Incra 500 vs Incra Express vs handmade sled

[treesner]

Hey guys, out of school (no fancy woodshop) means there's some important tools i need to obtain for my shop. I need a better miter gauge and a cross cut sled. When I started to look at miter gauges I found that incra made some interesting looking sleds. What do you guys think about the 500 and express vs just a homemade sled?

I'm trying to do basic cabinetry and furniture making with my small footprint job site saw: dewalt 7491. i'm not even sure if the big incra 500 will fit onto this, let me know if you have any thoughts

"Incra 500 sled: $330":http://www.amazon.com/Incra-MITER5000-Miter-Table-Telescoping/dp/B0002ZO7A2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462779158&sr=8-1&keywords=incra+sled

"Incra Express: $150":http://www.amazon.com/Incra-MITEREXPRESS-INCRA-Miter-Express/dp/B000E327NG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462779158&sr=8-2&keywords=incra+sled

pros:
get a sled and a miter gauge in one package
looks like it replaces many different types of sleds/miter gauge

cons
lots of fusing seeing up
all allen screws instead of thumb screws..slow
expensive

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Congrats on getting "out of school"!

Well, I have never used the Incra sleds, but that won't stop me from offering an opinion. [blink]

Couple of things cause a pause for me.  First, if you are doing cabinet work, you will probably be doing lots of compound angles, maybe using different kerf sizes on your blades - things that kill the zero clearance on your sled.  With a shop made sled, that just means adding a sacrificial 1/4 mdf skin or something of that ilk.  With the Incra package it means buying a $50 'replacement panel' if I understand the specs.  Secondly, as my good friend [member=1674]Peter Halle[/member] reminded me recently, the incremental stops can be a pain in real world carpentry where the angles are seldom right on a degree or half-degree.

On the other hand, I use a number of Incra products and use some of them just about every day.  BTW, get yourself a set of allen wrenches with real handles - makes things a lot easier!

 

[monstrol]

I agree with Jesse about the zero clearance benefit being gone after changing the blade angle. I also have Incra products that I really like and use daily. You may need more than one sled for different reasons.  You will eventually upgrade your table saw and possibly need change sleds as well. I would let the jobs dictate what you need for various cuts and adapt. The guy that does the Incra videos does technical questions and is pretty sharp.
Matt Jones