Incra Miter Express Question

[Raymond Fries]

I am setting up my miter express with my Jet cabinet saw and having trouble getting it to glide smoothly with no side to side play. If I get it tight enough so the play is gone, it binds so badly that it cannot be pushed smoothly for a cut. Incra tech support said to just find a sweet spot. I am afraid if I do this, I will not get accurate cuts because of the slight side to side play. Has anyone else experience this? Do you think if I set it for a sweet spot with maybe a couple thou of play that I will get accurate cuts?

Thanks for any tips or advice.

Enjoy Life...

[glenn bradley]

Sounds like the miter channels are inconsistent or, the miter bars are. I know INCRA has a few versions of adjustable miter bars. What type does the Miter Express use? I have the aluminum Miter Slider on a jig and my miter gauge uses the expanding discs. Both can be made to fit and slide snugly along the length of the miter channels on my saw and my router table. If your adjustments bind in one spot when fitting snugly in another, something is out of true along the path. With the expanding discs, be sure that at least two discs on one side and one on the other are in the channel when adjusting, INCRA's recommendation to find a sweet spot is a polite way of telling you that something is not straight / consistent and I assume they suspect that their product is ;-)

[Raymond Fries]

Glenn

My Incra 1000se has the expanding discs and it travels smoothly along the miter slot. The utility bar on the miter sled has a 3/4" wide bar that rides in the miter slot and has four adjustment screws that have dovetailed nuts underneath. When you tighten the Allen screw that turns into them, them they expand the walls of the bar to press against the miter slot. It is metal pressing against the miter slot. I have tried twice now to adjust them and come up with the same results every time.

[richard poitras]

Try running a file in your miter slot once on each side then use the Incra and see if its smoother if not posible try again to see if it starts gets smoother.

[Charles Coolidge]

You have poorly machined miter slots try to find the tight spots and file them true. A digital caliper would help you measure and identify how far out of whack they are. I have had a couple Incra Miter 5000's they work quite well its a good product. I just set one up on my new table saw.

287056

[ken masoumi]

When I first setup & used my Incra miter gauge ,it would bind at a one spot ,I tried adjusting it but then it wouldn't be snug any more,the only solution was to file the tight spot in the miter slot.

[glenn bradley]

Glenn

My Incra 1000se has the expanding discs and it travels smoothly along the miter slot. The utility bar on the miter sled has a 3/4" wide bar that rides in the miter slot and has four adjustment screws that have dovetailed nuts underneath. When you tighten the Allen screw that turns into them, them they expand the walls of the bar to press against the miter slot. It is metal pressing against the miter slot. I have tried twice now to adjust them and come up with the same results every time.

Good, you have a known working miter bar (the same as mine) so, it is safe to assume that the slots are OK. The expanding aluminum bar is the one I have on a coping jig so we are both familiar with both types. Both work on generally the same principle but, the discs press on alternating sides of the slot where the wedges push out both sides of a given point on the bar. I found that when trying to adjust, I would apply torque and nothing would happen until there was a "tick" and the adjustment would jump a bit. This made it tricky to do fine adjustments. I drilled a hole in an 8" long dowel that snugly fit the allen wrench. This extended handle gave me more control and allowed me to ease the adjustment in and out without the "jump". HTH.

P.s. Although you've probably already thought of this . . . loosen the wedges so there is no adjustment and lay the bar on the tablesaw or use a straight edge to make sure you are not trying to adjust something that is just plain bent ;-)

[Raymond Fries]

Nice tip on the Allen wrench. I too experienced the click when trying to adjust. I do not think the bar is bent. I can see four distinct bulges where the nuts tighten up and the finish looks worn off evenly across all for of the adjustment points. Will check the miter slot for any high spots as suggested by a couple others.