Zero Clearance Mitre Bar Review Roundup: Microjig, Incra, Germerse
Over a year ago I celebrated my divorce by buying myself a new tablesaw. I eventually settled on the Carbatec Professional 250mm Cabinet Saw with 30" T-Glide Fence Kit, as much as I liked the Sawstop I couldn't justify spending that much!.
I knew the first thing I was going to be doing was building myself a few jigs and a zero-clearance insert plate for the Big Boy. After some careful planning and research I opted to make a cross cut sled. Now, I know alot of people like to use hardwood for the runners but I wanted something a little more robust and wasn't going to expand and contract with the seasons so I decided on buying mine.
The first ones I bough were the Incra Mitre Slider SE 18" (457mm) priced at around the $50 mark per bar!. Yeah I know! expensive hey!. Anyway the bars are solid steel construction and are drilled and tapped with two separate bolt patterns: (4) #10-24 holes attach the bars quickly to your own custom jigs. There's also a second set of (3) 1/4"-20 holes evenly spaced along the length to accept knobs and other fasteners commonly used when building jigs and fixtures.
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According to Incra the Nylon Glide Lock adjusting discs are long weariing and conveniently adjust from the top and provide a precise fit in the mitre slot of most table saws, router tables, and band saws, and the discs also give the bars a smooth, low-friction travel.The 18" (457mm) bar has two pairs of discs, Includes removable T-Slot retaining clips for both ends of the bar for superior stability of larger jigs.
The bars come with an allen key to adjust the Nylon discs, however I found them very stiff and I was a little worried I might strip the hex bolts at one stage. Having said that after a while I managed to get them to fit with no play. I followed the instructions on how to attach them to the sled using a forsner bit and a couple of drill bits for the holes. So overall they do the job, but the price is abit ridiculous for what they are and if you need two, thats $100!.
Anyway onto my next jig which was a tablesaw circle cutting jig. If like me you never knew you could cut circles on a tablesaw then I suggest you take a look at this youtube demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xST3QUCjFBA
I followed the same basic design that most people use for this jig but wanted to create an adjustable pivot point, so I came up with the idea of using some Mitre Track and the Microjig stop blocks that come with the Microjig zero-clearance Mitre bar package. And here it is:
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Now for my personal experience with the Microjig Mitre Bars!. God where do I start!, I'll tell you straight up now these things are so over rated and over priced I can't beleive all the positive reviews. To start with they're made of cheap plastic, measuring in at around 230mm in length.
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Micro Jig conceived a method of adjustment based on opposing wedges, that adjust the entire bar until they fit your mitre slot. I can tell you straight off, after trying to use these things, the design is flawed!, firstly, theres more friction than from the nylon washer style bars. Now this is where it get really dodgy. They also tell you in the instructions that when you attach the bars to the jig, they expand when screwing them down!. So zeroing them out off the jig is a waste of time. They suggest using tape on your mitre slot to compensate for this expansion but tape width varies from brand to brand so its hit and miss!.
I kid you not I spent a whole day trying various ways of trying to attch these bars thinking it must be something I'm doing wrong , I even drilled two holes in the top of the jig flipped the bar so I could zero them out while attached, didn't work..$54.90 for the pair, money wasted!.
My next jig which I haven't built by the way is a jointing/tapering jig. I only needed one mitre bar for this so I had three options, buy Incra's ridiculously overpriced Mitre Bar SE 25.5" 648mm for $65 or make my own which I didn't want to do for reasons mentioned previously or look for another brand. So I thought I'd give one from Amazon a go, not expecting much I went for the Germerse brand for $28, my thinking was if I have any issues I could always mod it some how to make it work for me, worse case scenario send it back and get a refund!.
It arrived today before time which I was pretty pleased with especially considering its xmas!. The Mitre
Bar is the exact same design as the Incra except it has 4 nylon adjustment washers. It measures in at whopping 650 mm long, its hard to tell what sort of material its made from but it feels like steel, either way its beefy and cant be deformed..
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To my total surprise the bar fit the mitre slot without any adjustment what so ever!. I thought well this must be some sort of fluke. The sliding action is smooth along the whole length of the mitre slot, there is absolutely no play even when only a quarter of the bar is inside the slot!. This is something Incra had problems with because once one of the nylon washers was no long in contact with the edge of the mitre slot it would begin to get play in it.
My only grumble if any is the fact it didn't come with any jig attachment screws. Fortunately I have plenty so I attached the bar to a piece of scrap MDF to see if anything changed once tightened down, and I can happily say it did not, the bar stayed true and smooth, without any adjustment what so ever I might add!.
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I can only say if you own the same tablesaw as mine this is a must buy without a shadow of a doubt, if you don't have the same tablesaw get it anyway lol!
simply awesome straight out the box!.
Rail Miter Bar, Good User Experience Work for Long Time for Indoor : Amazon.com.au: Home Improvement
