Osborne eb3 Review & Assembly.
Off 't to theworkshop early This morning to open the box.
Just
let me say here, I am not connected to Osborne in any way whatsoever,
nor with Axminster tools where I bought it from. I don't have another
mitre guide to compare the Osborne EB3 with, I only have a bog standard
mitre guide that came with my Sip saw quite frankly it's total
rubbish so less said the better.
I haven't opened the
box till now, so your seeing it at the same time as
myself. Well upon opening it I was pleasantly surprised on how well it
was all packed into such a small box and all bubble wrapped as well ,
Osborne you definitely went the extra mile with your packing.
As
I peeled open the bubble wrap it was soon obvious of the quality
finished this product has, But hey, here is the best surprise it was
assembled in the box, nice, that was really nice. I was expecting bags
of nuts and bolts with loads of components all needing to be assembled
with the aid of a Chinese manual, but no, Also the manual is well
written and well illustrated, simple to follow, idiots proof guide.
Now
here I eat my own words read the the instructions from leaf to leaf
first, I didn't, I should have, it most definitely would have saved me a
lot of time, checking and rechecking, before you get carried away make
sure you stick on the the glide tap under the fence first, it raises
the whole mitre gauge just by a micro amount so it sits the guide bar
correctly in the guild track at the right level. While your sticking
this tap you just as well stick the black self adhesive abrasive to
the front of the fence, leave the tap measure till later if you wish.
But follow the instruction carefully on that as well.
On the left
as it came out of the box. All you needed to do from it's
boxed position,slide one end of the guide bar into the table saw guide
track and slide fully in, open it out and simple slide the inner brace
arm into the outer brace arm, open a small packet containing the locking
nut and thumb screw and assemble slide the arms together till it's at
the zero position 90 degrees
compress the detent plunger located under the outer brace arm till it
locks into it's degree setting hole, now tighten the side thumb screw
this
has now set the angle to a 90 degree triangle, Screw in the main handle as I forgot in the photo,
don't forget it's washer, now it's ready for it final adjustment to
remove any slop on the guide rail in the table saw guide track.
To adjust the slop in the guide track it has three
grub screw set in the guide bar tightening them expands the bar in the
slot this removes all lateral side movements, now it's trial and error keep
adjusting in or out till there no lateral movement and the bar slides smoothly as is slides in and
out of the guide track. At this stage don't worry about setting it at 90 degrees to the blade, that will come a little later.
Here
it is fully assembled and fitted into the guide track. The angle
settings are all marked just slide in or out to select any angle and
lock it.
Ok it,s now assemble use the micro adjuster to set it at 90 degree to the table saw blade, for this I used:-
I
have a very large steel square that I use for setting ref points in
the workshop. I used it here by placing the stock against the blade
making sure it touched the teeth at the front and back of the blade. I
then used the micro adjuster to set it spot on square. To do this as
seen in the photo, I used the Allen (supplied) key and a19mm spanner
slacken the grub screw in the top of outer arm turn the 19mm spanner to
adjust till the fence moves to the correct position and then tighten
the Allen key.
Now is the time to fit the self adhesive tap to
the top of the fence, Simple slide the mitre guide in past the edge of
blade till the top of the fence is behind and below a section of
blade, now adjust fence sideways till it about 1 mm from edge of blade
and lock in position. Measure any distant in along the top of fence
from the blade I measured 250 mm and mark a pencil line on the top of
fence, peal of the back of the tap measure and place the 250mm mark on
the tap on the mark and stick down cut of any surplus from the ends.
Now
that I have got over the mistakes I made right from the start It's
completely assembled I have checked and double checked the complete
set up of the this mitre guide before making any more cuts in the
timber.
Because of my mistakes I was forced to check
the blade and table saw fence were parallel to the mitre guide track
which they are, thank goodness. I will show you how this was done but
that will be another review.
For
now here is the finished cut, this was cut using a bog standard rip saw
blade, I will refit my cross cut saw blade and see if the cut improves
even further.
IN CONCLUSION .
The
Osborne eb3 is a very robustly made mitre gauge it does exactly what
the makers claim it's capable of in there video's and in there Write
up's it has no flex in the triangular design at all. once set up and
it's square to your blade you can look forwards to cutting many
thousands of mitres
knowing the last one will be as accurate as
the first. It's quickness at changing the mitre angles is simplicity
itself , unlock slide press the locking button and lock again, done,
ready to go again.
Finally in the workshop is a mitre
gauge that will do what you want it to produce a mitre that is spot on
accurate each and every time you use it, no more messing with a mitre
gauge and then having to fiddle with the cut ends to get it to fit
correctly, wasting time, which for a professional joiner, time is
money. Martin
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