Jessem Miter Excel review

[John Piwaron]

I recently bought a new miter gauge for my tablesaw. The miter gauge I chose is the Mite-R-Excel made by Jessem.

Overall, I think this is an excellent tool.

The bar is easily adjusted to fit the slot through snugger bars. There's three of them adjusted by turning a set screw on top of the bar in three places. Each location has a brass plate that's bulged out somewhat by that screw causing it to take up any play between the bar and the slot in your saw.

The head attaches to the bar with a very accurately machined brass bushing and rotates very smoothly, no catches, no slop. Just a good smooth motion. The head has semicircular plate on the top with a series of brass bushings through which a pair of pins is pushed. The main pin locates the head to the bar in 5 degree increments. The second shorter pin can be used to offset the gauge from your chosen position in various amounts of offset either right or left in 1/2 degree increments up to 2.5 degrees one way and 2 degrees the other way.

If you choose, you don't have to use the indexing feature. There's a spot in the head to store the main indexing pin if you want to use manual angle selection. The marks for indicating the angle look precisely cut into the aluminum.

The handle is a large aluminum round with knurling to provide a good grip. It holds the head very securely in your chosen position and provides a good size handle to push and pull on.

The fence is an aluminum extrusion with a flip stop on top. At the left end is a short piece of fence that can be pulled out and allow the fence to support a 36" long piece while using the flip stop. Of course you can use the gauge to cut something longer, but then the flip stop has to be out of the way.

Everything about this gauge is fully adjustable, very nice machined and finished. All parts fit together extremely well with no play, just smooth action. I suppose this is all to be expected for the money charged. Woodcraft charges $220 for it. I got mine when they had a sale going on.

The last thing to say is that the one I got from Woodcraft had an issue with the indexing feature. I contacted Jessem about it. I had thought they'd send a new part to correct the problem, but Dan Sherman at Jessem chose to send me an entire new guage. The whole process of resolving the issue was handled very quickly and entirely to my satisfaction.

Again, the tool is excellent, accurate and appears to be of the highest quality. And Jessem's service is absolutely first class. I just couldn't want for more in a tool or manufacturer.

[Jeremy Gibson]

John,

Thanks for the great review! In fact, this is the after market miter gauge I will likely buy when I get around to an upgrade. I've also seen a Rockler blue model, but think I prefer the red.

[Noah Katz]

I'm planning on getting one, too.

" The last thing to say is that the one I got from Woodcraft had an issue with the indexing feature. "

Would you mind elaborating?

[John Piwaron]

John,

Thanks for the great review! In fact, this is the after market miter gauge I will likely buy when I get around to an upgrade. I've also seen a Rockler blue model, but think I prefer the red.

Rocker charges $50 more than Woodcraft. The only difference is that Rockler's is blue. IMO, $50 is too much just to have it colored blue.

[John Piwaron]

I'm planning on getting one, too.

" The last thing to say is that the one I got from Woodcraft had an issue with the indexing feature. "

Would you mind elaborating?

After completing all adjustments, there was some play when I was using the indexing feature to locate the head. It was minor, but at this price and for what the indexing is supposed to do it shouldn't be there. My square revealed that a cut taken at the zero position was not quite square. Yes, I had done *all* the adjustments, and checked them all again. Yes, I could pay attention to the marks on the head, but why? This is the job of the indexing pins.

I emailed Jessem, got a quick reply and resolution to the problem. They simply replaced the whole miter gauge. I had expected a part or two, not the whole device.

The replacement is perfect.

Many pieces on this tool appear to be CNC milled. Some stuff, like the indexing pins are steel dowel pins which are very accurate. The plate into which that pin fits is steel. Mr. Sherman at Jessem suggested that the problem may be some out of tolerance holes. That fit with my own observation of how this tool goes together.

I'm not a QC engineer by any means. I did a simple look at how things went together and made what is to me a reasonable guess that there was a problem with how the pin was fitting into the hole beneath it.

No matter, Jessem immediately took care of the problem. I can only wish other companies were as responsive.

I'm going to be building a new router table soon. I've got everything I need except the time to do it right now. I'm thinking a router lift will be in it. You can be sure the Jessem lifts will be given the most serious consideration by me. They're a company that stands behind their products.

[Larry Halberstadt]

I too have purchased one of these miter gauges based on favorable reviews in several woodworking magazines. I agree with the previous posts. It seems to be a nice tool overall; however, the index pin system seems to be its only drawback. When the pins are inserted and the handle is loose, there is just a small amount of play in the head. It is probably 1/10 of a degree in each direction. In order to allow the pins to slide in and out of the holes, they seem to be machined just a bit smaller than the holes. I have also talked to Dan Sherman at Jessem and he alluded to the fact that this was a discussion on several woodworking forums. I haven't yet decided if I want to return the product to Woodcraft or not. My local store has a great return policy. I'm just not sure what to get instead. It's still much better than a factory gauge and the final angle can be dialed in using the vernier. The other gauges that use and indexing pin system (Kreg and Woodhaven) have a single pin that threads into a hole and fixes the angle with no play; however, they only have several common angles on each side, versus every 1/2 degree on the Jessem. My only other complaint was tarnished brass hardware that I had to clean up out of the box. Maybe that Incra 1000SE on sale at $130 doesn't look too bad after all. I do like the fence on the Incra, the cut off guide interlocks with the fence using their interlocking track in 1/32 inch increments. Good luck to anyone else in the market for this gauge.

[John Piwaron]

I too have purchased one of these miter gauges based on favorable reviews in several woodworking magazines. I agree with the previous posts. It seems to be a nice tool overall; however, the index pin system seems to be its only drawback. When the pins are inserted and the handle is loose, there is just a small amount of play in the head. It is probably 1/10 of a degree in each direction. In order to allow the pins to slide in and out of the holes, they seem to be machined just a bit smaller than the holes.

I work in an engineering department on the design end of things. I'm pretty clear on the pin/hole problem. The pin is a steel dowel pin, something that's manufactured to a pretty tight tolerance. The hole probably has the greatest chance of being a bit big. Even so, this design has to have a fit that allows the pin to slide in and out easily yet still be close enough to allow no play. A pretty difficult balancing act.

I have ideas for how this could be fixed, so I won't be returning mine under any circumstances. If need be, I work with toolmakers, so I'll probably talk it over with them and modify it in some way if need be.

If the engagement between the pin and the hole were longer, the amount of angle the clearnance allows would be less. That is, the clearance would be spread out over a greater length. Personally, I think I'd shoot for an even closer fit than they build these to. But that's something that's probably prohibitively expensive to do, especially for a consumer product.

Maybe they should bite the bullet and do anything it takes to get an even more accurate fit. The fit with the dowel pin and the brass bushings in the head is so super smooth, maybe they should have the same in the plate underneath, even if those are wear items to be replaced from time to time.

No matter, the replacement Mr. Sherman sent me is perfect. I'll be able to hit every angle between 0 and 45 (in even numbers) and most of the 1/2 degree numbers too, just by using the pins. Cool.

BTW, I did look at the Incra products. I did not like the handle. I think the adjustment method for making the bar fit the TS slot is not as good. Who cares that it adjusts both sides? Better one side to be sure the bar is straight and references the same side. And I don't like sheet metal parts. The Incra gauge sure has enough of that, laser cut or not.

[Scott Larson]

John,

I'm happy to hear that Jessem came through so nicely and you ended up with a miter that didn't have any play. I noticed the play/slop you described when investigation this miter last year shortly after they were released. I checked out several production samples (from both woodcraft and Rockler) and they all exhibited this issue at the time. I also sent several e-mails to Jessem but unlike you, they never responded to my questions / concerns. Although I have not had a chance to look at a recent sample, my biggest "concern" now would be that much of the stock in the retail channel may suffer excessive play and that Jessem is replacing them when customers alert them to the issue rather than being more proactive. It's good to know that they are capable of pulling off this design sucessfully (your replaced example). What is more dishartening is that many people will not get to expereince this level of performance (which I feel is mandatory in a product priced in this manner).

-Scott

[Jeremy Gibson]

I just noticed that Amazon has this for $199 from Toolking. It doesn't have free shipping, but thought I'd pass on this new price.

[brian lam]

Anyone have a problem with the miter bar rocking forward and back pivoting off the black aluminum main body of the gate itself? Mine has a lot of play. And I set it up per the manual.

[Roger Feeley]

I have had a Miter Excel for a long time and it’s rock solid. I did have one problem.

i have a sawstop. One day I was hogging out a lap joint using a stacked dado set. I would make a pass, move over and make another pass. What I didn’t realize is that those two really nice looking brass knobs holding the aluminum bar in place had come loose so the aluminum bar was making its way to the blade. The brake fired.

It wrecked the dado set and cost me a brake. I realized that it would be better to have some visual indication that the bar is secure. I changed the really pretty brass knobs for a couple of cam clamps. Now it’s easy to see that the bar is secure. And the bride gifted me with a better dado set.