INCRA I-BOX Jig for Box Joints

Purchased the I-BOX some weeks back. As to quality and function, all positive comments by both manufacturer and purchasers are dead on. This is a very cleverly engineered and manufactured tool. Very robust equipment. I have always been intrigued by "box joints", but didn't think I could ever exercise the precision required to actually do them in my shop. With this tool, I'm executing beautiful, perfectly fitting fine box joints ... in minutes. But, be forewarned ... the out-of-the-box learning curve, for me anyway, was steep. You must be patient, take the time, and work through the steps carefully. I promise, the discipline is well worth the effort.The only glitch I ran into was, I'm sure, a minor production issue. One small screw had not been sufficiently countersunk, and protruded into the specification clearance for the saw blade passage way. But, by having checked the clearance by manually rotating the blade (with power disconnected of course!), the interference was caught. A call to the helpful guys at Incra support led to a simple solution. The counter-sink depth was very carefully increased and all has worked beautifully since. And, by the way, the support staff at Incra have just been great.Setup is easy. Although I would certainly suggest test runs on scrap before starting on your good wood. One of the really nice features is the capability to make micro (literally thousandths) adjustments to the fit of a joint run. Too tight? Loosen the locking knob, hold one knob while tweaking the center knob to the calibrated thousandths marks, re-lock, test cut again, repeat until you have the fit you want. Before purchasing the Incra, I actually built my own jig for box joints. Getting anything like a snug fit was very, very difficult ... compared to ... the Incra is magic.I suggest heading immediately to your nearest hardware supplier, and purchasing a sizable piece of MFD board. Used for the sacrificial back workpiece support. I needed a fresh surface frequently to help prevent tear-out and give really clean slots.The tool comes with an extremely well-done dvd that details both table saw and router setups. I would urge new users to view the materials. Carefuly. I made numerous notes to help as I began working with the tool. It's helpful to see the device being set up, and in use. As an 80-ish old man, I greatly appreciated both the quality, and the patient support I've received from the Incra organization. I found the dvd and very well done owner's manual indispensable.So ... yeah, in a heartbeat, I'd buy again ... though can't see why I would ever have to. And whole-heartedly recommend this tool to others who want the capability of doing excellent box/finger joints.

Once again, Incra hits it out of the park with this wonderful jig.I am finishing up a portable cabinet in which I keep model paints, small hand tools, spare model bits and the current project on which I am working (I have inquisitive cats, so I needed something which would keep them from carrying off model parts). The cabinet has several drawers; one external and two internal. I keep my acrylic paints in the external drawer, but wanted to be able to stack them and group them, possibly through using little trays. The more I thought about it, I also decided I wanted to make little wooden trays for the hand tools, paint brushes, and spare model bits. I had been looking at the Incra iBox Box Joint Jig for some time, but had no justification for the purchase...until now.Having already purchased Incra's Miter 1000HD and absolutely love it, so my expectations for Incra's iBox Box Joint Jig were quite high.Amazon delivered the package within two days (yay, Amazon Prime!). The shipping box was in good condition and the Incra iBox Box Joint Jig was well cushioned inside with a bunch of crumply brown packing paper. The colorful retail box was undamaged (and surprisingly heavy). Giving my wife a quick peck on the cheek and a hearty "I'll be in the garage for a few hours!", I raced to the garage with my new toy under my arm.As with Incra's Miter 100HD, the iBox Box Joint jig is well-packaged. I inspected each part as I removed it from the retail box; the GlideLOCK(tm) Miter Bar is zip-tied to a piece of cardboard, so you will need a pair of nippers to free it. All parts were present and accounted for, and all were in pristine condition. Two bags of screws, T-track nuts and bolts were clearly labeled with their contents. The retail box also included full color assembly and usage instructions, as well as a DVD.Assembly was fairly straightforward as I had already downloaded and read the instructions prior to the arrival of the Incra iBox Box Joint Jig. The photographs provided much needed clarity to the written instructions and proved invaluable in a couple of steps. Not addressed anywhere in the instructions was what to do with the three strips of UHMW tape included in one of the parts bags. My presumption is that they are meant to be applied to the bottom of the stock ledges, so that's where I applied mine, as well as one place where the jig slightly scraped the table saw top.I had the INCRA iBox Box Joint jig assembled in about 20 minutes, and I had already prepared a couple of scrap pieces of wood for a test cut.Since the scrap wood I had prepared was narrow, I wanted to try some small cuts, so I installed just the two outside blades of my Freud SD208 8-Inch Professional Dado blade.The usage instructions were accurate, and again, the photographs which accompanied the steps were very useful, although as a professional technical writer of 30+ years I would have formatted the steps in a different manner as I did have to read a couple steps two or three times for them to make sense (but that may just be me and how I process information). I adjusted the Incra iBox Box Joint jig, according to the instructions, to make 1/4-inch cuts. Within 5 minutes I had a pair of nicely mated pieces of wood. The joint was beautiful, snug and crisp with zero tearout. The snugness of the joint was not overly tight, nor was it too loose. All it took was a couple of well-placed taps with my rubber mallet and the two pieces were firmly mated. Also, the instructions show a wooden handscrew clamp being used to secure the project piece during cutting operations, but I used an Irwin 12" Quick Grip clamp, which I believe greatly sped up the process by allowing me to use one hand to rapidly clamp or release the project piece from the jig while using the other hand to move the project piece after each cut.The Incra iBox Box Joint Jig works perfectly in my Bosch 4100-09 table saw.The GlideLOCK(tm) Miter Bar does wobble when the whole assembly is slid back away from the dado blade. This is due to the rear GlideLOCK(tm) mechanism exiting the miter slot and losing contact. It does re-enter the miter slot prior to the project stock making contact with the dado blade, so the only real issue I foresee is additional wear on the rear GlideLOCK(tm) mechanism as it makes initial contact with the edge of the table saw's miter slot. Fortunately I have a couple spare GlideLOCK(tm) mechanisms, so I don't expect this to be a critical issue for several years.I have yet to view the DVD and I will update this review once I have.All-in-all, I am very pleased with the Incra iBox Box Joint jig. It's ease of setup and ease of use means that I will be able to create beautiful boxes and trays in little time.Thanks, Incra!