The Festool LR32 works great for drilling 32mm spaced shelf pin holes 37mm from the front edge; however, falls short in easily aligning the guide rail in increments of 32mm from the front edge when drilling drawer slide holes.  After a bit of thought, I designed a little jig which when used in combination with a MFT style table top easily solves this problem and thought I’d share it with you all.

Forewarning, this isn’t the greatest quality, it’s not edited to be quick and to the point, and I know I repeat myself several times (turn the speed up to 1.5x), but I thought it was worth sharing and hopefully it’s of some value to somebody ...

In the end, this is another option that can work.  I would suggest though that you show the jig in action first and then say "if you like this, hang around to see how it is put together".  I stayed because I am familiar with your posts, and the LR32 is something I want to learn as much about as I can.  But the technical stuff up front might keep some from watching it all.

I know your jig/template is specific to you but if you can post the measurements, it would be a good starting point for us to maybe make one that works for our needs.

I had already ordered the longer hex rod but it hasn't come in yet but your option is appealing once I went through it a couple of times and the light bulb lit up.  I also like not having to secure the rail to the panel.

I like the effort and results, thanks for taking the time to do it.

In the end, this is another option that can work.  I would suggest though that you show the jig in action first and then say "if you like this, hang around to see how it is put together".  I stayed because I am familiar with your posts, and the LR32 is something I want to learn as much about as I can.  But the technical stuff up front might keep some from watching it all.

I know your jig/template is specific to you but if you can post the measurements, it would be a good starting point for us to maybe make one that works for our needs.

I had already ordered the longer hex rod but it hasn't come in yet but your option is appealing once I went through it a couple of times and the light bulb lit up.  I also like not having to secure the rail to the panel.

I like the effort and results, thanks for taking the time to do it.

I'd considered exactly this approach since I'm one who watches YouTube at 1.5x speed but didn't follow through with it.  I understand quick delivery of information is important, even though I'm not that good at it, so I really appreciate the feedback!

I've shared the dimensions above and you'll notice it will drill ALL 32mm incremented holes + 2mm offset from the front of the panel.  The only thing specific to me is the labels I've added so I don't have to look at the chart or mess things up during my process.

Once I have a moment, I'll add a few additional photos from Fusion 360 and post the model...

Here's my model for the jig.



The bench dog wouldn't fit inside the hole of my first print and rather than tinkering with the flow settings I simply expanded the hole.  Each side is referenced from the center of the circle so that it automatically adjusts when I change the size of the hole and if you remove 10.10mm from each side dimension, the radius, you end up with the numbers I posted above ... (A) 21mm, (B) 53mm, and (C) 85mm.

I've not posted the actual .STL to ThingiVerse as print settings per printer can vary but I could probably modify the drawing and post several iterations with dog hole sizes of 19.90, 20.00, 20.10, and 20.20mm so those of you with a printer can find one that works for your printer.  It's only 5mm thick so it doesn't use very much material to make the jig ... let me know if anybody here has a printer and would like me to upload the .STL.

No problem, as I said, I wanted to share it so others could benefit from it's simplicity.

I suspect I'll make some more videos at some point so appreciate the feedback!

I'm adding another sketch to really help explain how I came up with the 20 and 18 which leaves 21, offset C (smallest side).  From here you could move up another hole and understand how I came up with 53 and 85.

I think part of the confusion about the jig is the lack of explanation of the distances related to the guide rail, the LR32 base plate and position of the router center. The dimension that I am not seeing is the distance from the center line of the dog hole behind the rail to the center of the hole drilled by the router. Add this distance to the desired distance from the front edge of the panel and then you can calculate the offsets for the jig.

I posted a diagram in my post above to illustrate the concept and dimensions.  Unfortunately when I post it as expanded the numbers are to small to read so I had to make it expandable so maybe you didn't see it ... check again.  About the distances, you wouldn't measure from the center of the dog hole since the guide rail is aligned to the Right side of the dog hole ... once you see the diagram it should make more sense.

One of the best parts of the jig, and one thing that the standard use of LR32 doesn't do, is that all distances are referenced from the front of the panel. I work with unbalanced panels and panels that might not have a back parallel to the front. I always reference the front. My first row is using the LR32 bars. Then I write down the current offset on my TSO PG and calculate my stop positions by subtracting the multiple of 32 for the slide holes from the starting offset.

"Balanced Panels" are a bit confusing to me as my panels are in dimensions of 32mm; however, since I put my drawer slides at the bottom of the drawers rather than the middle, you couldn't rotate the panel.  In addition, the drawer slides don't have balanced holes so I couldn't flip the slide the other direction and have the holes lined up.  I guess the panel only remains balanced if I drill shelf pin holes.

Before I came up with the idea for the jig I was considering the parallel guides from the rear and it seemed like a process I'd eventually make a mistake with.  In my mind the jig reduces the chance of making a mistake and speeds up the entire process so it will be interesting to see if any of you use it and feel the same.

One thing I noticed in the video was I moving the router from Left to Right which worried me when it snaps into position that it might draw the panel away from the dogs and thus I constantly stop to ensure the panel is aligned.  In the future, I'm going to work from Right to Left so it's dragging the panel into the dogs which may save some time and peace of mind...