Incra Ultra vs LS......

[Chris Harry]

I notice that the Ultra seems to have an "older" adjustment setup......I believe its sawtooth? versus the LS positioner that has the leadscrew setup.

Question is - how much difference between the two?

Im looking at the 25" Ultra vs the 17" SuperSystem. Would the 8" make that much of a difference? The WonderFence can be used on both so thats a wash, its just a question of do I want the LS instead of the extra 8", or do I want the extra 8" with the "older" adjustment mechanism?

Thanks in advance.

-Chris

[Jason Beam]

I've had both ... I had a 16" Ultra first and now own a 25" LS.

The only problem I had with the sawtooth on the Ultra was an installation error on my part. I had the "clincher" (as jointech calls it) mounted too high which caused the whole arm to tip a little. This made aligning the sawteeth up a bit problematic sometimes. I snapped off a couple teeth until I fixed that.

As for the length ... I honestly can't say I have used the 25" length very much, if at all. Honestly, it's probably a bit much for what I do. I rarely need a dado or groove 23-24" in from an edge. I don't make a lot of things that require such a joint.

My biggest reason I like the LS is because of the design changes they made to it.

The LS's micro adjust feature is up by the fence instead of back by the "clincher". On a 25" long throw, that becomes kinda important. You will have to take a step, maybe two, to get over there and while that doesn't seem like much, picture a 2-hour long session where you have to adjust things quite frequently. I also really like the fact that it's got detents in it and i can FEEL every thou. The Ultra's is on a (slightly worrysome) post that kinda sticks out. It's analog, which can be nice, but really I like knowing that it hasn't spun on its own.

Another thing about the LS is that switching between Open, Micro and Locked is all done by one element. The Ultra uses a big paddle for Open and Locked, but for micro there's a little "sub paddle" that puts you into micro mode. It was just a little annoying to use - not much, really, but enough to be glad it was gone when I upgraded.

Either system will be a great tool. They're both exceptionally made. If I hadn't known about the LS, I would have been perfectly happy with my Ultra for a long time.

[Bob Potter]

Chis
I have the Incra 25" L.S. and love it. I got the rails and base mount and it is now my table saw fence and router fence all in one. So the 25" is fine for this kind of a set up.

I also have a Incra Twin-Linear [my frist Incra] which has the same saw tooth as your Altra.
I like the micro adjust much better on the L.S. because there is no limit, meaning you could micro adjust from 0 to 25". It is also handier in the front than in the back.

If I was to get a new one just for a router table, I would probably get the 17" L.S. because in most cases that lenght would handle most anything you wanted to do.

Hope this helps,
Bob

[John Ricci]

Good question...I have 3 Incras one of which is the 24" Ultra with the Intellifence (older stuff) but I have never tried the LS. The Ultra has never failed to do whatever I have asked of it and it will dial in as fine as I need??? I must confess that I don't really understand the difference between the two as far as accuracy goes.

J.R.

[John Skibo]

I have the LS 25", wouldn't trade it for the world, after 2 years I have yet to use more than 17", but you never know.
If you have room get the 25".
The LS makes it so much faster than the older type.
Also if I had to do it over I would go all in and get the TS router package.
I had to build an aircraft carrier sized table cabinet for the setup, used the woodpecker top.
with the TS setup I would have saved space and $, with the advantage of a super accurate TS fence.

[Chris Harry]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the replies.

The reason i asked is this: I had gotten a good deal on an unused Ultra 25" setup. Then I found an even better deal on a 17" Super System.

So I have to decide between the two (dont need to keep both). 17" SuperSystem or 25" Ultra. Obviously I can swap the WonderFence over to the 25" Ultra if I wanted, I just wasnt sure if the leadscrew setup is worth losing the 8" of travel over. I emailed incra for a price on a new carriage to take the 17" LS up to 25" but they havent gotten back to me yet.

Thanks again.

-Chris

[Joel Earl]

I got a great education from everyone too - I have an Ultra (16), LS in both 17 and 25 flavors and have yet to mount one of them to my table. Actually it is pathetic for me to even admit to this

I've looked at them, read the howdy-dowdies and fretting which to use, keep , whatnot. Still not sure but this at least helps me make the educated guess on one. The big 25" is out - even with my newly built RT which is 30" x 46" loosely based on a Jointech design I still hang off with that pig. I moved the plate in about 4" to far to keep the back end of the Incra above it. And the way I am with things I can't chance it hanging over unprotected from below.

Great info everyone - thanks

[Dave Falkenstein]

One small advantage of the smaller fence system is the table top is not as deep. That might be an issue if space in your shop is at a premium. I have an Incra Twin Linear fence on my router table, which uses the sawtooth adjustment - it has worked well for a long time. The fence has about a 15" capacity, and I have never needed more. The table top is 33"X45", which is big, but the cabinet is sized accordingly - deeper than wide. The specs for the size of the top for the various fences can be found in the Incra users manuals.

[Chris Harry]

One small advantage of the smaller fence system is the table top is not as deep. That might be an issue if space in your shop is at a premium. I have an Incra Twin Linear fence on my router table, which uses the sawtooth adjustment - it has worked well for a long time. The fence has about a 15" capacity, and I have never needed more. The table top is 33"X45", which is big, but the cabinet is sized accordingly - deeper than wide. The specs for the size of the top for the various fences can be found in the Incra users manuals.

I was planning on using either of them in a table saw router extension. I have a standalone table right now, but now that I have a "real" table saw, I figured I could make an extension for that and same some shop space by ditching the standalone table. So, the length of the Incra rail basically becomes a non-issue.

Still debating. Incra says the 25" carriage for the LS is $120.00, so I wouldnt be in any rush to upgrade. So it still comes down to Incra Ultra 25 + Wonderfence, or Incra LS 17 + Wonderfence.

[Jason Beam]

either will serve you fine. If i was 99.9995% satisfied with my Ultra 17, I'm 100% satisfied with my LS. Tiny little tweaks make it just that much more a pleasure to use. If i were in your shoes, I'd keep the LS because of the infinite micro adjust with detents and the single-paddle locking mechanism.

Edit: Since the locking mechanism on the LS is all metal, i suspect it'll last even longer, too. Though the sawteeth aren't super weak, either. They CAN be snapped if you're not careful, though.

[Dave Falkenstein]

I was planning on using either of them in a table saw router extension. I have a standalone table right now, but now that I have a "real" table saw, I figured I could make an extension for that and same some shop space by ditching the standalone table. So, the length of the Incra rail basically becomes a non-issue....

Chris - I assume you know that an Incra fence is mounted to the the router table top. I suppose you can make a removeable mounting system, so the Incra fence does not limit the capacity of the table saw fence. One thing I never liked about a router in a table saw extension was the interference between the two tools. Seemed like I'd just make a setup for one and need to use the other, requiring yet another setup. I also did not like working from the end of the router fence.

[Chris Harry]

Yeah I know how it mounts. I would need to make an extension to my current standalone table setup anyway, to have enough room to mount the Incra. I figured at that point I would get the same results (or even better results if I built an offset table) mounting it onto a TS extension wing.

I was also thinking of building the table with threaded inserts so that the Incra could be added and removed relatively quickly, leaving a flat wide open table for table saw use, and quick conversion over to the Incra for router use.