HF's new Miter Gauge

[leehljp]

I bought the new HF Miter gauge yesterday because I have only one very good heavy duty miter gauge, a Woodhaven Miter gauge that has been discontinued. I hate having to move it from my TS to BS and then back, so I bought a new HF miter gauge that can be seen here:
https://www.harborfreight.com/24-in-...uge-70692.html

I didn't get to see one to check out before buying because both of my HF stores have stayed "out" of them everytime I was there. Yesterday I asked in one store if they had any and they had just received some. I bought one in the box - without looking at it except for online.

It had very good reviews on HF and I was somewhat impressed.

I got it home and put it together in a few minutes. But, A tad disappointed. It is ALL STEEL but it looks very much like the Woodhaven one except the Woodhaven one is machined aluminum. This HF one looks like very precisely "stamped" out steel notches rather than precision machined notches. I will be testing to see how accurate the different degree setting are in the next few days.

It is considerably heavier than the aluminum Woodhaven that is actually larger than the HF. It does have an adjustable bar to take out any slop. I do not like miter gauges without an adjustable bar. Adjustable Bars are an absolute necessity for making accurate cuts!

I will give a review in a couple of weeks, and hopefully get to try it out later this week on my saws. I will continue to use the Woodhaven one on the BT3100 overall, but I will try it out on the BT and then move it to my Grizzly Bandsaw.

OH, I forgot to mention the fence. It is Steel also, but looks like extruded aluminum. It has a good stop on it and I will be running it through some trials also.

[LCHIEN]

Looks nice.



Incra is only $20 more but doesn't include the extruded fence and stop.



Maybe this Incra with fence at $139


HF thinks its more comparable to Kreg's $159 gauge and fence:

[leehljp]

I had a $20 coupon for HF and used it to bring the price down. That said, I like the Incra even without the fence. Yes, the HF one does look good in the pictures, and it is sturdy, but up close, it isn't as nice as it appears. When an indention is cut or ground, it should be noticeable. The indention in this has been coated with a hard coat of finish. Coats of finish in an indention can throw the angle off by a tenth of a degree or more and with angle cuts in some situations, that is enough "off" to cause considerable spacing in bowl making. I have never seen notches coated with a paint finish.

The Kreg above has a feature that my Woodhaven miter gauge has - that I don't really like. The pin has to be screwed in. That sure makes for precision, but it is time consuming if you make a cut, change the angle, make another cut and change the angle again. Screwing the pin out, moving to the next angle screwing the pin back in and so forth.

If I ever get another, and at my age, I doubt it, I will get an Incra.

The HF and Woodhaven are heavy duty for sure, but the Woodhaven is and has been dead on accurate for 30 years for me.

[LCHIEN]

... When an indention is cut or ground, it should be noticeable. The indention in this has been coated with a hard coat of finish. Coats of finish in an indention can throw the angle off by a tenth of a degree or more and with angle cuts in some situations, that is enough "off" to cause considerable spacing in bowl making. I have never seen notches coated with a paint finish.

...

just for the record,
I assume paint is .005 inches thick.
The radius of the scale on my Delta miter gauge is 3.6 inches
Then paint or finishing on one side but not the other will throw it off by .08 degrees.
But if the paint is on both sides of the indent it will cancel out.

So yeah, you are right it can throw it off by nearly 0.1 degree. Depends on whether the indent is self centering and how much slop the pin that fits the indent has.

[dbhost]

Looking at one of those for the bandsaw. Keep us up to date on it!