Shop Tools #4: JessEm Mite-R-Excel™ Precision Miter Gauge with Dual-Indexing Angle Location

Wayne,

That thing looks like a hefty chunk of metal. Hope it works as good as it looks!!!

John

I forgot to ask if the peacock is shop broke?

The miter gauge works great and so far no messes from the peacock. Unfortuately the peacock is like a homing pigeon. I remove him and he comes right back every time.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Wayne -

Great looking miter gauge – looks very sturdy!

Just a quick photo tip . . . always remove fowl from your tools before shooting photos!

David

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Yeah, that is pretty much the first step in any shop work as well as photo shoots.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I thought my Incra 1000SE was good, but that is great! I love the extra length, as the Incra only does 28”. Nice piece of metal.

-- Robert from Raymond, MS. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is therefore not a practice, but a habit." - Aristotle

It I were to do it again, I would probably hold out for the JessEm Mast-R-Slide™ 7500. It costs quite a bit more, but looks like a great tool.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Yeah, the Jessem is a nice machine. Another quality Canadian tool! That slider is pretty slick too!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I really like the Jessem Products. I have their router table as well.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

The JessEm Mast-R-Slide is a very nice unit. I had one on my old RT unisaw.

Now I have the Excalibur EXSLT40 on a LT Unisaw.

John

-- John -- Racine, WI -- Woodworking..."It's not just a Hobby, it's an Adventure"

Jessem makes a very high quality product line. Precision for sure.

The prices are in line with comparable models and in this instance you are getting what you pay for.

I have an accu miter that I bought fifteen years or so ago, and it’s been used heavilly, but is still as accurate as it was then.

I kept looking at the Jessem miter gage, AND FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, DIDN”T BUY IT, CAUSE I DIDN’T NEED IT!

I was very proud of myself about it. Even told my wife about how proud of myself I was. LOL

As for the excalibur sliding table, I haven’t had any experience with one.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

I have the Exactor sliding table like the Excalibur but I have the 60” version. They are great.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Major saw envy…

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Umm…Douglas…I’ll trade you my Craftsman for your Jet…

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA

I would love to have the space…

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I picked up a Mite-R-Excel this week from Rockler on a 25% off coupon (net $165 – sorry for the gloat). It’s painted Rockler blue (which would look stunning with a peacock if we only had one), but otherwise is supposed to be the standard JessEm gauge.

It assembled fine and cut true out of the box. Nice combination of brawn and precision. I used it to cut angled dados last night and love it already.

I did find one surprise – the unit is marked as “Made in USA.” Huh? Checked the box – “Made in Canada.” What’s up here? I found this April, 2007 press release that says they’re opening a manufacturing plant in Tennessee, but implies that they’re still headquartered in Ontario (although their web site now lists their address as Tennessee). I had missed this move. My condolences to all the Canadian LJocks.

My unit was missing two parts, an allen wrench (which is not a problem) and the self-adhesive ruler tape that goes on the extension rod (which I want so I’ll have to waste time Monday tracking it down). It looks like the US plant has a couple of kinks to work out. Hopefully, their manufacturing equipment is up to snuff. I wonder if they moved their equipment down or retooled?

-- Dave J. Oakdale, MN