Osborne eb3

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