INCRA MITER5000 Miter 5000 Table Saw Miter Gauge with Sled and Telescoping Fence

Chances are you are like me and read these reviews as they influence your decision to buy. If so make sure you also read the installation section. In fact, I think for making a purchasing decisions this is the most important section to read. First and foremost. You are buying this tool for the accuracy that it will give you. As such if you do not want to put the time and effort into the pre-install preparation and the installation then you would be better off making your own sled and saving yourself some money (actually, a whole lot) in the end. Up-front confession: I am a hobbyist workworker. I am not Mr. mechanical, but I do like tinkering. I have made more mistakes due to impatience than I care to admit. Pre-Install Preparation: If you want dead-nuts accuracy I strongly suggest you do these things. First, clean out your miter slots. Chances are if you use your table saw alot these will be gummed up. Some WD40 and a blade screw driver will do the trick. Doing this is important as there are tension adjustments that help to take all the play out of the slide bar. Second, make sure your blade is as close to 90 degrees to the table as you can get it. While there are fancy tools to do this I have found that my mechanical square does the trick. It is really important that you have you blade aligned properly before installing the sled. Sure, the instruction show you how to zero out the miter gage to your blade, but you should take the time and make this adjustment before installation. Finally, be patient and take your time. I say this as I am not patient. I spent a few evenings after work putting mine together. Remember, you are spending some serious money on this product. If you set it up properly to begin with you can cut joints accurate enough to make picture frames. Installation: Take you time and follow the directions. They are actually very well done. The parts come in marked bags. I am definitely not the mechanically inclined poster child and had to re-read a few of the steps a few times, looking over the parts. The bottom line is that the instructions are pretty darn good. It might be nice if a few of the pictures in the instructions were zoomed out a bit to see a bit more context, but this is really a minor complaint. I do have the following suggestions that are not part of the instructions that I found helped me. They are ... In hindsight you probably do not need to spend so much time adjusting the play out of the left slide bar until you actually attach the sled base. The reason is that with the base attached you can move the sled through the full range and much easier check for play and adjust it out. What is really cool about this product is that all the adjustments are accessible with the sled base attached. You DO NOT want any play in the bar! Repeat, you DO NOT want any play in the bar. I suspect every table saw model is slightly different. Incra has ten seperate adjustments to take out the play. I found that only tightening the two adjustments on each end first was the best means of minimizing the play in my miter slot. Then I made the other adjustments. I found a lot of interplay between these. I also moved the sled to different positions and checked for play and adjusted as necessary. I payed particular attention to the area near the saw blade (obviously) as this is where you will be cutting the wood. I also moved the sled though the miter slot back and forth and then tightened up the adjustments again. I would say I spent a good twenty minutes on this step alone. Your mileage will vary depending on the table saw you own. Before cutting of the excess, though the procedure did not say to do this, I raised my saw blade, pulled out my mechanical square and verified that the front of the sled was exactly 90 degrees to the blade. Checking the left and right sled bases square to the blade, and the other items I mentioned are the only things I would add to the instructions. I am guessing it took me about three hours to get everything setup. Someone more mechanically inclined could cut this time in half. This investment is a one time deal. In pondering all of this it occurred to me that you are pretty much mating the sled to your table saw. So, if you plan on getting a new table saw anytime soon you may want to hold off on buying this product. The Test Cut: I took two pieces of unjointed pine and cut them at 45 degrees. One word. Wow! When you spend 1/2 the cost of your table saw on a a miter gage and sled you need to set some high expectations. If you take your time, carefully read and follow the directions, this product delivers. I am blown away by the accuracy. This product delivers. You can miter picture frames with this product. There are a number of decent videos on the various incra miter gauges on YouTube. I could not find one on this specific version, but the sled appears to be the same as the miter express. After this experience I am now looking forward to replacing my fence with the incra table saw fence. I have yet to figured out how to align the rulers so I do not have to measure when making a 45 degree cut. I did not find the directions real useful in this regard. I have not found any guidance yet on the net for doing this. My first project was making two 21x24 picture frames out of purpleheart. After my initial test cut I knew this sled was up for the task. Not sure why old Norm does not own one of these puppies?

★★★★★ A Game Changer for Accurate Crosscuts I absolutely love this tool. The INCRA Miter 5000 has become one of the most valuable accessories in my shop, and I use it for all of my waterfall joinery. The accuracy and repeatability are outstanding, which gives me the confidence to make precise cuts where even the slightest error would be noticeable. The sled glides smoothly, the telescoping fence makes it easy to support larger workpieces, and the adjustment system is incredibly precise. Once it’s dialed in, it stays that way. The overall build quality is excellent, and it’s clear that INCRA designed this with serious woodworkers in mind. If precision matters in your work, this is an investment that’s well worth it. I wouldn’t want to be without it.

I did a lot of research before buying this miter table. I am so happy I purchased this. It's been a great tool to add to my shop and has made my projects easier to create and faster...which adds money to my pocket. Setup was a few hours, but honestly could probably have been done quicker. I was able to get the sled built quickly, but I was not able to get it square for a few hours. I spent the time adjusting everything and in the end....a 24" square is what saved the day. Making sure I had the right tool for the setup was all I needed. I've used this multiple times and recommend this to beginners and professionals.

Should be 10 Stars! Beautifully engineered and super accurate. Works great for squaring up sheet goods after breaking down large panels into component parts for drawers etc. This thing is just dead on accurate cross cutting panels and drawer sides. You do have to make sure you take the time to accurately set up the fence and stop block along with the measuring tape. I needed to reposition the configuration for left tilt saw, PM2000 so it took a little more time to locate the sled and miter gauge on the right side of the blade. I would recommend that they provide more pictures and instructions on doing this instead of just telling you to reverse the direction, when they say left miter slot, you have to remember it is right miter for you. Many cabinet saws are left tilting, so it is not some infrequent event, so just provide a couple of sheets of extra paper with the proper instructions. The miter slots have absolutely no play with the sled or the cutoff table, they are both steady and slide nicely. Very pleased with the product and would recommend it highly to anyone that wants and easy solution to squaring their stock. I do a lot of dovetail drawers and having those parts accurately cut makes everything work smoothly with the jigs.

Bought for my garage shop DeWalt 10" job site saw. The DeWalt saw extension is on the right (more table saw to support the weight of the sled), I'm RH doninant re: power tools, so I ignored the instructions and set up so the sled is pushed with my right hand. Everything arrived intact and very promptly from Rockler Woodworking, MN, arrived within 4 days! Honestly, the instructions are a bit difficult to read, and the photos require well-lit lighting or a magnifying glass! I had watched number of YouTube videos and considering making my own sled. But considering the calibration, the cost of all the fancy components and the HUMIDITY in NC, I decided to purchase an INCRA product. Very solid components, well engineered. Rather easy to assemble, and square with my saw. I have made a few practice cuts and am pleased with the square of the cuts. The sled is a bit hefty for my saw..the sled doesn't slide as easily as I imagined. Needs more adjustment...if I set the mitered runners not to be sloppy horizontally, then I am slightly stuck at some point pushing through. Any suggestions from the gallery would be appreciated! Very pleased with the product, should enhance my WW sskills. Very pleased with Rockler Hardware. Any questions?

This sled is typical Incra. Terrific instructions, and everything goes together just the way they say to do it. Assembly is pretty fast and intuitive. I previously purchased the Miter Express because I already had the 3000 miter. While it certainly works, using the 5000 feels 10x more stable. When you back the Miter Express up, you are very aware of it because it feels like you are testing the limits. The miter express made very square cuts, but I never loved the way it felt. The 5000 feels so much better when backed up, and the extra surface area is great. And the accuracy is nothing short of amazing. Watching the blade track the outside edge of a pencil line on a panel with zero deviation from beginning to end is a thing of beauty.

The Incra5000 is definitely what it claims to be--a sturdy, precise, convenient miter sled. It is not much harder to use than the home-made one it is replacing, and will do more than cut off at a 90 degree angle, which is what my old one did. I concur with the other positive reviews, and really just want to make one observation that others seem not to have made. The unit is very versatile, with engineered solutions to most table saw idiosyncrasies. I never knew, for instance, that Craftsman miter slots were undersized. Fancy that. And Incra doesn't know (apparently) that Grizzly miter slots are not only randomly oversized (which they deal with) but also randomly deep. Mine, for instance, are nearly 1/8" deeper than they are supposed to be. And there is no way to use the t-slot fitting that comes with the Incra miter bar. Unless, of course, you have a milling machine. When you decide to fit your shop out with Grizzly hardware, the first machine you should purchase is a Grizzly milling machine. The G1005Z should do the job. After you get the mill, just buy every other Grizzly machine priced at appoximately $975 and you will be all set. You will be ready to make needed modifications to all the other Grizzly machines, or (as in this case) to the accessories you purchase for them. And this part of the review is after using the Incra5000 for a couple of years. All of what I said before is still true, but the dew is definitely off the rose. This device is a) heavy b)clumsy to handle c) decidedly not robust It manages to be both massive and weak, which, if you think about it, is the signal characteristic of mdf and particle board, which the Incra just happens to be made of. Sure, there are all these extruded aluminum and steel fittings and fancy screws and so on, but the core is mdf covered with thin formica. It is like building a table saw with an mdf table bonded to some thin hard veneer surface. If you jostle that long miter fence even a little you create an inelastic collision with a heavy object, and something moves. Oops, not square any more. If you decide to cut a miter and then put it back to 90 degrees, all the HARDWARE sure reads 90 with extreme positive locking, but the fence, which was perfectly square before the miter attempt is now off by about .05 degree. Every damn time. That translates to 1/64th in 16 inches, enough to mess a cabinet up nicely if every "square" corner is off by that much. Sure, it is not hard to adjust it, but should you have to do this every time? What are all those fancy stops for? If you handle it like a christmas tree ornament, it will cut nice square corners every time, and cut off pieces all the same length, and if you don't change the angle settings it will stay pretty good. But check it every day. All in all, an overrated accessory.

Came extremely well packed and arrived sooner than expected. All parts were there except one grub screw of the stop block. Super accurate right out of the box and works exactly as described. Offcut table is nice for small parts. Now for the price. At a minimum of $100 more than comparable miter sleds it is a reluctant choice for this one. For me it was a decision on time savings. Was it expensive? Yes, very much so! But, at the end of the day this thing is worth every dollar because I’m not wasting time by setting up new jigs or fussing with inaccuracies from my home made sleds. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for the time saving and the saving of frustration due to less accurate tools or skill level.

The plans are very simple and easy to follow. It took me about an hour to figure the putting together

I was very impressed with the workmanship and the quality of the materials used in the manufacture of Incra products. This was the third of the four Incra products I have ordered recently and found them all superior to anything else I had considered purchasing. Constant back-orders for Incra product are for a good reason. They are in high demand by woodworkers all over the world. Buy Incra, you won't be sorry.

I am a professional woodworker and I find this sled extremely accurate. When you have this kind of accuracy it makes cabinetry and woodworking in general much more enjoyable! Worth every penny I paid! I highly recommend this tool even for the amateur woodworker.

Easy to set up, easy to set your measurements and easy to use. I love it!

Works great for longer cuts. I do wonder why there are no friction reducing tape strips with it though. The smaller version of this glides nicer with the included strips. One thing I would like to see would be a gauge like the HD incra made for this. I use it all the time and my cuts are way more accurate. If using just for 90 degree cuts then a shop built is much more economical, but I would have to have several to do each angle I do. This was a perfect but expensive addition to my shop.