A review of the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit

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  • A review of the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit

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    Summary
    I built my miter station last summer and used the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit. The kit was just the starting point. 8 feet of track and a single flip stop didn’t meet my needs since I was building a miter station the width of my shop, nearly 24 feet. I added four 48” pieces of top track and three additional swing stops so I could have two left and two right. Finally, I added metric rules to the top. Total cost breakdown is as follows
    Qty Item Cost
    1 Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit $149.99
    4 48” Top Trak $179.96
    3 Kreg Swing Stop $89.97
    2 Steel self adhesive metric rules $31.24
    Total $451.16
    After using it for a few months it is a very well built system, easy to calibrate, and accurate. I only have one minor issue with it. All in all it is a good value particularly when compared to some of the prebuilt options like the Infinity Tools fence system or the FastCap BestFence both of which would have cost more than twice as much.

    This turned out to be a good value for the money and I'd buy it again when it comes time for the next shop. I would be more careful with the track section alignment when installing it though.

    Details
    Building the fence was a straightforward process. The documentation required that the fence be .75 inches thick and 2.25 tall for the swing stop to function properly. I cut the face of the fence from .75” birch plywood and mounted it at right angles to 3 and 6 inch stacked pieces of the same plywood.

    Fence Cross Section
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    Then added leftover laminate to the face which left my fence face slightly over .75” but that hasn’t been an issue. Installing the top track was where the only issue came into play. The individual segments of the track need to be perfectly aligned. I had one joint that was offset by less than a half millimeter and the stops hung up every time it was moved over the joint. Correcting the alignment was time consuming but worth it. It would be nice if the individual section of track could have keyed alignment of some sort to make and keep the alignment. The fences ended up at about 3250mm or 10’ 8” both to the left and right of my miter saw saw table ends. That yielded nearly 12’ of cutting capacity to either side.

    The bottom of the swing stop rests in the t-track and the front aligns with the lip of the top track to keep it square to the track.
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    The swing stops slide on the track easily but can be a bit finicky to adjust. If you get them too loose, it is difficult to keep the stops square to the track, and if it is too tight the stops don’t move easily. It needs to be snug enought that the front of the stop mounting block doesn't ride up over the edge of the Top Trak. Once you get the feel for it though setting the stops is quick and accurate. Each stop has a cursor that is adjustable +- about three sixteenths of an inch. The cursor is clear and makes it easy to read the tape below. A nice design feature is that it raises and lowers with the swing stop making it easy to clean dust off the back side so you always have a clear view.

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    One problem with the swing stops that took a bit to figure out was that they need to be configured to be either left or right. Depending on how it is configured, pushing one way gives almost no deflection and pushing the other way can give about a sixteenth of an inch or more with only moderate pressure as the pivot point flexes.

    The stop pictured below is configured to be to the left of the saw. Pushing the arm of the stop to the left compresses it agains the plastic stop. Pushing to the right opens a gap at that stop and allows significant deflection. The stops are shown configured both ways on the Kreg site, but no explanation is give either on the site or in the relatively scant documentation.

    No deflection
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    Gap opened upnext to pivot point, moderate pressure with one finger. Notice the angle of the cursor
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    Finally, there is also a production or fixed stop that comes with the kit. The way I designed the fence, this stop can’t be used because the knob hits the horizontal portion of my fence base and interferes with the stop being seated all the way down.




    • dbhost
      #1

      dbhost
      commented
      Editing a comment
      Good review, and good heads up on the system. I am looking at doing something similar but just doing parts is parts sort of stuff. Rockler T track, Powertec 3" flip stops, Starrett right to left, and left to right tapes. Good to see something like this implemented.

      Is there an advantage to this style of flip stop vs the more, uh, flat bar style?

    • twistsol
      #2
      twistsol commented
      Editing a comment
      The advantage to this type vs the flat bar type is that the flat bar type reads directly off the scale. You need to adjust the position of the fence or the scale to calibrate vs the position of the cursor. The disadvantage of the cursor is that you have to calibrate all your stops individually whereas direct read, once the scale is calibrated you're good to go.
    Posting comments is disabled.

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