Incra sent me a number of excellent miter gauges for the head-to-head tool test in this issue, along with this innovative sled. While the sled wasn’t a fit for the miter-gauge roundup, it’s just too good to stay quiet about.

The Miter Express turns your miter gauge into a crosscut sled, one that cuts miters as easily as it makes square cuts. It works on almost any table saw (check the website for parameters) and accepts any miter gauge, providing a large, stable surface that doubles the crosscutting capacity. Like any crosscut sled, the Miter Express carries work past the blade—which improves accuracy—instead of dragging it across the table the way a miter gauge does on its own.

The sled includes two panels: a larger one that holds the miter gauge and slides past the blade, and a support panel that clamps into its miter slot, preventing offcuts from dropping away and splintering. After assembling the parts and pieces of the jig, you slide each panel individually past the spinning blade, creating zero-clearance surfaces along both edges.

The sled is only as good as your miter gauge, so it works best with a good aftermarket model—with reliable stops at common angles and a solid flip stop on the fence. I used it with Incra’s Miter 1000HD gauge, one of the winners in the head-to-head test.

Everything about this sled works well. Its own miter bar adjusts for a perfect fit in your saw table, very effective cam screws hold your miter gauge in place, and you can shift the position of the miter gauge and offcut panel to accommodate various workpieces and cutting angles.

If you have a reliable miter gauge, the Incra Miter Express will make it work wonders.

—Asa Christiana

Photos: Asa Christiana

From Fine Woodworking #306