aren’t square or are curved? Was that ever an issue for you?

[creativedave]

Maybe I’m overthinking this, but I’m having a pretty hard time getting my guides properly calibrated. For some reason I can’t just make the mark like you do on top and calibrate that way. I’m off by about 1mm. I take a square and match the line so that my track saw blade(in fast fix mode) is right off to the side of it. Yet I’m still off by 1mm. Do you think maybe I should draw 2 lines (2mm apart from each other) and try to set my blade right in between them?

[sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Great work as always, Brother!

Couple of quick questions:
1.) I own SYS-MFT & (495020) Systainer Cart... Is there ANY WAY to make a combination of systainers which I can wheel from cart, and have the SYS-MFT level with my MFT/3 table?
2.) Is there ANY way to adjust the height of the MFT Table which I may be overlooking, which will allow me to adjust it to the Cart/systainer/SYS-MFT combo above?

[rojer]

lol, I wish I had the imperial not the metric, got my set used of of Craigslist at a price that was a no brainer. Just ordered a metric tape measure since metric is starting to creep into my woodworking. I do wish that the curser on the stops was a little more precise.

[christaylor]

Hey Ben Love the video! I have to ask Where can I get that apron?

[josephKEOarthur]

I’m presuming I can use them with Makita tracks.

[davidbuchan]

Hi Ben... used to seeing you hairless! Lockdown beard? Looks good. I have the long rail and the mid rail (and the 800) - just wondering why the guides need to be calibrated per rail? Would fresh cuts on the splinter strip avoid this? Great vids... you are costing me a fortune on F-word toys!!

[ThekiBoran]

Have you seen the quick adapters for the TSO parallel guides? At the moment the quick adapters only work with festool rails.
I had the festool parallel guides and they are a pain in the backside. The TSO pgs and the quick adapters look sweet. I ordered a set and am hoping they are as good in use as they appear to be on video.

[duaneboatwright]

There set seems like a lot of work and very expensive to me