Well if you read my review of the Kreg miter gauge, you know that I am on a mission to find a miter gauge that will lock dead solid at what ever setting you chose. The Kreg that I bought did not, so I returned it and bought the more expensive Osborne 3.
Things I like about the Osborne 3 miter gauge.
- The fence will extend to about 40 inches.
- The miter degree settings are easy to read.
- The miter gauge has a steel guide bar and adjusts easily to fit your table groove.
- The miter gauge comes pretty much assembled.
- The miter gauge is rock steady at 0 degrees and is relative easy to repeat that setting.
Before I get started let me begin with why I like to cut angled miters with the end of the board to be cut at the trailing end of the board. When cutting the trailing end of the board there is less of a chance of tear out on the back side of the cut because the blade is cutting towards the end of the board and does not bend the wood fibers back. If you cut the miter end first with the rest of the board trailing the cut, the chance of tear out on the back of the cut increases dramatically because the blade will try to bend the fibers back as it exits the wood and they will probably break off unless you are using a freshly sharpened blade.
Things that I do not like about the Osborne 3.
- With the comment above in mind, when cutting a 45 degree miter with the end of the fence closest to the blade trailing the leading end of the fence the telescoping angle adjustment bar is extended past its limits to be able to not flex. The intersection of the 2 bars has an over lap of about 5/8" of an inch. There is no way an accurate 45 degree cut can be made. There is simply too much flex in the telescoping bar at that particular 45 degree setting resulting in a 1 or 2 degree change in the setting. Using the other
- While a stop is provided with a stick on rule, the rule is covered up by the stop and you cannot see the rule to make an accurate setting unless you stoop over and look under the stop adjustment block. Some one was not thinking on this particular feature.
- If you intend to use the stick on rule there is no provision to zero the fence back if you move the fence closer or farther from the blade. This would make the rule useless.
- There is slop in the spring loaded angle indexing pin and the hole that it engages so if you do not push the fence tightly to one side of the indexing hole the setting may or may not be repeated consistently. Since this is mostly done with feel after adjusting visually to get close this can be easily over come.
The slop in the bar at the 45 degree setting may be a deal breaker for me. A $180 miter gauge should not have this inherent problem. So maybe tomorrow I try out an avoided Incra.