Saw Stop Or Incra miter gauge. Choose one - not both

[Prashun Patel]

I love my Sawstop.
I love my Incra miter gauge.

I hate them together.

I just tripped the brake for the 3rd time in about 5 years. Every time it's the same thing: change the angle of the cut and the distance of the aluminum backer to the blade changes. I know better. I am still doomed to repeat this stupid mistake again, I fear.

3 brakes, 3 blades, 3 pairs of underwear. All ruined ...

[Edwin Santos]

Hi,
Why exactly does the Incra miter gauge trip the sawstop? Is the aluminum coming into actual contact with the blade?

If yes, would you consider permanently attaching a wood facing to the face of the Incra and have it overhang just enough so that no matter what angle you use, it would only be the wood fence that would hit the blade? They designed the extrusion with the t-slot so sacrificial and extension fences would be easy to attach and slide around. As a bonus, you'd gain zero clearance backing also. Hope this is useful.

Edwin,

[Peter Christensen]

Ha! Ha! You're not alone. I've done it twice with my Osborne doing the same. Forgetting to pull the fence back after doing an angled cut with the fence set close to the blade. It's been awhile since I did it so "maybe" I've learned and won't do it again.

[mreza Salav]

Fortunately I have not made that mistake yet!
I rarely use the miter gauge though (and whenever I use I am super careful just because of this). For standard angle cuts I have a few "triangles" made and I place them on my cross-cut sled and simply use them. For longer pieces that need 45 degree (picture frame) I have a dedicated sled that use.

doors22.jpg

[glenn bradley]

I added aWooden flag to the end of my gauge extrusion. I’ll try to post pics once I’m not on my phone.

[Prashun Patel]

I do all of the above: wood extrusion auxiliary fence, use a plywood sled whenever possible. I am also super careful. It's easy to be super careful 99.9% of the time. It's hard to do it 100% of the time - and Murphy works 100% of the time.


To save money on buying a protractor or bevel angle finder, I decided to make some set up blocks. $90 later I could have bought some pretty nice protractors.

[Charles Coolidge]

Has the Sawstop saved you even once in that 5 years?

[Jake Hillestad]

Incra by a long shot

[Prashun Patel]

I don't want to ignite that debate, Charles. For me, I like my Sawstop just fine. I'm making no judgment of its safety value - just my carelessness.

[Mark Carlson]

I don't want to ignite that debate, Charles. For me, I like my Sawstop just fine. I'm making no judgment of its safety value - just my carelessness.

You just answered your own question. Keep the saw stop. I also like edwin's suggestion, which means you can keep both.

[Charles Coolidge]

I don't want to ignite that debate, Charles. For me, I like my Sawstop just fine. I'm making no judgment of its safety value - just my carelessness.

Fair enough. I have considered purchasing a Sawstop machine mostly because I'm concerned about getting older and my attention slipping. My grandfather lost a finger and great grandfather lost a thumb on a table saw. Both when they were in their 60's I'm 55 now. If I were younger I'd choose the Incra over the Sawstop safety, today I'm kind of leaning towards Sawstop. That's the only reason why I asked if it has saved you yet.

[Ed Pollock]

Is it ever necessary to have the miter gauge with the extrusion far enough over so that it could hit the blade when adjusted back to 90? When you have the extrusion close to the blade at 90, and then move it to 45, how far from the blade is the extrusion now?

I have a sawstop and have considered getting an incra miter gauge or miter 5000 sled. I did not think about the possibility of this happening. But then again probably 95% of my cuts are at 90 degrees...

[Brett Luna]

I gave my Incra one minor ding on the old saw but haven't yet on the SawStop. I'm sure part of the reason is that I have it set to clear the blade guard, which I've been using as much as possible, for safety of course...and to take advantage of the overarm dust collection. I do intend to put a sacrificial face on it but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Ben Rivel]

Got the same setup, use a fence on the aluminum extrusion fence thats on the Incra miter gauge and adjust the aluminum fence over away from the blade such that no matter what angle its set at it doesnt come close to the blade and only the sacrificial fence does.

[Mike Cutler]

No matter which direction you choose, the fence material has to change. Might as well attach a sacrificial fence to your Incra miter gauge. You can mark the top of the sacrificial fence with a reminder to adjust for cuts other than 90 degrees
I did that once with my Incra fence, on a non Sawstop TS. That scared me enough. Can't imagine what it's like with that brake mechanism.