Which Miter Gauge to Choose?

[Peter Christensen]

I have the Osborne, would love a second for the other side of the blade. Usually have it set up to cut on the right side of the blade. You can move it around to cut on the left but it takes a few minutes to do.

The slot width is adjusted from the top with the gauge in the slot. There are three grub screws in a split in the bar. You tighten them with Allen wrench and they expand the bar to take up the slack. Simple and effective.

I still use the standard mitre gauges that came with the saw with a board screwed to the fence. That pushes the off cut past the blade. A Jorgenson hand screw serves as a stop. I can set the standard mitre gauge very quickly with my Starrett combination square or with a vernier bevel protractor if I need to cut to minutes of a degree. Same works to verify the Osborne if I feel the need.

I've been pondering getting the Veritas Shooting Board Fence to put on a sled for the table saw. Need a few more gift cards.

[glenn bradley]

Bought a V-27 back around 2002. Ordered a piece of extrusion direct from Incra. L-knobs solve the wrench issue as discussed above.

Incra v-27 mod (2).jpgIncra v-27 mod (1).jpg

I milled some oak to fit in the telescoping tube and hang a wooden sacrificial "flag" on it. I have a few for straight cuts and various common angles.

5X5 Frame (9).jpg

Easy to refresh or replace. I've obviously done other Frankensteinian things to this one over the years. The second one I bought for my router table is more normal.

Incra v-27 (1).jpgIncra v-27 (3).jpgIncra v-27 (2).jpg

[Carl Beckett]

Bought a V-27 back around 2002. Ordered a piece of extrusion direct from Incra. L-knobs solve the wrench issue as discussed above.

I milled some oak to fit in the telescoping tube and hang a wooden sacrificial "flag" on it. I have a few for straight cuts and various common angles.

Easy to refresh or replace. I've obviously done other Frankensteinian things to this one over the years. The second one I bought for my router table is more normal.

Glen, my Incra has flip stops (two) that work quite well. Looks like you took these off and made your own. Did you not like the Incra version?

[Charles Lent]

if you are buying this for angle setting accuracy, I looked at all of them and then bought a pair of MiterSet gauges to set my existing miter gauge. They require a miter gauge with a 3/4 X 3/8 bar and an accurate fit in the miter slot, but will position your existing miter gauge in 1/2 degree increments very accurately. The Segments gauge lets you set your miter gauge for making cuts for segmented circles where some settings must be made to .001 degrees for the circle segments to fit together correctly. These gauges are built with Aerospace quality and very impressive packaging. To me, they were worth every bit of their cost.

https://miterset.myshopify.com/produ...et-package-set

They are also available on Amazon https://www.google.com/search?q=amaz...hrome&ie=UTF-8

I just wanted you to see all of the possibilities before making your decision.

Charley

[Marshall Harrison]

Thanks for covering the bases for me.

The mite gauge that cam with my Laguna table saw has some slop in the bar and a limited set points. Its like most other standard OEM gauges; Not very good.

[Charles Lent]

There are ways to tighten them, but first you should carefully measure your miter bar and miter slots to see which is not correct and do this in several places.

There are plunger kind-of set screws with a spring loaded tip that you could use. Here is a link but similar is available from many sources. http://www.swmanufacturing.com/parts...ring-plungers/ Industrial Supply Houses like Grainger or a bolt specialty store would be the best sources. You would drill the miter bar sideways and threads these holes. Then install several of these all facing the same direction and adjust them to push against one side of the miter slot just enough to take out the slop. Too tight and you will feel the change in resistance as each one enters the miter slot. Too loose and you won't have solved the problem. I would use blue Locktite to make sure they stay at the final setting.

Of course, you could also do what some have done and use a center punch to dimple one side of the miter bar enough that it fits tight and then carefully remove just enough with a file for it to fit.

You could also replace the bar with one of the new adjustable bars too.

I bought both MiterSet gauges and use them with my original Delta miter gauges. Both fit the miter slots of my Unisaw very well and work fine with these gauges.

Charley

[glenn bradley]

Glen, my Incra has flip stops (two) that work quite well. Looks like you took these off and made your own. Did you not like the Incra version?

The V-27 comes as a gauge only; no fence, no stops. I just bought pieces of the extrusion from Incra separately. I try to keep the clutter down by trying to make items do double or triple duty.
I use the Rockler stops on the router table and the drill press so it made sense, for me, to use them at the tablesaw as well.

[Marshall Harrison]

OK. I mage my purchase today after going to the local Woodcraft store. My final purchase decision was not what I had original intended when I left home.

Some observations:

Incra 1000SE: not in stock
Incra 100oHD: cost more than y cash on hand
Incra V120: it seemed kind of flimsy to me and I'm not sure how many of the 120 stops I would ever need. It also had some play when I locked down the pointer.
Incra V27: Sturdier that the other models and the protractor seemed to be from thicker stock.

So what did I purchase? I bought an Osborne miter gauge. I had a 10% off birthday coupon and I used that so it only cost me $141. The Osborne has a fence while the cheaper Incra models didn't so that was a bonus for me. I think I'll be happy with it and I'll take care of any unboxing/setup/calibration/etc later today or tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your suggestions and guidance.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

Good fences make good now-buys.

I can count the number of poor reviews on either of the Osborne, Kreg, or Incra's on one finger; am sure they are all great.

[Dustin Bullard]

Late to the game but I saw this and figured I'd reply with my Kreg Experience...

I purchased my Kreg Mitre Gauge from Rockler in mid 2017, it was all they had in stock (I was planning on getting the Incra 1000HD) but I needed something that day for a client... I have used it only a handful of times and ultimately modified it by replacing the fence entirely... Each time I pull it out I'm reminded why it just takes up space on one of the shelves in my shop, its mediocre at best...

Ironically tried to use mine over this past weekend for a project and while it seems accurate for cutting angles, its poorly cobbled together and one of those purchase I genuinely regret...

Here are my observations
The fence extrusion is custom made so forget about using non-kreg hardware with it
The stop it comes with has so much play that it twists in the slot by 1/8 of an inch (just look at all the 1 star reviews on amazon) you can of course upgrade to the production stop for another $25...
The pin for the positive stops has no method of retention and easily falls out (I'm amazed I still have the pin after 2 years)
The method for taking slop out of the mitre bar with little delrin set screws works but you have to constantly adjust them or they snag half way through your cut.
I had to drill out the holes in the Mitre Gauge so the fence would sit flush on the table (even with the little plastic feet under the fence)

I don't own an Incra Mitre Gauge but I have demoed them at Rockler/Woodcraft and in my opinion Incra makes tools while Kreg makes toys...

Don't even get me started on the Kreg Bandsaw fence (that is still attached to a saw I no longer own)...

Now on a side note, if you happen to have one of Rockler's 3" MultiTracks it is a direct bolt on to the Kreg Gauge and Rockler's flip stop is sturdy enough for accurate cuts...

[Jon Nuckles]

The stop it comes with has so much play that it twists in the slot by 1/8 of an inch (just look at all the 1 star reviews on amazon) you can of course upgrade to the production stop for another $25...
The pin for the positive stops has no method of retention and easily falls out (I'm amazed I still have the pin after 2 years)
The method for taking slop out of the mitre bar with little delrin set screws works but you have to constantly adjust them or they snag half way through your cut.
I had to drill out the holes in the Mitre Gauge so the fence would sit flush on the table (even with the little plastic feet under the fence)

FWIW, I have not experienced any of these issues with my Kreg miter gauge. If I did, I'd contact Kreg. Their customer service is outstanding.

[Tom Bender]

I use a sled. Haven't used a miter gauge in years. It's gathering dust.

[Marshall Harrison]

I use a sled. Haven't used a miter gauge in years. It's gathering dust.

I plan to build a sled too. Working on a design that would allow me to incorporate the EB3 into the sled. I'm also trying to decide if it is worth the trouble to include the EB3 into the sled.

[Curt Harms]

I have an Incra 1000 no suffix. It came with an extrusion fence that I didn't care for, it was too thick so the end of the fence was too far from the blade when used angled away from the blade. I made a fence from good quality 3/4" plywood with T track attached to the top and a stop that slides in the T track. I'm happy with it. I did consider the Osborne when I was in the market but it was out of production when I was in the market.

[Dustin Bullard]

FWIW, I have not experienced any of these issues with my Kreg miter gauge. If I did, I'd contact Kreg. Their customer service is outstanding.

I will say this I just called them with zero expectation and they are sending me a replacement flip stop (well out of warranty as I bought this in 2017 which I was clear about)

I spoke with someone named Ben and I'm impressed with the customer service but only time will tell if the issue is actually resolved...

I'll report back and let everyone know how it works out...