Incra miter express

[David Mueller]

Picked up a miter express and was wondering if anyone has one can enlighten me on an issue. The instructions ( I know I shouldn't read them but I was curious :rolleyes: ) shows typical placement of left miter slot for right tilt and right miter slot for left tilt. I have left tilt but with the miter gage on the right seems unatural as a right hander. One review resommends left slot for everyone and that seems pratical, but anyone using it in the right slot?

[Kev Coleman]

I just purchased the miter express and have the exact same question. I was thinking that having the sled on the right hand side would be nice for cutting long boards so I can use my extension table as support.

But I also thought it felt strange to line up the cut and push the wood through being a right hander. I seem to feel more in control with the miter on the left hand side.

Also since I will be cutting the sled at a 90 degree angle, not sure what difference a left tilt saw has to do with what side of the blade the sled goes on. Perhaps Incra was thinking about the spacing between the blade and the slot as they are different.

At any rate I havent decided yet since you only get one shot to cut.

[Greg Koch]

I got the miter sled at the Seattle WW show last weekend. I am still doing things on my new Delta TS, so the sled is on the old Rockwell in a temp fashion. Not wanting to cut the board and chance the spacing being different on the Delta, I used a drawer board I had, and it worked out OK. Cut a rabbett along the side of the board for mounting to the aluminum section, made the cut and Wa La!

Kev, you can get a replacement board from Incra for $29, ordering directly from them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/kgregc/Woodworking/th_IMG_2506W.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/kgregc/Woodworking/IMG_2506W.jpg)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/kgregc/Woodworking/th_IMG_2516.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/kgregc/Woodworking/IMG_2516.jpg)

Later, I'll put the original boards on the sled, mount to the Delta and cut for it's spacing.

[Brad Schmid]

I've had one for about 6 months now and was thinking about this when I did my installation as well. Mine is on a right tilt to the left side of the blade.

It would seem to only be relevant if one were tilting the blade for a bevel cut, but I never do that with a sled on the table anyway. If you had the sled on the same side where the blade tilts, you couldn't use it at all (well technically, you could, but you would lose the benefit of zero clearance on the sled side and the fence would have to be moved well back from the blade reducing support near the cut). However, If the blade tilted away from the sled, you could bevel the support section, or just remove it altogether, and still have a functional sled for compound miter use. just my observations...

cheers

[David Mueller]

Thanks guys, I'd figured it was a tilt issue. Just wanted to see what the real world had done. I plan to keep it on the left since 99% of my cuts will be at 90 deg. I am so used to the miter gage being on the left, this ol' dog can't pick up that trick. IF? I feel the need to tilt the blade, I can make a angle specific piece to fit and substitute. But since the gage is removable and I never really use a zero clearence for an angled cut anyway, left just feels right, huh?