How to use the Parallel guides with the LR32 hole drilling system.

All text and photos by Brice Burrell, copyright 2010.


When I first used my Festool parallel guides I could see the potential to combined them with the Festool LR32 system to speed up the hole drilling process. The LR32 system is a great way to drill system holes for shelf pins or Euro style hardware. It is, however, a system that requires some setup time for each piece to be drilled. Take a look at the picture above, you can see I'm crouched down to clamp the work piece to the edge of the MFT. This setting the rail and clamping takes time, too much time. When combined with the parallel guides I'm able to simplify the setup and reduce the time it takes to clamp the work piece. This greatly speeds up the process without reducing accuracy. Another big advantage is I'm no longer restricted to the standard 16 mm or 32 mm offsets. I can now use custom offsets like that of the "Pearls" or "KISS II" systems.

Lets start by taking a look at setting up the parallel guides with the LR32 for a standard offset.


Initial Setup for standard 32 mm or 16 mm offsets.


The Festool LR32 system is designed to work best with the work piece a multiple of 32 mm in length. This holds true when the parallel guides combined. My work piece is 736 mm (a multiple of 32 mm). I'll be using a 32 mm offset but the 16 mm offset can also be used with this technique.

The first step is to attach one of the end stops to the LR 32 guide rail. Then slide on one of the parallel guides and butt it tightly against the end stop. Important: be sure you have the end stop set with the correct offset towards the end of the guide rail for the parallel guide to butt up to. Lock the guide down and remove the end stop. The inside edge of the parallel guide should be centered on a hole in the rail for the 32 mm offset or centered on a space between holes for the 16 mm offset.



Now, put the other parallel guide on with the work piece between the two guides. Butt the second guide tightly to end of the work piece and lock it down. You want the guides to be tight enough so there is no side to side movement of the work piece, but, not so tight that it can't be slid out between the guides.



Next, set and attach the LR32 side stops to the guide rail. I'm using a 37 mm setback for my holes. Now, butt the work piece to the side stops.



With the work piece tight against the LR32 side stops, slide the parallel guide stop to the edge of the piece and lock it down. Do this for both parallel guide stops. You can see in the picture above I'm using my thumb to push the parallel guide stop tightly against the edge of the work. The LR32 side stops can now be removed.



Clamping is next. I like to clamp the parallel guides down with the quick or screw type Festool clamps then use one of the Festool clamping elements to secure the work piece at the front.



The initial setup is done, now I'll drill my holes just as I normally would. All I have to do it remove the clamping element and slide out the piece, then slide a new piece in and clamp it to be ready to drill the next piece. This is a much faster process than having to reset the rail with the side stops and clamp the piece to the edge of the MFT every time.

I can drill all of the work pieces with the same 736 mm length and 37 mm setback with this setup. I would batch process these pieces then move to the next setback or length piece. I want a different setback for the rear set of holes on all of these pieces to account for the thickness of the back of the cabinet, so I'll need to repeat the setup process for parallel guide stops and the LR32 side stops.



To make setup much fast in the future I made spacers/stop blocks. I took a scrap and tucked it under the rail and butted one end to the parallel guide stops. Then, I marked the piece at the back of the rail.



I nailed a block to the mark, now I can just slide the spacer under and but the parallel guide stop to my spacer. I wrote "save" so I know to keep the piece. Also, I marked the offset and since width of the piece the spaced works with. Since the parallel guide stops are indexed off the back edge of the work piece I'll need a separate spacer for each of the widths and setbacks I use most often (12", 18" and 24" widths and 37 mm and 56 mm setbacks).


Setup for non-standard offsets.



As I mentioned earlier the ability to now use non-standard offsets with the LR32/parallel guides is huge advantage. In this example I'll be using the 12.5 mm of the Blum "Pearls" system. The first step is measure and mark for my 12.5 mm offset on the work piece.



With the parallel guides loose on rail and LR32 side stops on I can carefully align the setup. I place the router with LR32 plate on the rail and lock it in the first available hole in the rail. Then I can move the work piece until the router bit is perfectly aligned with my 12.5 mm pencil mark.



I need to be careful to make sure I keep the work piece indexed on the LR32 side stops and still have it line up with my 12.5 mm mark.



With everything aligned I can slide the parallel guide over to butt it to the end of the work piece, I just to make sure nothing moves out of alignment. Once the guide is in place I can lock it down. Then, the other guide can tightly butted on it's end of the work piece and locked. With the side stops still on the rail I can set the parallel guide stops. Once the parallel guide stops are set I remove the side stops and clamp everything down. The setup is now complete and I can begin drilling holes.

While I won't go into detail on the other systems that use non-standard offsets, I do want to mention this technique will only work with pieces that are multiples of 32 mm plus two times the offset in width (as per their system specs). Using non-standard offset has greatly improved the value of the LR32 system for me. I hope this might help you too.