EZSMART System

[Im A Little Petunia]

I ran cross a new system (to me) the other day and was wondering if anyone here has seen it or knows of anyone using it? They call it the EZSmartGuide. I am seriously considering buying one of their packages. I have been reading/looking about the SGS-1. If your order is over $100.00 they ship free. There seems to be a lot about it on one of the other woodworking forums too. I am enclosing the web page address: http://www.eurekazone.com/products/detail/sgs.html
Hoping to get some input.

Lynn

[twistsol]

I seriously looked at this a couple of years ago and ended up buying a 106" straight edge clamp at Rockler for about $89 on sale. I use it in much the same way, but my saw and router don't have the auto tacking bases like the EzSmart. I've had no problems and have significantly reduced the frequency of using my table saw and rarely if ever use my jointer for edge jointing.

My opinion was it is just an expensive straight edge even though the marketing materials say otherwise.

[crokett]

It is an expensive straight edge. A friend of my dad's bought one. I get just as good results as him when cutting down plywood by using my free sawboard. It doesn't take that much longer to set mine up. I am thinking of making it a bit longer and adding a fence to the end so it automatically squares itself up for me.

http://tomsworkbench.com/2008/11/12/...-the-sawboard/

[twilson]

I have one and I love it - it's not cheap, but I found it much easier and accurate to use than other options I've tried before.

[LinuxRandal]

If ALL you using it for is a straight edge, you can build a sawboard. I haven't used the table saw in some time now as I use the EZ almost exclusively. You can search here as it has been discussed before. It does take some getting use to/retraining your thoughts. Dino is a member here, although he hasn't posted over here in several years. The main forum for it is over at Sawmillcreek.

[milanuk]

I agree... if your primary use is just as a straight edge... you can get probably 90% of the way there w/ a sawboard or something similar. I have one, but am admittedly getting off to a slow start with it. There are people who seem to revel in reinventing the wheel, i.e. ways to use the EZSmart system to do things previously done w/ conventional stationary tools. I'm not quite that much of a convert/fanatic, but it seems like I end up using it more and more. It does seem like the system is kind of a black hole... oh you could do this and this and *that*, but you need to buy more parts and put them together yourself, etc. I wouldn't mind that so much, except the parts are kind of expensive. Then again, as someone already mentioned... my results are generally better using this setup than I had been getting before. There are always those who seem to be able to get by with dang near free-handing things, and then there are those of us who need to have things all jigged up to minimize how much we can foul 'em up

[Im A Little Petunia]

There are always those who seem to be able to get by with dang near free-handing things, and then there are those of us who need to have things all jigged up to minimize how much we can foul 'em up

Milanuk - Welcome to my world - you took the words out of my mouth! :-) No matter how hard I try not to mess up things I still end up doing so a lot of times! I'm still seriously considering buying one of them. I'm interested in more than just a straight line.

Lynn

[JimD]

I have seen a review that was basically favorable for this system. But they got similar results from other systems. It is an attempt to give the functionality of the Festool saw to those of us who do not want to spend $900 on a circular saw. If you get good enough cuts out of your circular saw and blade to satisfy you - smooth enough - then with a better guide you can still improve accuracy. I use what was called a sawboard above and it works fine for breaking down plywood. Even though I have a 40 tooth carbide blade on my Milwaukee circular saw, I typically would rather not use it's cuts as my final cuts, however.

The primary disadvantage I see to this system also applies to the pricier Festool and newer DeWalt. It seems you will need to mark the wood and then put the guide on the mark. I prefer to move the rip fence or the stop on my RAS & CMS to correct position using a steel rule or tape measure and then just cut the wood. I avoid the inaccuracy of marking the wood and then moving the device to the mark. If the cut it too wide for the crosscutting tools and too long for my rip capacity (which is ~60 inches or more) then I would use the circular saw with a guide. One of the stationary tools would always be my first choice because I get a smoother cut and because of the accuracy improving fence and stops.

I am sure it is a nice tool and I would rather spend $200 on an improved sawboard than $900 on an improved circular saw and sawboard but neither is high on my wish list at the moment. The claims of tablesaw accuracy seem pretty over-inflated to me. Maybe if you mark wood and then cut to the mark on both but that is just because you are not using the table saw to its highest potential. For cuts beyond the table saw's capacity, some sort of guide is highly advisable for accuracy and this is a good option. A much cheaper option is to buy a sheet of luan or tempered hardboard and make a sawboard. You'll get 90% of the benefit for 10% of the cost.

Jim

[radhak]

Lynn,
I tried the sawboard, then went with the All-in-one system (similar to the above, maybe less of a 'system' than this is). My problem has been that the circ-saw always found a way to wander away from the sawboard. With the captive-saw method of these systems, there's less chance of it.

For me the integrated clamps was the deciding factor. Many a times the clamps for the sawboard gave me too much grief.

Of course, once bought I don't use it as much as I'd like, to justify the cost - and the final cut on the TS is almost always a must, at least for me; maybe my circ-saw needs an upgrade.

And remember, this is best used for full-sheet plywoods (4'x8'). If you buy all your ply sheets at HD/Lowes, you might plan to get them to cut the sheet into smaller manageable sizes and not need any such at all. I found better ply at lumber-yards who don't cut any, so this sort of a system is a god-send.

[milanuk]

Jim,

One of the strong point of the EZSmart system is that it is extendable... the same guide rail that guides the saw for simple rip cuts can be outfitted with a variety of accessories, ranging from clamps to hold the board to the rail (for making cuts narrower than the guide itself), to a router attachment (for doing dados and grooves and even M&T joinery), to squares (drop the guide on a board, butt it up against the square, and cut - perfect straight x-cut), to 'repeaters'. The repeaters are a set of arms (they recommend one for cuts under 4', 2 for cuts over 4') that attach to the rail where it over hangs the sheet good, and basically it has a set of flip-stops on it so once you set the flip-stops, you just slide the whole rail over until the stops catch, make your cut, remove the strip, slide it over again, make the cut, remove the strip, etc. I just used it to make three 8" wide shelf boards each 96" long. Tedious to set (I'm still new at this), but easy (or is that 'ez') to use once its set up. No make a mark, place the guide, make a mark, place the guide... with stacking errors each time. No fussing about with feather boards and infeed/outfeed tables, etc.

Is it the end-all-be-all system that some claim... probably not, but I've found it's a whole lot easier for me to move around the cutting table with the EZ guide rails than try and maneuver sheet goods across my BT3100....

YMMV,

Monte