Thread: Incra LS Super System

G'day Bigshed,

I followed the instructions quite closely when I set up my LS 25"
I copied the woodpecker tables size and settings for mine
You do lose some of the length, and I wasnt aware of this either. You'll also find that the templates are shorter than the potential working length of the fence You have to slide them along on wide work.
The system works well make sure your table is nice and flat, and square before you start setting up your system. It'll help for future.
You'll probably have to shim your fences square to the table (shims included)
Check your right angle fixture for square when its sitting in its working position. You might have to put a face on it to square it up nicely

instructions! what instructions.

When setting up my LS. I set it without the wonder fence in place so if for some reason I was only using the standard fence I would not run out of adjustment.

Thanks Underused and Stringy. That makes sense, as you can always leave the Wonderfence off if you need the full capacity of the LS. I have the 17" so need to set it back 19.75".

Am currently doing the rebate for the phenolic RTL router plate set up for the Triton TRA001. Using a 35mm router bit gives me the correct radius for the corners. Purchased this bit a few years ago when I did the frame for our current house, nicely rebated all the wall studs top and bottom, boy does that get monotonous!

Router table top is 1150x800, so it all fits nicely.

Will have drawers underneath and am going to make the template drawers as per the
Woodshopdemos site, so still a bit of work in front of me.

Thanks again for your input guys, back to the shed I go

When you get it all set up, some photos would be appreciated

Hoppoz

Welcome to the world of incra BigShed

Ihave not done a lot with my LS 17" system (with Wonder Fence) but love what I have done so far - really enjoying the accuracy.

Some photos of your setup would be great.

Cheers
Thornburn

I know this is an old thread, but I just had the same experience setting up my new super system and was very annoyed! Unlike Big Shed, I followed the instructions and drilled the holes to have the carriage at 17", and found the scales are now too long to set at zero when the fence is flush with the router bit. Although my table is long enough to move the carriage back, if I now want to move it back, the 17" holes will be exposed These holes look like crap and will likely fill up with crap. I wish the instructions had pointed this out.

I'm thinking, (though I haven't fully digested the instructions or used the system much), that perhaps the wonder fence is really only used for certain applications, and most of the time I'm better to leave it off and use the standard fence? Does anyone know if that is why Incra's instructions don't mention making any allowance for the wonder fence in setting the carriage distance?

Sniper, I think you have answered your own question. set it up to use the standard fence and you get maximum travel out of it. the wonder fence does two things:
1. It allows you to offset one fence from the other very accurately which is good for using it as a jointer or when using a router bit that removes material from the whole face of the timber.
2. it allows you to support a tall workpiece such as a raised panel, cutting the lid off a box, etc.

so set it up as a standard incra fence and make the adjustment when you add the wonderfence. hope this helps

Doug

ok thanks, this makes sense. Although some features of the wonder fence like the dust extraction would (presumably) be nice to have available all the time, and the only way for me to have it permanently installed at the longer travel distance is to now drill additional mounting holes for the carriage.

It would be nice if the instructions explained this choice better!

Hi all,

Looking realistically at this, how often do you need more than 350mm or so between the bit and the fence? And..... if you do?? What use will the through the fence dust extraction be?? I'll bet 99% of your work will be <300mm from the fence and for the 1% simply take the Wonderfence off.

It's sometimes easy to 'over think' an issue that has minimal importance.

I hope that this helps?

Regards

Grahame

I must be getting dense in my old age, but I don't understand what the issue with the Wonder Fence is? I never take mine off, and have a full range, and zeroing scales

When I mounted the LS Positioner base, I set it based on the Wonderfence being flush with the front of my largest router bit.

If I do need to move everything back, the base is held in place with two bolts from underneath with the heads in the T slot. It only needs loosening, and the whole carriage slides along these bolts.

Before I created the cast iron tops, I used to have a number of holes for different locations for the positioner. I had the holes recessed, so the bolt could drop down, remaining flush with the table top while bolts further back secured the positioner. If you were worried about dust getting into the holes, that would solve the problem.

Irrespective, all the holes are generally behind the fence where little dust gets, and at worst, if exposed, there is very little that can got down them anyway.





LS Positioner 17"
Wonderfence
Woodpecker lift
Wixey Digital Height scale
Cast iron router table top
Woodpeckers base

This is what I used

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f70/ro...ml#post1034460

I used threaded inserts.

I've always been very envious of your table Fred. One day I will steal some of those concepts, especially the Incra template drawer - so cool.

The simple rule of thumb as I see it with having an Incra system, is to have a decent sized top. You cannot get away with one that is too short (there are work-arounds, but both of ours have sufficient depth that it works well). And if you have the Wonder fence, the top just needs to be that little bit longer to accomodate it.

If I really needed massive fence-router bit distance, I cold just move it all over to the tablesaw where I have a router wing mounted. I mainly do this however, when needing to run very long boards through the router, as my tablesaw has much larger infeed and outfeed room.

Fun stuff

Damn - now I'm back to thinking about adding drawers to my router table!

Originally Posted by Gwhat

Hi all,

Looking realistically at this, how often do you need more than 350mm or so between the bit and the fence? And..... if you do?? What use will the through the fence dust extraction be?? I'll bet 99% of your work will be <300mm from the fence and for the 1% simply take the Wonderfence off.

It's sometimes easy to 'over think' an issue that has minimal importance.

I hope that this helps?

Regards

Grahame

No not really Grahame,

The Super System instructions give a set back distance for the carriage position as though the wonder fence was not included in the pack. If you apply those instructions, as I did, the metal main scale on the sliding arm is too long to be able to set at zero when the wonder fence is flush with the router bit, because the ~430mm main (metal) scale is measured to sit at zero when the arm is in its fully extended position without the wonder fence fitted.

|fence......................(430mm scale)...................'0'........
.................................................................|carriage|
.................................................................bolt holes

|wonderfence|fence.........(430mm scale)........................'0'....
..................................................................|carriage|
..................................................................bolt holes

However, on reflection, the simplest answer to the problem this creates is to use one of the plastic scales as a substitute, or trim the metal scale down a few centimetres so that it fits (although this may cause issues with it being too short with the WF removed). Either option is much easier than adjusting the position of the carriage and exposing those holes. Of course this still wouldn't regain the extra travel length that you lose from fitting the WF, which I don't think is properly explained in that part of the instruction manual.

Although my router table top is easily long enough to have the carriage set back a few inches further, one of the reasons I didn't set the carriage further is to minimise inaccuracy and to avoid overstressing the carraige through applying too much lateral leverage as I slide the fence back and forth in normal use. Obviously the longer the arm is extended, the greater sideways leverage is applied. Ideally, I'd like to have mounted the carraige on a twin t track so that its position could be shifted around depending on what size job I am working on. I might try this next time.

cheers

Tom