Thread: Purchasing an LS system Q ...

If room and money are no issue, then definately go with the 2 seperate stations. I've got plenty of room at present, but I know the day will come when we move and I will only have a normal double garage to play in so I just went with the all in one system.

Having a seperate router table allows you the flexibility of having a table wider than your saw is deep (usually 685mm). That's the only complaint I have with the all in one setup is that the depth of the saw table is (ideally) not quite wide enough for my likings. The other plus is that you could alternate between routing and sawing a lot easier with seperate stations too.

Thanks for the reply. That is what I am leaning toward, 2 separate systems. As you said, more flexibility.

I have just moved from having an all in one system with my router table on the left of my table saw. I found that to move from routing to sawing was a real pain as the carriage has to be moved each time and this action is quite common especially with some of the fancier joins that I'm sure you will want to try out. For purchase contact Mark at Incremental Tools he is a really nice man and very helpfull. I had to purchase a new router table setup and even with postage it was nearly half the price you could buy it for over here. Good luck and have fun playing in your spacous (I'm jealous) workshop. In short My advice would be to have two seperate systems, it will offer you maximum versatility with minimum setup effort.
Cheers
John

Chicka I hear you. The thing I was afraid of was that if I purchased the combo, which is great, I would later wished I purchased the separate systems. Everyone here is saying the same thing to go the individual setups.

In the long run its cheaper then the regrets, should-have scenario.

Thanks to all for the help to sure up my feelings on it .... separate systems it is.

Also, thanks for the tip to talk to Mark, I live in the USA, is he still the one to talk to?

Make'n chips,
Keri-Ann

I got mine from Tool King in Denver. They were a fair bit cheaper than Incremental Tools, had great service and were one of the few that had a realistic international freight quote, not that international freight is an issue for you!

FWIW:

I am not suggesting what is said above is wrong.

I've got a 25" positioner and rarely have to move the carraige. Because the positioner allows repeatable return to previous setup you can bounce fairly easily.

I find that mounting roller infeed and outfeeds are at least as good as wider tables because I can get into the corner and monitor my cuts close up. I've fed 10' boards with no problems.

It all depends on what your making and how your prefer to work. The ultralite is so cheap now and it makes an excellant router table setup. Also remember you can reuse the ls positioner, so say you buy a TS system and a LS17 system if you need a longer positioner you can swap over the longer one with little trouble. If you go that way and can afford it get the ls17 with the wonder fence. Again components can be swapped back and forth and the wonder fence gives you lots of nice options, like jointer cuts off the router. Buying the packages offer excellant value.

I am on the incra mailing list and incremental tools have the following specials as of 3/3/11:

ultralite $129 quoteLT2

from the 24th feb:
LS std system from $279 quote: LSS4

Codes might work might not. Can't hurt to try

damian: Good suggestion on the swapping of system parts from table saw to router setup. Something to think about. So you are saying all the systems are interchangeable, correct?

socratous: Sales are good to, so is the tip on ToolKing, save a few $'s there.

I am finishing up a work shop and looking to invest in the tools for all the cabinetry I will be adding, which right after I will be starting to build my 2nd airplane, a Piper J3 Cub. So I can do both with the Incra system.

Great suggestions here.

Make'n chips,
Keri-Ann

Airplane as in an actual full size version? Nice work! Especially out of wood!

I found a company that manufactures 90% scale kit spitfires, I'm only missing the $160k to buy one! lol That and a few more lessons required to finish pilots license to actually fly it :/

G'day, My appologies for not replying earlier. On the subject of price, perhaps you would be better off if you just did some research on web. I'm sure you will be able to obtain a better deal that way. There are pro's and cons for both setups and I suppose that it comes down to the type of work you'll be doing and personal preference. All the parts are interchangeable as far as I can see. Having said that, I have always found that changing parts from one setup to another no matter how simple the changeover always ends up becoming a pain. In the end you can only make these choices based on personal preferance.
Cheers
John

Originally Posted by Abnoba

damian: Good suggestion on the swapping of system parts from table saw to router setup. Something to think about. So you are saying all the systems are interchangeable, correct?

No. The ultralite and origional jig positioners are different. The big LS/TS positioners interchange.

Most people can make do with a 17" positioner on a router table, so if your building a seperate router table and buying a TS system for your saw (which is 32" by default) then 99% of the time the 17" postioner will do what you want. For example if your cutting 12" of dovetails it'll do that fine. For that once every 2 years problem where you want to route 24" of dovetails or something then you can swap across the 32" positioner from the saw, relocate the positioner base further from the router bit and you can make that 24" deep dovetailed blanket box or whatever it is.

Having said all that:

You could buy a TS system and an ultralite, and to achieve the longer throat you get the alloy base for the TS positioner (which is cheap) and you MAY be able to use the ultralite router fence on the TS positioner. I am not sure of this as I don't have an ultralite, I only have a LSTS and an origional jig. You could ask incra/incremental tools if this would work. It would save you a bit of money.

The following is based on incrementals prices:

The LS17 super system is $389, the standard is $309, the ultralite is $149 so there is a big difference in price. The TS72 is $399 and the longer one $100 more. The TS/LS super systems are $659 and $759 alternatively. The LS17 postioner only is $189 and comes with the alloy base.Pro 2 fence $44.

For a seperate router and tablesaw you can buy:
TS92 $499 and LS17 super $389 total: $888 (would be my recomendation)
TS72 and LS17 std: $708, 20" less throat on the table saw rails and you lose wonder fence functionality.
TS72 $399 and ultralite $149: $548 You lose all of the above and some interchangability. Ultralite is 12" throat and I don't know if the wonderfence if bought later can be fitted to an ultralite.

The other way to get a functionall equivalent system to option 1 is to buy a TS/LS92 super for $759, a 17" positioner only for $189 and the pro2 fence for $44. That's $992. You'd only do it that way if you wanted to try a combined system then changed your mind later.

As you can see the packages are good value, they bundle a lot of extra functionality for less extra $. If you don't want to build your own router table the incra packages might offer some attractive value there also.

Hope that helps.

I'm rather limited with space - only a single garage($$#@^%$!!!) so I've opted for the all in one system - i.e. a LS25 positioner and LS table saw fence system including the wonder fence. The router is mounted in a CI extension wing on the LHS. I've got no issues with changing from one to the other as all the bits and pieces combined can be used for sawing and routing. Moving the main carriage for either routing or sawing is no big deal with the stops in place.

Therefore if space is a problem....

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

RobSys: What table saw it that? I see in the picture what looks like a metal router table attach to the table saw. Nice setup.Make'n Chips,
Keri-Ann

Originally Posted by Abnoba

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

RobSys: What table saw it that? I see in the picture what looks like a metal router table attach to the table saw. Nice setup.Make'n Chips,
Keri-Ann

It's a standard 10" Carbatec contractor style table saw. This particular one is no longer available but they do have other versions. The main good thing about it is that it has an (almost) flat cast iron top. This allowed me to fit a Carbatec CI router extension plate with a big Triton router hanging under it. The table was about $1,500 and the CI extension was another $500 or so. The, add the Incra gear and.....

Combined with the LS, positioner and wonder fence it's a sweet set-up and works wonderfully. Sometimes it's even too accurate as I found out during the week. I made up a 6mm box joint and found that the pins were all exactly(!) 6mm. That made assembly really difficult as there was zero clearance between the pins... Still, I finished up with a perfect joint!

Hi Robsys,

I also have a LS25 and I am considering mounting it on my table saw. What is your rip capacity, are you happy with it and if you had to do it again would you go for the 32 inch version.

Cheers
Nick