Is the PM2000 miter gauge any good?

[Noah Katz]

I have a PM2000 on the way. The miter gauge looks to be a cut above what most saws come with, but is it?

If it has good, truly repeatable detents at 90 and 45 that's probably good enough, as I have the Wixey angle gauge to set it up for few times I need other angles.

Thanks

[Frank Snyder]

Noah - I have the PM2000. The miter gauge is actually better than what comes with most table saws. There are positive indents at 0, 30 and 45 degrees and it has a dial-type adjustment. The fence is small, but adjustable left to right. You could easily make an longer auxillary fence if you wanted. The miter bar is also adjustable to eliminate any play. Overall, you could survive just fine with this miter gauge.

I upgraded to a JessEm Miter Excel for the repeatablilty of angle cuts, and the longer fence with stop.

Hope this helps.

[Noah Katz]

Frank,

The Jessem caught my eye as well.

So do you mean for repeatability of angled cuts other than 45 deg?

Are the PM2000's detents trukly repeatable? It's hard to tell from the pic's I've seen, but the detent scheme looks similar to what I have now, which isn't that great.

[Frank Snyder]

Noah - On the JessEm, the angles are repeatable every 5 degrees and within a 1/2 degree within those 5 degrees. So essentially, it is repeatable to any angle and +/- a half degree (so 36.5 degrees is repeatable). It uses a unique positive pin indexing system which requires you to pull out two pins to set the exact angle you want. You set the first pin at the 5 degree range you want (i.e.; 35 degrees) then use the other pin to select the +/- 5 degree range increment (+1.5 degrees in this case to acheive 36.5 degrees). It sounds more complicated than it is, but once you start using it, it's very easy.

This Jessem miter gauge is the ideal tool to use for making picture frames or other miter cuts which need to be dead-on accurate and repeatable. It is extremely well made and I enjoy using it.

Hope this helps.

[Noah Katz]

Sorry Frank, I was asking about the repeatability of the PM2000's few detents, which is what I'd use 99% of the time.

I'm asking if you can switch between 45 and 90 deg and still have the angles remain precise.

[Frank Snyder]

DOH! Sorry about that...I tend to speed read and it messes me up sometimes.

To answer your question, yes. The PM2000's miter gauge uses a spring loaded pin which engages the indents at 0, 30 and 45 degrees. You pull the pin out and rotate it to change the angle. The pin will engage those aforementioned indents. There's just a hint of play, but you just tighten down the handle to eliminate it. The tolerances are probably not as tight as the JessEm, but if you're not making mitered picture frames, this probably won't concern you.

Hope this answers your question.

[Noah Katz]

Sounds good, thanks, Frank.