Rail square reviews

[Designer1]

Hi,

Looking for some advice on the TSO GRS-16 rail square (TSO Products GRS-16 Guide Rail Square).

I make a fair amount of wardrobes and am currently outsourcing the cutting, while this works at the moment the time taken to order and pick it up is something that I want to reduce. I was looking at a rail square such as the one listed. Can it help make accurate cuts over 8 foot? E.g. with the 2 Makita 1.5 meter rails attached together. Obviously with a walls saw the timber yard can just set the size and run the saw along and get perfectly parallel cuts. Is the same achievable with this?

Too long didn't read; is this rail square good enough to put on the edge of an 8x4 sheet and rip a perfectly parallel 2400MM x 70MM piece.

Cheers,

Designer1

 

[sometimewoodworker]

TLDR. answer. No Chance.

for that cut you need parallel guides not a rail square.

 

[Designer1]

TLDR. answer. No Chance.

for that cut you need parallel guides not a rail square.

I was also looking at these, can they guarantee a square cut? Only thing I can think of is using parallel guide and then squaring the ends on the miter saw. Max capacity is about 260MM on the miter saw, it's an old Elu made in west Germany but still works very well .

Any panels wider than the 260MM I would probably have to use the parallel guide and then use the rail square to square the ends up.

What parallel guides do you use?

 

[Ollie78]

I agree that parallel guides is probably better.
I don't have either a rail square or parallel guides.
I normally do the long rips just by measuring, or make up a couple of quick guide blocks if I am doing repeat cuts.
Then just square up the short ends, I use my hkc55 for this if they are small enough or just old school with a normal engineers square against the back of the rail.

If I was doing a lot of sheet work I would buy a 3m rail so no joints to move and some kind of parallel guide.
Pretty sure you could make your own guide jig with adjustable pins for common rip widths.

Ollie

 

[AES]

Personally I don't know the answer to your Q, but someone who almost certainly does is Peter Millard - a professional fitted wardrobes, etc, maker.

He's a member here, but also, he produces excellent videos showing exactly how he achieves exactly what you're looking for. He has his own YouTube channel "10 Minute Workshop" and personally I would thoroughly recommend his huge series of videos, discussing in a friendly, unbiased, and knowledgeable way, various tools such as track saws, tracks, stops, MPC tops, crosscut squares, etc, etc., plus his methodology As said, exactly what you're looking for.

HTH

 

[HOJ]

For ripping narrow strips of sheets I just make some MDF/ply offset blocks (allowing for the kerf) that set the rail parallel to the long edge (I often find I need to cut a new edge first)

I have a 3mtr festool rail and the festool guide rails but they don't work on narrow stock <150mm, IIRC, you have to buy extras parts for that, but they then make it a cumbersome solution, (they are good for doing regular 300mm + widths).

I do all my sheet rips then crosscuts on my MFT which has been set up with long infeed & outfeed tables and defined length stops.

I do have a TSO rail square (they do 2 types, I think) it is handy, but not a guaranteed solution for cutting square without double checking.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I was also looking at these, can they guarantee a square cut?

No they can’t, they are parallel guides

step 1; trim the long factory edge.
step 2; square cut one short edge.
step 3; rip parallel strips, then trim the last short end square.

What parallel guides do you use?

I use the Festool FS-PA with the FS-PA-VL they are modified to be able to cut from 1 mm up to 950 mm I often use them for 40mm x 2440mm french cleat material.
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...festool-fs-pa-and-fs-pa-vl/msg97615/#msg97615I’ve only been using them for about 12 years, at the time I got them they were the only available option, now there are different choices, it’s not clear to me that any of the alternatives can cut such a thin strip without using them in a different way to the way they are designed to work.

NB I don’t say they can’t I just haven’t read exactly how they can

Pretty sure you could make your own guide jig with adjustable pins for common rip widths.

That is absolutely doable and if you are cutting the same widths repeatedly it may well be a better option.

But if, like me, you only have a few, 5 ~ 50 then probably never the same again the Festool FS-PV is a far better tool.

.

 

[robgul]

Going back to the OP - can you plan in other work/calls to work with the cut material collection? - that would be my preferred option (and I think you'll find @petermillard used his timber merchant for cutting big sheet goods when he was making wardrobes etc - admittedly his supplier was pretty local)

 

[GerryT]

Hi,

Looking for some advice on the TSO GRS-16 rail square (TSO Products GRS-16 Guide Rail Square).

I make a fair amount of wardrobes and am currently outsourcing the cutting, while this works at the moment the time taken to order and pick it up is something that I want to reduce. I was looking at a rail square such as the one listed. Can it help make accurate cuts over 8 foot? E.g. with the 2 Makita 1.5 meter rails attached together. Obviously with a walls saw the timber yard can just set the size and run the saw along and get perfectly parallel cuts. Is the same achievable with this?

Too long didn't read; is this rail square good enough to put on the edge of an 8x4 sheet and rip a perfectly parallel 2400MM x 70MM piece.

Cheers,

Designer1

I have the TSO rail square and have used it now for about two years.
No issues with quality so far.
Locks into my Festool rails easily enough and stays put.

As for cutting square with 2400mm sheet goods, then yes.
But cutting accurate parallel lengths is slightly different from repetitive measuring and cutting square, as their will usually be a slight variation depending on how many lengths you want from your 2400mmx1200mm sheet or whatever.

Ideally you want to use as long a rail as possible over that length as the fewer the joins the better.
One thing to note is that over that length you need to make sure the rail at the far end is square with the bottom end of the rail as there is some “flop” in the long rail length.
I just square the TSO rail guide up against the sheet and then give the rail a slight lift and let it drop down rather than push it .
You can use the guide at the far end if you want to.
I’ve never had an issue cutting sheet goods this way but very accurate and true “parallel“ cuts may well be better done with a parallel guide made for the purpose.

 

[MikeK]

I have a lot of the TSO Products items, and would never consider using the GRS-16 attached to a guide rail for anything longer than a crosscut on sheet goods. I use the same process Jerome described in post #7. I don't have any problems ripping full sheets using the FS 3000/2 and the parallel guides, but all this does is ensure uniform width for the long rips. To square off the ends of the long panels, I'll use my MFT-style table or the GRS-16 attached to the FS 800/2 guide rail.

 

[Sachakins]

Given what you make regularly, and if space permitted, seen this just on EBay, it's on for £1,380 or offer.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SSC-WALL...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

 

[Spectric]

Take a look through this thread, Tracks, Railsquares and Tracksaws it may answer some questions but could also raise others.

 

[Sideways]

Just think about it.
Even if the TSO square or any of them was perfectly accurate at 90 degrees, a slight difference in pressure on the square or a slight variation in straight along the reference edge of the board is going to be magnified by 10x (?) 20x (?) because the reference edge is so short compared to the long edge being cut.

As the first reply said. Not a chance that ANY of the rail squares will do this job accurately except by chance, even if perfectly made.

 

[Jacob]

No chance. The further away from the square the greater the error.
And it's ludicrously expensive for a bit of plastic tat. "Guide rail clamp and angle accessory fitting sold separately! Never give a sucker an even break!
You'd want to check each end of a long cut anyway. Why not just mark them first and work to the marks?

 

[petermillard]

Long story short; where possible get someone with a panel saw or beam saw that costs more than your car to do it for you. If collection is an issue, have them deliver. If deliveries are problematic, look elsewhere. If that’s not possible, then parallel guides and rail squares can help; parallel guides for rips, rail squares for crosscuts. I know guys who use a rail square for full length rips, but I wouldn’t personally, for all the reasons mentioned further up in this thread.

I did a video about parallel guides vs rail squares recently, here. I used benchdogs products because they’re the ones I have; others are available, and I’ve also shown how to make your own on the channel - links are in the description of the videos mentioned above.

Personally though, I’ve always preferred to have a good relationship with a local timberyard who can do all this processing for me; it’s business and there’s no way your time’s worth less than what the yard will charge for this kind of work, IMHO.

HTH. P

 

[Flynnwood]

@petermillard (Apologies for going off tangent to other readers.) I'm looking for a 700mm rail to fit the Scheppach/Workzone track saw, and was wondering if you had one for sale?
I can't find one on the bay/Screwfix/Toolstation etc.

 

[DBT85]

Unless the ordering and collecting is taking a day surely it's going to be faster than manhandling 40kg+ sheets and cutting them yourself.

I say this as someone with benchdogs square and parallel guides.

 

[Filament]

I pretty much do have that product.

Aside: the other TSO rail square (GRS-16 PE) is similar but can be used at either end of the cut which may occasionally be useful. If you do get one, then (and this is the rare occasion when the message is ‘buy Festool to save money) when I bought earlier this year, the Festool Angle Stop was slightly cheaper (around the same price as the KSO you linked to) via Amazon and, as I understand it Is the same KSOproduct.

I tried mine for breaking down sheets and for long cuts with two Makita rails, when I compared to a known square and my measured pencil marks it was close, but out sufficiently that I always had to fiddle it around. Great for quickly doing single rail cuts but for any length needing absolute precision I’m not sure it’s the tool.
Disclaimer: I have far, far less experience than probably all the posters above

 

[pe2dave]

One other. If you're planning on multiple long cuts, I'd bite the bullet and buy a 3m track. One more error out of the way.
Have you looked at the Benchdogs square? Another option (for smaller cuts)/

 

[DBT85]

I think the festool 3m rail only set me back 265 and a kidney earlier this year. As always it only hurt once and i'm glad to have it now and not have to worry about it.