Thread: Gifkins vs. Incra

Gifkins is quick and easy, the Incra harder to learn and has unbelievable versatility, and is useful for more than just joints. One is a jig for dovetails (Gifkins), the other is just an incredibly accurate way of positioning a fence, which means you can do dovetails because of that accuracy, and repeatability.

I have used a Gifkins, and very, very quickly produced a dovetailed box.
I own an Incra, and have yet to master it, but the limitation is me, (and time), and not the tool. Oh, and I did manage to produce an accurate dovetail fairly quickly, but it was -read the instruction (violate that shed rule), do the step, read the instruction, do the step, rinse and repeat. Very happy with the Incra, just wish I had time to master it.

So it is fair to say that easy learning curve is a positive for the Gifkins and not the Incra. I would be interested in a cost benefit anlysis of this in a very crude way.

I know the incra will do much more and I knew that when I posed the question. I am wrestling with the idea of boxes mainly. But it is nice to here from people with experience with both systems.

Thanks for your helpful input.

sb

Originally Posted by Stuart.

Gifkins is quick and easy, the Incra harder to learn and has unbelievable versatility, and is useful for more than just joints. One is a jig for dovetails (Gifkins), the other is just an incredibly accurate way of positioning a fence, which means you can do dovetails because of that accuracy, and repeatability.

I have used a Gifkins, and very, very quickly produced a dovetailed box.
I own an Incra, and have yet to master it, but the limitation is me, (and time), and not the tool. Oh, and I did manage to produce an accurate dovetail fairly quickly, but it was -read the instruction (violate that shed rule), do the step, read the instruction, do the step, rinse and repeat. Very happy with the Incra, just wish I had time to master it.

I went through this selection process some time ago, and quickly discounted the Gifkins. Not becuase it isn't any good, the opposite is the case. It is very good at doing what it does, making through dovetails.

I looked at the Leigh jigs as well, but didn't like bringing the router to the job, tried one out with a Festool router in another (ex)forumite's shop.

I finally settled on an Incra becuase of its' versatilty. I got the Wonderfence with it and now have a router table system second to none. The fact that it does through and half-blind dovetails, fingerjoints etc is almost a bonus. The versatility of the Wonderfence really only hits you once you start using it. Incra is not cheap, but by the time you buy all the Gifkins add-ons you would have spent about the same, and still not have a router fence system.

Just my (probably biased) view.

Yeah - I'm looking very enviously at the Wonderfence.....