FlipStop v2.0 for TPG Parallel Guide System

Excellent product . Very accurate and consistent best in the business

I love the TSO Parallel Guides! My only complaint is these recent TSO products are a deep dark Blue than my originals like the picture but these tools were meant for work not a beauty pageant! LOL

The flipstop itself seems to be well made and generally works well, However, the indicator, which is supposed to eliminate parallax, is truly frustrating and unintuitive to use. I feel like I have to rewatch their video every time I go to use it and in that case, that's just bad design. A simple pointer with a sharp point or a thin line across a clear plastic/glass pane would've been much, much easier to use and just as accurate. Reinventing the wheel here was not a smart choice. Beyond that, I also find that as I tighten this down, it tends to move just a little bit. If I'm not paying attention, that means that my cut is just a little off. There's also just a little deflection in the flip stop, which makes calibration (and use) a little bit inconsistent.

After calibrating the FlipStops on the short rails, easily move them between the medium and long rails for cutting different-length components without losing calibration. I purchased a second set so I can setup the long rods for cutting narrow-width components. Now I should never have to calibrate them again, as long as the saw stays true!!!

These stops for the parallel guides are incredibly high quality. The machining, precision and finish is excellent. You can get extremely accurate cuts with them. However, there is one thing in the design I consider a huge downside. They can be tricky to calibrate if you are looking for sub-millimeter accuracy, because there is no micro-adjust feature. I suppose it would be difficult to have that as well as narrow rip functionality, but I have a table saw for narrow rips so I will never use that feature. If it did have micro-adjust, I would consider it near-perfect. The video guide suggests you can calibrate the stops by referencing the splinter guard on your track, I found that to be inadequate since my track splinter guard is not in perfect shape. My method for calibrating is this: install both rails on a track using TPG guide rail adapters, and adjust both stops as precisely as you can to some arbitrary length, say 500mm. I reference my marks so that the zero-parallax marker just barely obscures the tick mark (while still completely obscuring it), when viewed vertically on the side towards the track, but you could do it either way as long as you're consistent. Make a cut on a scrap piece. Remove the track from the workpiece. Using a very accurate ruler (I use the rulers from the parf guide), measure the actual length of the cut for each side, and mark it on each side. Then, put the track back on in the same orientation, pull the stops tight against the reference edge, and clamp the track firmly down to the workpiece, using guide rail clamps on both sides. Next, undo the calibration screws and the stop collar screws, and adjust the flip stop, to the observed cut length for that side. If the cut was 499mm, move the flip stop to 499mm. Then, press the calibration rod firmly into the reference edge and tighten the screw, and then tighten collar screw while firmly pressing it against the flip stop. Note that there are two orientations the collar can be, one will slightly pull the collar into the flip stop, and the other will pull it away, creating a gap. You have to experiment to find which is which, but you want collar to press into the flip stop when you tighten the screw. Now, you can repeat that entire process until you achieve the accuracy you're trying for. I had to do this process 4 or 5 times until I got both flip stops calibrated to about 1/3mm.