Has anyone gotten or used both of these rail squares?
I am looking to get one and have mixed feelings on each.

The Benchdogs UK looks good, and I like the material slide out to keep the rail from tipping, however I am not positive about the locking mechanism to tighten to square. Pete Millard has done a review of this one. This also has a variety of dogs that come with it if you buy the kit.
(I don't have a MFT, but do plan on building a top following the hole pattern at some point)

on the other hand, the TSO GRS looks like it has a solid squaring mechanism, but does not have the material slide.
This is also the design that Festool has licensed and is selling everywhere but north america.

Any advice?

The new Mk2 Benchdogs square has a different locking mechanism. It's a beautiful piece of British engineering

That's my one. It was ordered on Black Friday, they've just started shipping and was finally delivered this week.

Quote from: daz9100 on January 25, 2021, 01:24 PM

The new Mk2 Benchdogs square has a different locking mechanism. It's a beautiful piece of British engineering

Does it leak oil?  :-)

Hopefully it will, it’s a territorial thing and I’d be right at home 
Really nice design, though. I like aluminium in its natural color too.

@Toddbg  – your question is quite understandable.

As the inventor behind the original patented GRS-16 series Guide Rail Squares you would expect my response to be biased. Please keep that in mind as I try to be completely factual and be clear when something I say is “opinion”.
Ultimately YOU will be the user and the judge. My suggestion: try the TSO Square for a month or two.
Get a GRS-16 or GRS-16 PE from AXMINSTER Tools on a money back guarantee basis. Keep it long enough that you can be certain of your final judgement and we will authorize AXMINSTER Tools to refund your complete purchase price at TSO’s expense if you choose another tool instead.

Now for some background:
You can imagine that the current production version was not the first design concept at all.  FACT: One of the early CNC-machined development prototypes  was so encouraging that we thought we had hit the target spot on. It’s attachment method utilized the T-slot in the guide rail for alignment and attachment of our Guide Rail Square. Next, we machined a brand new prototype based on this learning and purchased an additional new 55”  Guide Rail  to keep in the machine shop for quick fit test.

SURPRISE: the new prototype would not fit on the new guide rail’s t-slot. But it still fit the first guide rail! There was just enough variability in the guide rail extrusion profile to keep us from achieving the squaring accuracy we were after.

FACT: not surprising, others who developed guide rail squares after they saw our success also chose to use the T-slots . . . and still rely on them for alignment.

This experience taught us that a bulletproof method of precise squaring needs to be completely independent of  normal extrusion manufacturing variances.

FACT: for TSO’s production Square we chose to simply connect to the outside edge of the guide rail extrusion. Unlike T-slots, slight variations in the extrusion profile width cannot affect the accuracy of the connection of the TSO GRS-16 Square to the guide rail.– To keep the TSO Square from disengaging unintentionally we  provide a loose fitting catch underneath.
Our Square connection is based on a proprietary Draw Latch assembly which includes two powerful compensating springs. The same Draw Latch we supply to FESTOOL for production in Germany.

Another FACT: TSO Guide Rail Squares weigh less and have a Center of Gravity which does not tilt the guide rail to require a “material slide”. FESTOOL evaluated it and determined  it was not needed on the “made in Europe” version either.

Please drop me a note with your experience: info@tsoproducts.com   attention Hans

Enjoy your woodworking!
Hans

PS: The FESTOOL Square version is anodized a natural aluminum color, if you prefer

@Toddbg  – your question is quite understandable.

As the inventor ..

From the horses mouth!

Hans, did you consider making a video on the various prototypes and why you chose what you chose ?

Including the technical explanation of why the reference surface was chosen. And e.g. how it is mostly immune to the extrusion thickness variance.

I am sure there is some secret sauce to some of these things you may not want to divulge, but going over the dead ends should be very useful. I am sure the wider market you reach, the more you move outside the fine woodworking community, the more FUD and lack of appreciation will you encounter creating the need for more "educational" material out there.

I would make the video a more "behind the scenes factoid" instead of a commercial-style video. Something people will enjoy getting an understanding from. And which you can use to "back up" the commercials or even forum posts like this one by "for a bit for in depth history look here".

Quote from: TSO_Products on January 25, 2021, 08:42 PM

@Toddbg  – your question is quite understandable.

As the inventor behind the original patented GRS-16 series Guide Rail Squares you would expect my response to be biased. Please keep that in mind as I try to be completely factual and be clear when something I say is “opinion”.
Ultimately YOU will be the user and the judge. My suggestion: try the TSO Square for a month or two.
Get a GRS-16 or GRS-16 PE from AXMINSTER Tools on a money back guarantee basis. Keep it long enough that you can be certain of your final judgement and we will authorize AXMINSTER Tools to refund your complete purchase price at TSO’s expense if you choose another tool instead.

@TSO_Products
Thank you for the detailed post! It is refreshing to see a manufacturer give such information as well as separating fact and opinion.
I've got to say that is pretty cool.

I also appreciate the offer on the trial run!

Hans @TSO_Products It is refreshing to see such a professional promotion, and the polite way you stay behind your products. All agreed with Toddbg here. And that is as a non owner (yet..) of any TSO products.
When I’ll buy a TSO product, I’d love to see them in Alu-grey 

The fact that the TSO doesn't rest on the material is a feature.  Tilting and shimmying the assembly is a good way to get the splinter strip right onto the line without the anti-slip pads on the track getting in the way.  Once you have the tracksaw on, the weight is more than enough to keep it from tilting.

If you really want to forgo that, you can always attach one of the TPGs to the GRS.  They lip over the material.  There are times I want to do this, but most of the time, I prefer the tipping - especially with longer rails.