I did some work for a buddy, and he said I could pick a new tool, and he
will pay for it. I decided to get a miter fence for my tablesaw. I would
like to hear any comments/experiences you may have. I am looking at:

Kreg Precision Miter Guage System, $179.00 Canadian
Accu-Miter Gauge, $259.00 Cdn.
Osborne EB-3 Miter Gauge, $225.00 Cdn
Jessem Mite-R-Excel, $239.00 Cdn.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Jessem. It seems very beefy, higly
accurate, and it's red, the fastest color.

Cheers,

Bairdo.

"Bairdo" wrote in message
news:tS0Mf.69701$sa3.67054@pd7tw1no...
I did some work for a buddy, and he said I could pick a new tool, and he
will pay for it. I decided to get a miter fence for my tablesaw. I would
like to hear any comments/experiences you may have. I am looking at:

Kreg Precision Miter Guage System, $179.00 Canadian
Accu-Miter Gauge, $259.00 Cdn.
Osborne EB-3 Miter Gauge, $225.00 Cdn
Jessem Mite-R-Excel, $239.00 Cdn.

I presume you are also looking to get the miger gauge in addition to the
fence. Summer before last I went through this process and was only looking
at the Kreg and the Osboune. EB-3.
Both had QC problems but Kreg admitted problems and went the extra MILE"S"
to make the gauge right. The Kreg problem was that the indexing pin would
not fit tightly and resulted in me still needing to visually set the gauge
to zero or any of the indexed locations. They sent me several replacement
pins which were either more loose or too tight to go in the hole.
Ultimately they pulled a new miter gauge off the production line, sent it
to an engeneer to spec it and sent that one to me and aske me to throw the
original gauge away. Now it works perfectly.
With the Osbourne EB-3 there was too much slop and play when the gauge was
extended to the farthermost extended position of 45 degrees. It was fine on
the closest extended setting of 45 degrees. When set to the farther most 45
degree position there was a 2 to 3 degree +&- amount of flex. It was either
an inherent or QC problem. When I e-mailed Oscourne with the problem they
asked me to exchange it for another new one with my local dealer. Every one
of the gauges had that problem. The dealer was rather miffed and gladly
gave my money back. A few days ago I checked another Osbourn EB-3 and
noticed that the slop was pretty much corrected however again in the
extended farther most 45 degree setting I did not have a lot of confidence
in the gauge holding true if a heavy board was being pushed through the saw.
I prefer to use the gauge so that the cut is at the trailing end of the
board. This produces a cleaner exit with less chance of tear out. When
using non symetrical stock such as moldings this method requires using the
gauge on both sides of the blade and it requires the gauge to be able to
sweep 90 degrees from one 45 to the other 45 degree setting. The Osbourne
did not do well in this respect.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Jessem. It seems very beefy, higly
accurate, and it's red, the fastest color.

That looks like a nice gauge but so do all the others. LOL I strongly
suggest you buy locally if possible and try the settings out in the store.

"Bairdo" wrote in message
news:tS0Mf.69701$sa3.67054@pd7tw1no...
I did some work for a buddy, and he said I could pick a new tool, and he
will pay for it. I decided to get a miter fence for my tablesaw. I would
like to hear any comments/experiences you may have. I am looking at:

Kreg Precision Miter Guage System, $179.00 Canadian
Accu-Miter Gauge, $259.00 Cdn.
Osborne EB-3 Miter Gauge, $225.00 Cdn
Jessem Mite-R-Excel, $239.00 Cdn.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Jessem. It seems very beefy, higly
accurate, and it's red, the fastest color.

Cheers,

Bairdo.





I have the Osborne EB3. I LOVE it. It is one of my favorite tools. Easy
to calibrate and very reliable. Besides, it must be good if Norm uses it!
Seriously, I would buy it again IF it ever broke.

If you haven't already, watch there video at there web site.

Here is a review:
http://www.thewoodshop.20m.com/osborne_eb3.htm

--
Stoutman
http://www.garagewoodworks.com
(Featuring a NEW look)

Bairdo wrote:
I did some work for a buddy, and he said I could pick a new tool, and he
will pay for it. I decided to get a miter fence for my tablesaw. I would
like to hear any comments/experiences you may have. I am looking at:

Kreg Precision Miter Guage System, $179.00 Canadian
Accu-Miter Gauge, $259.00 Cdn.
Osborne EB-3 Miter Gauge, $225.00 Cdn
Jessem Mite-R-Excel, $239.00 Cdn.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Jessem. It seems very beefy, higly
accurate, and it's red, the fastest color.

Cheers,

Bairdo.


Save your friend some money. Get an Incra mitre, but NOT the fence.
You can make a better one out of MDF and aborite than the aluminum ones.
The problem with the aluminum fences is that they don't go through the
blade and support the cut on both sides. Also, you have to move the
fence over when you change the angle. And the measuring tapes on the
top of the fence are useless. Those 'flip stops' are useless too, you
can make a better stop with a scrap of wood and a clamp for those few
times you need one.

The Incra mitre alone was a good addition however.

You could use the left over cash for some wood!

Rob

Bairdo wrote:
I did some work for a buddy, and he said I could pick a new tool, and he
will pay for it. I decided to get a miter fence for my tablesaw. I would
like to hear any comments/experiences you may have. I am looking at:

Kreg Precision Miter Guage System, $179.00 Canadian
Accu-Miter Gauge, $259.00 Cdn.
Osborne EB-3 Miter Gauge, $225.00 Cdn
Jessem Mite-R-Excel, $239.00 Cdn.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Jessem. It seems very beefy, higly
accurate, and it's red, the fastest color.

Cheers,

Bairdo.
I bought the Kreg from amazon about 2 weeks ago and am very impressed,
indexing pin was a perfect fit with no slop. fence is designed to add a
sacrificial fence and is highly recommended. i disagree about the scale
being useless and the adjustable stop is very precise. I do agree that
the incra 27 guage and home made fence would be a lot cheaper and just
as accurate but you would not be dissapointed with the Kreg.

"giblet" wrote in message
news:4AsMf.1697$d61.385@trnddc05...
Bairdo.
I bought the Kreg from amazon about 2 weeks ago and am very impressed,
indexing pin was a perfect fit with no slop. fence is designed to add a
sacrificial fence and is highly recommended. i disagree about the scale
being useless and the adjustable stop is very precise. I do agree that the
incra 27 guage and home made fence would be a lot cheaper and just as
accurate but you would not be dissapointed with the Kreg.

What I like about the Kreg in particular is the small foot print. Some
gauges eat up half the space in front of the blade.

"Leon" writes:

What I like about the Kreg in particular is the small foot print. Some
gauges eat up half the space in front of the blade.


Another advantage of the Kreg is that you can use the pre-determined
positions for comon locations, but set ANY angle if needed.
It even has a tweaking mechanism if the 0.01 vernier isn't spot-on.



--
Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to this account incurs a fee of
$500 per message, and acknowledges the legality of this contract.

"Bruce Barnett" wrote in message
...
"Leon" writes:

What I like about the Kreg in particular is the small foot print. Some
gauges eat up half the space in front of the blade.


Another advantage of the Kreg is that you can use the pre-determined
positions for comon locations, but set ANY angle if needed.
It even has a tweaking mechanism if the 0.01 vernier isn't spot-on.


Yeah...
And that Blue anodized aluminum makes the saw look better. ;~)

I use a pair of Dubby sleds for my tricky cutting. I basically bought the
Kreg so that I would not have to look at anything to set 45 and 0 degrees
and be dead on.

Thanks for your input guys.

I don't suppose that any of the magazines did an article comapring any of
them?

Cheers,

Bairdo.

You better believe it:
Description Magazine Issue Page Category

Table Saw Miter Gauges American Woodworker 8/00 81 Reviews -
Multiple Brands
Table Saw Miter Gauges Fine Woodworking 10/03 74 Reviews -
Multiple Brands
Table Saw Miter Gauges ShopNotes 42 12 Reviews - Multiple Brands


the above was found using:
http://www.woodworkingmagazineindex....dex_search.asp

--
Stoutman
http://www.garagewoodworks.com
(Featuring a NEW look)

Description Magazine Issue Page Category

Table Saw Miter Gauges American Woodworker 8/00 81 Reviews - Multiple Brands
Table Saw Miter Gauges Fine Woodworking 10/03 74 Reviews - Multiple Brands
Table Saw Miter Gauges ShopNotes 42 12 Reviews - Multiple Brands


taken from:

http://www.woodworkingmagazineindex....dex_search.asp


--
Stoutman
http://www.garagewoodworks.com
(Featuring a NEW look)



"Bairdo" wrote in message news:n5NMf.78340$H%4.49851@pd7tw2no...
Thanks for your input guys.

I don't suppose that any of the magazines did an article comapring any of
them?

Cheers,

Bairdo.

"Bairdo" wrote in message
news:n5NMf.78340$H%4.49851@pd7tw2no...
Thanks for your input guys.

I don't suppose that any of the magazines did an article comapring any of
them?



Also look here for a pretty comprehensive user report of the early Kreg
miter gauge. Improvements have been made so don't let this discourage you
unless something in particular does not set well with you as far as features
go.

http://www.mv.com/users/besposito/woodworking/

You have to click on reviews and then on the Kreg miter gauge review.

Bairdo,
I have the EB-3 and the Incra 1000SE. Neither one is the perfect miter
gauge with fence. The incra is kind of hard to set in micro increments
degree wise. It is also not at a right angle from the factory and you
have to shim it. The repeatablility of the measuring is very nice once
it is set up right but there are always exceptions and you have to
recalibrate all the time. The EB-3 did not hold zero properly after a
while but they did send me a new knob which seems to have corrected the
problem and I like the long fence with the sand paper on it. The
sliding measuring gaugeis nearly worthless for measureless setting
because you can't see the measuring strip clearly in relation to the
stop.
So, Now I have 2 I am not completely happy with.
That's woodworking.
I wish I could pick better with the long haul in mind but I don't seem
to do that.
I know that crown steel on their marking gauges is very poor tho but I
own them also.

Enjoy the money pit of woodworking but there are no stinky motors
involved and you get to actually make something beautiful.

MBR