Incra Jig-Good, Bad, Neither

[Galen Nagen]

I am tempted to buy an Incra Ultra Lite router fence. I want it to cut half blind dovetails and finger joints. I am wondering if any one has one and caries to comment on this product.

High learning curve for half blinds and finger joints? What regulates how tight the finger joints fit? The ones I have made on home made jigs leave something to be desired.

thanks for any input.

Galen

[Myk Rian]

Mine makes the tightest box/finger joints I have ever made. Sometimes I think they are too tight. The jig is very accurate.
It's that accuracy that makes the tight joints. Once you learn how to set it up and use it, it is very simple.
Doesn't matter what size bit you use. You will get a tight joint.

[Galen Nagen]

Can you make them so they are not so tight? How are half blind dovetails to learn? Looks somewhat straight forward from the little I can see.

Thanks

Galen

[Terry Beadle]

Box joints can be made not as tight by passing the bit through the cut more than once. This causes a burnishing effect that may give the clearance you want.

The Incra jig also has a micrometer adjuster that can be used for this purpose but it's more of a free hand adjustment than moving the jig in the normal 1/32 increments. The micrometer adjuster therefore allows you to make what ever clearance you want but it's your responsibility to make the adjustment uniform and probably less than 1/32 of an inch.

[Galen Nagen]

So bottom line, the Incra can make nice finger/box joints which are workable by having through the jig more than once. The micrometer adjustment seems pretty complicated to me.

Galen

[Bill White]

No DT or FJ jig, but my 1000SE miter gauge is excellent.
Bill

[Jerome Hanby]

I don't think you can knock out joints as quickly with the Incra as you can with dedicated (to the particular type of joint) jigs, but the thing will let you make darn near anything, darn near any size. Plus, IMHO, the repeatability can't be matched. Important if you are as scatter brained as I am and need to set back up to cut one more piece late in the project. Another plus, I've never made any of them , but I'm not sure any other gizmo will let you cut those funky "layered" (outlined, whatever you call them) dovetails.

If you mount your router in a table saw wing, they have a table saw joinery package that handles the table saw fence duties as well.

[Galen Nagen]

In a you tube video I watched (3 segments) it was incredible how fast the follow cut half blind dovetails and then started in on a fancy corner post dovetail. It seemed like in a few minutes he had a bunch of joints cut (he was cutting about 3 sides at a time the way it looked) but I am sure if you do that for a living that is not hard to do.

I was thinking of the half blinds and finger joints for small units (boxes, etc) and maybe drawers for chest of drawers. The Leigh/Omnijig/Keller, etc, etc can probably do the drawers better. That seems to be a whole topic that has no end.

I have made finger joints that are so tight you almost can't put them together. I can't get them glued up due to tightness. That is on a homemade jig. I wish I knew if the tightness of finger joints was a big issue. One person said run it through twice. I would not be up to that 1/1000 of a degree thing I am almost sure.

The Ultra Lite is quite reasonably priced I think and seemed like it is quite a bit better than the original but not as nice as the LS.


thanks. If anyone can offer more thoughts I would like it as I don't want to buy something I will get frustrated with.

Galen

[Jerome Hanby]

I think the Incra is something from which that you can get good, stable, repeatable results. You may have to develop your own procedure to get everything done efficiently and you may need to work out methods to add enough "slop" so that joints aren't too tight, but that's something that you can handle. It's much harder to try and work around the "slop" inherent in a jig.

[Mark Engel]

I have had the Incra Ultra for several years. Never made half blind DT's, but I haved used it for a lot of finger jointed projects. In my experience the joints were about the right amount of tightness. It takes a little hand pressure to put the joint together dry, but once you apply the glue it goes together nicely with no gaps in the joints.

The Incra is the only fence I have ever used on my router table. It really works well for a lot more then just finger and dovetail joints.

[Galen Nagen]

Thanks for the info. Ultra looks like a good value.

Galen

[Terry Beadle]

The micro adjuster is not complicated. Once you get your hands on it and give it a test run on some scrap, you'll see it's simple.

Think of the micro adjuster just like the ones you've probably seen on a table saw. Or like the adjustment knob on a wood plane. You give it a slight bit of movement and dial in the result.

I will say that I've never had to use the micro adjuster on my Incra to dial in box joints. They work right off the router table. The Incra micro adjuster just gives you a micrometer like control of the cut.

[Alan Schaffter]

Hang tight- there will be a new gun in town in a few weeks. PM sent.