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Description The "se" in 1000se denotes the special edition of the product which basically includes an improved telescopic cross fence and a flip-stop. The 1000 model uses a more basic fence and stop system. |
Photo Courtesy Incra |
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There are notches for the 22.5 and 67.5 degree angles provided also. The protractor head can also be locked down in any between angle settings but the index tooth is not controlling the angle when used in this manner. To improve accuracy in this mode, a vernier scale near the index tooth is marked in 1/10th degree angles making it a very high resolution tool. |
| Assembly The Incra 1000se is robustly built and well made with the high degree of fit and finish typical of Incra products. There is almost no assembly required for the tool, installing the handle and fence is about it. The 1000se comes with a well illustrated manual describing assembly, adjustment, and use. All miter gauges work better and more accurately when they are fitted to the table slot. The 1000se has 3 pairs of round plastic washers specifically designed to accomplish this. With the Allen wrench provided these are simply expanded until the desired amount of free-play is removed without inducing too much friction. On some machines, the black "fixed" washers are removed and replaced with the extra adjustable ones (included). I had to do this on my test machine. |
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| The GlideLOCK bar is sized to fit most 3/4" wide x 3/8" deep slots on machinery, even when OEM's have sized them a little off. The Incra bar actually measures about 0.74" wide, the washers are adjusted to take up the extra slack in the slot. The GlideLOCK bar is also equipped with an optional T-slot adapter attached to the end. This is especially useful on tablesaws and is quickly removed if the miter gauge needs to be used on a non-T-slot machine. | |
| Tips: 1. Before beginning the guide bar adjustment, ensure there are no burrs or irregularities along the slot as these may affect wear and adjustment. 2. Before adjusting the bar, apply a light coat of wax. I would not bother waxing the plastic pad on the bottom of the protractor head as I've always found these to run quite well without this. 3. Adjust all of the GlideLOCK washers incrementally to "sneak up" on the best fit. Once the fit becomes close, vigorously run the gauge back and forth to ensure it slides freely. 4. If a tight spot is encountered, in all likelihood this is a narrow section of the slot and not a problem with the bar. The slot can be trued with a piece of sandpaper wrapped around a hardwood block. If it were me, I would just make this step 1 to begin with. Any irregularity is likely to be very small and easily taken care of with this method. 5. If this were going to be my primary miter gauge for a tablesaw, I would prefer the 27" fence over the 18". However, I would prefer the 18" fence on other machines due to the more compact size. |
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Fence The flip stop is positioned using the 1/32" racks Incra is famous for. I've measured these racks to be repeatable within +/- 0.002", most of the time they are RIGHT on though. The beauty isn't that these racks provide such incredible accuracy. The beauty is that it transforms positioning into the "digital domain". This allows a user to easily and repeatable make cutoffs "by the numbers". No more cutting to a line or mark, just set the stop to the desired numerical dimension and it will BE that length. |
| To move the stop, the two big nylon knobs on the
back must be loosened. The stop is then slid to the new position and the knobs are
re-tightened. The position is read by sighting down the edge of the stop assembly. If some
other position that does not fall on an increment of 1/32" is desired, the stop can
be micro adjusted by loosening the two Allen bolts on top and moved using another Allen
screw to drive the stop to a new location. Unlike many stops I've used, this one does not suffer from the flip action loosening the bearing thereby creating slop. Once the desired level of flip-friction is set, it stays that way. The crosscut fence itself has several small grooves in its face. There are mating grooves in the flip stop arms. With the stop flipped down, these grooves act as extensions into the fence. This allows the operator to place a mitered (sharp) end of a piece of stock against the stop without fear that the sharp end will move the stop itself thereby throwing off the cut. |
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| One of the nice features of the Incra fence and stop is that it
can easily accept a sub fence. Strips of Melamine or MDF are a good choice for sub fence
material since it is very consistent in thickness and it's cheap. A sub fence also helps
prevents tear-out by supporting the stock right up to the blade. The end of the 1000se fence includes a telescopic section that extends the 18" fence out to a full 31" in length. Incra also has two other longer FlipFences available should one desire a longer fence length. An Allen driver is supplied with the tool and is used to lock the fence extension into position as well as secure the fence onto the protractor head. I would prefer a tool-less system for this but this is a small inconvenience considering the overall performance of the tool. A sliding tape is included in both the main fence section as well as the extension. This makes calibration quick and easy. I've always found the Incra scales to me very accurate as well. If the fence were moved out of position the tape will loose it's calibration. The tape is very easy to re-cal though but if it were important, a cal stop could be installed on the back of the fence to eliminate this issue. |
| Summary The Incra 1000se is a well made tool and at around $150 it is a great value. I would recommend the 1000se even without the cross fence as it is a remarkable improvement over the miter gauges that come standard with machines. The inclusion of a decent cross fence with a flip stop make the product even more useful and noteworthy enough to earn my "highly recommended" rating. Compared to the OEM miter gauges the Incra is simply a joy to use, there really is no comparison. Like the Incra V27, the cost is such as to make this an almost "no-brainer" because it improves so much to the operation of the machine on which it is used.
In the interest of full disclosure, Incra provided this product to facilitate this review.
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