Parallel guides compatible with Mafell track saw mt55

[Eamonn]

I've a Mafell track saw mt55 and am wondering what's the best functioning parallel guide for it.

The TSO parallel guides seem to work great. Can they be made to work on a Mafell track... or is there any other parallel guides that work like the TSO do, ie... A spring toggle clamp to lock it down?

 

[Gordon Tarling]

Benchdogs system is well engineered, but you'd have to ask them if it's compatible with Mafell. Benchdogs
I have their rail square, which works well, but I have a home-made pair of parallel guides which is made with 3D printed parts and seems to work quite well.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

.............. I have a home-made pair of parallel guides which is made with 3D printed parts and seems to work quite well.

Do tell! A photo would be good. Your own design or where did you get the print files?
Martin

 

[johnnyb]

Just buy a big combination square. Much more accurate and useful in all manner of ways. Parallel guides are a bit clumsy. At least the one i I've used is. Maybe the really expensive ones work fine but a single square off the rail back(at both ends)practically guarantees parallel even on 3m rails which are really awkward when they've got heavy parallel guides on.

 

[johnnyb]

If they don't register at exactly 90 degrees then any measurements are wrong. If the scales are out or out of adjustment there wrong. If anything moves there wrong.its just more overpriced junk that's to much trouble to attach with inaccuracy built in(seemingly) kiss applies here

 

[deema]

I’d stick with the Mafell / Bosch (they are the same) tracks. The connectors are excellent, good track lengths and not too expensive.

 

[Sideways]

Have you tried simply using a good quality steel rule with a ruler stop on it ?
I have a couple of the japanese rules sold by Axminster. The ones with a pearl chrome for readability and black / red markings. I use them with a Veritas stop all the time in the workshop, especially the 600mm rule.
Using a rule with the stop hooked on the edge of the board and the tip against the back edge of the track, it only takes a few iterations end to end to walk the track into parallel. You are using the same measuring device at both ends so you should get good parallelism.
You'll see how quickly the track zeros in on the correct distance. Use track clamps once you are parallel if it's a long and important cut.

Line up and make your first cut, then measure to establish the offset from the back of the track to the cutting edge. That's the offset for everything to follow using that saw and blade. You have to take a measurement and set zero with parallel guides anyway in the same way.

A ruler / stop can be swapped between tracks. All you need is to measure the offset from back of track to cutting edge. You can also use it for taking and transferring many other measurements so it will get far more use than a set of parallel guides.

 

[Spectric]

Don't overlook the fact that it is only parallel to the edge you are working from so may not be square to the other sides.

 

[Jake]

Agree with the above, you need to be doing a hell of a lot of repetitive cuts to make parallel guides worthwhile for convenience never mind VFM, and they are awkward too. So much so that I have a pair and only used them once. I'd pull them out if I had over say 10 or 20 identical width cuts to make but that happens, well, not very often at all so far for me (hence not used after the job I bought them for maybe 8-10 years ago).

 

[HOJ]

I'm with the general opinion's, I have a pair of fetool ones, they hang nicely on the wall, hardly ever used, I find it easier to just cut a couple of strips of ply, the same lengths obviously, (I know what my track offset measurement is) then screw a block on one end of each to use as the reference of the edge the sheet to be cut.

I have a selection of regularly used lengths/sizes, quick and easy and don't make the track unwieldy with anything hanging of it.

 

[johnnyb]

What a great and sensible thread this is turning out to be! Some of those guides are many hundreds of pounds and mostly excessive(for gods sake a huge sribe panel saws only a grand or so!used of course) (

 

[Jake]

many hundreds of pounds and mostly excessive(for gods sake a huge sribe panel saws only a grand or so!used of course) (

Space is a consideration though.

 

[johnnyb]

Of course my point was the precision and engineering inherent in those big old saws is way beyond any parallel guide.

 

[Jake]

Of course my point was the precision and engineering inherent in those big old saws is way beyond any parallel guide.

Yes of course. So much less pfaff too. I think there is a rational niche for the guides but it's really small. Most people who would make them earn their keep would probably be moving on pretty quickly to premises that would fit a panel saw. But there will be niche cases I guess. and maybe useful as a stepping stone.

I have a couple of projects in the long list which it will probably make sense to use them on, but they never really going to earn their purchase price even if I am generous about valuing my spare time highly.