Customer Reviews

Osborne EB-3 Miter gauge

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I received my Excalibur EB-3 and just couldn't wait to use it. The miter gauge was easy to assemble and dead on accurate relative to the miter slot in my table saw. The construction is very solid and the workmanship is superb. When I first set the gauge up I checked all the angles and was concerned that the fence face was not perpendicular to the miter slot bar. I sent an email to Osborne's customer service late one night and had an answer by the next morning. This is impressive and courteous customer service. It turns out that the handle on my square was not square, the EB-3 was right on!
After checking the choices, it boiled down to the EB-3 or the Incra-2000/27. It appeared to be a toss up. I went with the EB-3 because of the sturdier looking construction, besides Norm uses the EB-3.

I have been researching a new miter gauge for almost 6 months. I had looked at most of the ones on the market, including the incra line, and Dewalt's copy of the EB-3 (seperate review). Couldn't find anyone who had an osborne in stock, so with a little whining I convinced my local woodworker's store to order a couple in. The problem began when the two units arrived at the store. All the people who work at this particular store are avid woodworkers in their own right. They assembled one of the miter gauges and gave it a try. It was perfect right out of the box. When I arrived several hours later to pick up my osborne miter gauge (they had told me when they would arrive), I had a hell of time prying one out of their hands. They have since ordered a dozen more, some for stock and some for employee's. I took home the one they had already assembled, as I planned on using it as soon as I got home. They had adjusted it to fit on the Jet supersaw..they had no slop and no rock. The face was 90 deg to the table and 90 deg to the blade. Since my saw is the Dewalt 746, I figured I would have some adjusting to do....WRONG....it slid into my table saw with no adjusting at all. It slides beautifully, with no side to side slop at all. I have no rocking, scraping and have noticed no flexing. The face is 90 to the table and 90 to my saw blade. I checked everything I could check and couldn't find one problem. So of course I figured I was doing something wrong. Can't be this good right out of the box, so I rechecked everything with another set of squares, ran a couple of pieces of pine thru on the 90 setting, perfect, cut a couple 45's, perfect, then the ultimate, 221/2"s, perfect. The last test was to let the Shop Dog sniff it and even he approved. I've had it a week now, made 8 square frames, 6 octagon frames, and 21 corner shelves. The only problem I've had is where to put the gauge when I'm not using it. It does take up a good amount of space if you don't "fold it" for storage, and I am strapped for space.(My saw table is one of my main assembly areas).
I find myself reaching for the Osborn miter gauge instead of one of my sleds now. I would and have reccommended this miter gauge to anyone who is looking for the ultimate upgrade in miter gauges. Its solid, well built and easy to use. "NUFF SAID"
UPDATE...I have been making a lot of traditional style jewelry boxes lately...Christmas ya know...with mitered corners and insert trays. Lot of repetitive cutting. I like to cut my box pieces from one piece of wood so the grain chases all around the box. I made an extra flip stop for my miter gauge so I could set two lengths on the gauge. Now I cut an end, flip the first stop up and cut the front, back to the first stop, cut...well you get the picture. The process is repeated when cutting the miters, get perfectly matched pieces every time. What a time and effort saver. I am going to try and order a second factory flip stop, as my homemade one is a little clunky.
Still highly recommend this miter gauge.
ANOTHER UPDATE...Called Summerville Design...their number is listed in the back of the instruction manual...To get a second flip stop, you have to copy down the part numbers...you'll need two of the plastic washers....and order it as parts. Their customer service is excellent and the parts totaled $12., including shipping.Someone there took the time to assemble the stop before shipping it...thats customer service! If you are like me and cut a lot of multiple lengths from the same piece of wood this is a valuable addition to your miter gauge, and inexpensive to boot. This whole thing just keeps getting better.

I received my eb3 and out of the box it had a flaw. It seems, still, to me to be a design flaw. The part of the fence that moves from one side of your saw to the other has a small foot on it. When I set this up to work from the left side of the rip fence, this very small foot would ride up under the small fence that holds it causing the whole thing to rock from side to side. I called Osborne and was met with courtesy and caring. No solution, though. I did, however, find a fix to my problem, two very thin washers on the two bolts that go through the small fence. I have cut, in the last 3 months, dozens of angles right left and sideways. All dead accurate and repeatable. Cut 10 pieces of 2x4 38 1/2 inches. All were exactly identical. I didn't put any real pressure on the extension. Just careful cutting.

I am well pleased with my purchase.

When I first tried my EB-3 in my Jet tablesaw, I had a serious problem with the guide bar binding in both mitre slots. At first, I thought the guide bar was warped on the head end. After futher investigation, which included disassembling the unit, the guide bar was indeed dead flat and straight. The culprit turned out to be the guide washer, more specifically the tongue that the guide washer is screwed into. The tongue is about 1/32" too thick, making the washer bind in the slot. After I filed the washer down and reattached it, everything worked fine. Of course, I knocked the unit out of square disassembling it, but recalibrating it was easy. It's dead on now.

I was very excited when Santa brought me a long awaited EB-3. The design was great and very simple to use. It had everyting you could ask for in a miter gauge, except vertical accuracy. The fence was out of square in relation to the table. I first thought it was a manufacturing flaw, so I exchanged it for a new one. It had the same problem. I simply could not rely on it for vertical accuracy in relation to the table, A major drawback. Also, I ended up disliking the way it scratched the table as I used it. I ended up returning the EB-3 and getting a Woodhaven deluxe with an extended fence, which has worked out very well for my needs.

Setup 4
Use 5

The Osborne is exactly what I was looking for in regards to a high-quality miter gauge. Although adequate, the supplied miter included with the saw required me to make test cuts in scrap and measure them with a protractor to ensure their accuracy. I'm afraid I just grew tired of dealing with that tedium.

The Osborne is very solid, very stable, and very accurate. There were some metal burrs on the base of the guide bar which I needed to grind down with the Dremel since they ground against the bottom of the guide slot, but once that was done the Osborne glides smoothly across the table - especially with a coat or two of paste wax. One reviewer mentioned something about the Osborne scratching his table saw. Since the guide is aluminum, I correctly guessed that the cast-iron top would win any battle between the two.

The guide fence was not perpendicular to the table out of the box, but it is EASY to apply some masking tape shims to the back to fix this problem and still keep the integrity of the crosscut angle. However, I did notice that the face of the guide fence is slightly bowed outward and is not perfectly flat. There is no indication that it affects the cut, however. The guide bar does rock slightly, but the company says that is normal and it also doesn't seem to affect the quality of the cuts.

If you want a quality miter gauge, I recommend the Osborne EB-3 without hesitation.

Here's a website with a detailed review - http://thewoodshop.20m.com/osborne_eb3.htm

This gauge encountered several complications that diminished it's accuracy. It does a great job a 90 degrees, but when extended and angled the detents are off by over 1 degree in each direction...that's about the accuracy you can get from a cheap stock gauge, so what I basically paid for was a nice extendable crosscut fence.

This was the third gauge that was sent, and all three had a similar problem, plus one even had a slider bar that rocked. Osborne's customer service was not as responsive as I've come to expect from similar companies like Hartville, Lee Valley, Grizzly, etc.

The miter slot adjustment mechanisms work really well. The flip stop and extension fence are very good. I like the handle, supporting arm and the t-tracks. The cam adjuster that allows you to precisely dial the gauge in is also excellent.

Important update: During the winter of 2008, David Osborne himself read my review of his EB-3 and contacted me about making things right. He offered to send a new gauge at no cost to me. The new gauge is functioning perfectly. It seemed only fair to give an update that highlights this extraordinary customer service. Unfortunately, the rating system won't allow me to change the 3-Star rating to a 4-Star, but it undoubtedly deserves it. Mr. Osborne is one class act IMHO!

This is a great miter guide. It is precise and accurate. You can zero this thing to within .01" easily and it retains it. It is also stronger than it looks like in the pictures. Its really quite heavy (a good kind of heavy), and well made. I was actually quite skeptical, but took a chance on it anyway. I'm glad I did. You can make it fit your T-slot perfectly, and it is easy to deal with.

What a dissappointment. I take it this is the 3rd revision of this product (eb-3), but there is still more to do.

1) Despite the "rock solid" claim, this puppy flexes - like alot. If you take a close look, you will see that the pivot is a shoulder screw, only providing support at the bottom of the fence. Then, again at the support bar, is another shoulder screw supporting the fence there. Bascially, the fence is underconstrained. It flexes perhaps up to a 1/4" at the end of the fence under only a few lbs of load. It could use more constraint at the top of the fence at the pivot, and again at the top and perhaps bottom near the support bar joint.

2) The miter bar bottoms out in a standard 3/8" deep miter slot, so the assembly will rock. There is really no reason why they couldn't have improved this.

Summary: Great materials, solid design concept, but unfortunately executed by a totally inept designer.

I returned mine and bought an Incra Miter 1000SE - for less money!

I tried the Osborne EB-3 and I was disappointed.
I first tried it at 45 degrees to the left and it worked good, next I tried it at 90 degrees and again it worked good. The problem came when I set it to 45 degrees to the right. With the miter gauge set to 45 degrees to the right the adjustment and support bar was set to it's longest setting and since there was very little of the solid black square rod inside of the hollow red square tube, they flexed upward when pressure was applied to the part that the board rests against and as a result, there was 2 or 3 degrees of play in the miter gauge when it is set to 45 degrees to the right.