Thread: Incra - Hinge Crafter, Wonderfence, Miter Express Platform and/or telescoping fence

There are no markings on the jig to say it is metric. I think that maybe the only difference is the one page insert in the manual to say it is metric.

I sent off an email to Incra this morning to question the differences. It was interesting to compare the measurements taken of both the imperial and metric versions of the jig as it would be hard to see why it would be practical to manufacture two different jigs for such a minor difference. I suspect that they are essentially interchangeable and I should have just picked up your metric version Mike, but it will be interesting to get to the bottom of it. I will post any response for future reference for others with the same questions.

It is bewildering!

Whiteside make a specific imperial kit #600 with 3/8” Straight, 3/8” Half Round, 1/2” Straight, 1/2" Half Round, 5/8” Straight, 5/8” Half Round, 3/4" Straight, and 3/4" Half Round cutters.

They also make a metric kit #M600 with Straight bits: 10mm, 12mm, 16mm, & 19mm and Full-radius bullnose bits: 3/16", 1/4", 5/16", & 3/8" (according to woodsupplies.com.au).

My kit has no mention of metric and is pretty old, and was originally bought as imperial, but given the cutter sizes I'm wondering if my kit is metric but not labelled as such?

It'll be very curious to see the response you get from Incra!

Ok, with Incra being such a good company as they are, I received a response to my email asking the differences between the imperial and metric hinge crafter overnight.

"The 5/8" and 3/4" bushings are the same on both versions of the HingeCrafter and the difference in your measurements is just a matter of tolerances. The metric version's 10 mm bushings are nominally 9.50 mm long because 10 mm -wide cuts would be excessively loose over the 3/8" bushings (9.02 mm nominal). The 12 mm bushings are nominally 11.48 mm long and are required because 12 mm -wide cuts won't reliably fit over the 1/2" bushings (12.17 mm nominal).

So there you have it. The two larger hinge sizes are the same, however the silver drill guides / bushings are different for the two smaller hinge sizes. Unfortunate that we took measurements on the largest hinge size which should be the same for both versions!

As my main interest would be in the production of the two smaller hinge sizes, with my setup it looks like imperial is still the way to go. I suspect that you could potentially scrape by using them interchangeably, however Incra must have decided that the tolerances didn't work for them and it would avoid the headaches if they made two versions.

Hope this has been educational / useful for somebody down the track. The scary thing now is the cost of the router bits to suit the jig - it looks to be a $500-$600+ outlay (including jig) to cover all bases, which is a lot of custom hinges to be made!

Ok that's really interesting. I'm curious to measure the smaller ones tonight!

Timbecon has some half round cutters, I daresay there will be plenty of Asian suppliers cheap as well:

https://www.timbecon.com.au/torquata...ing-router-bit