Marking gauges, update mortice gauge, update pencil gauge

[Racers]

30th August by Racers, on Flickr



Pete

 

[deema]

Beautiful. Good job

 

[Racers]

Thanks.

Just the knives to make and some finishing to do.

Pete

 

[deema]

Did you turn the fences or cut them on a bandsaw / fret saw?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's not that easy to turn an elipse. (the circles are marked on them )

 

[Peter Sefton]

Nice one Pete, someones been busy

 

[n0legs]

Bloody hell Pete, lovely job =D>

 

[Racers]

The elypses where marked with a compass and the holes where drilled with a flat bit in over thick stock, then cut down this stops any problem with break out on the back side. Then cut in the band saw and smoothed with a sander.
The wedge slot was marked and cut and paired to size, I prepared the rosewood for the wedges and cut out with the band saw and sander.
I purchased some maple dowel and cut it to length and plained a flat on them.
I have some 3mm silver steel for the knives they will be fitted into under sized holes.
So far a day and a halfs work as I was making jam this morning, 13 pots of plum lime and ginger.

Pete

 

[Ed Bray]

Okay, i'll ask, why do you need 6 marking gauges?

 

[katellwood]

Another idea for the pins are masonry nails

 

[Karl]

Okay, i'll ask....can I have one????

 

[damo8604]

Hahahaha that was going through my mind too

 

[Racers]

They are going to be inside and outside pairs.
I just need to work out how much to ask for a pair.

Pete

 

[damo8604]

Pardon my ignorance, is this for marking mortices and tenons? So one side will give the exact measurements of the other?
I'm new to all this

 

[Racers]

They will have beveled knives so the flat side on the knife marks the edge with the bevel in the waste, so you need one for each side of the mortice.
If you where marking a base line for dove tails you would use the one with the flat on the outside.

Pete

 

[custard]

Okay, i'll ask, why do you need 6 marking gauges?

I'll easily use six gauges or more on a job, I like lots of different gauges so I don't get them mixed up, and I'll leave them set to a particular dimension throughout the build.

Then again, in terms of repeatability of settings, I'm finding this is an interesting gauge,

http://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/epages ... /IG_35-780

But I'm drifting off topic, well done Pete, they look smashing, really neat work!

=D>

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Excellent job, Pete!

Richard Maguire did a blog on these recently, with a very good short video on setting them to perfection - http://www.theenglishwoodworker.com/a-good-gauge/

Also, a +1 to Katellwood's suggestion of using masonry nails for the pins. They're hard enough to take a good edge, but just about soft enough to shape with a fine file - finish the edge on sharpening stones. Thus, you can have pin-shape or knife-shape markers as you see fit.

 

[Saint Simon]

I hope this doesn't count as thread stealing, but I just wanted to share something I copied onto one of my bought cutting gauges.

Having seen a Stanley 70 1/2 for sale somewhere I used a bit of dowel and a wooden ball I had about my person to make a copy. When using a marking or cutting gauge I always pull on the sharp end against the fence and this modification, which probably took about 15 minutes to do, makes this much easier.



Sorry for jumping on the bandwagon of Pete's beautiful handmade gauges.
Simon

 

[Phil Pascoe]

"I like lots of different gauges so I don't get them mixed up"

All the more reason to use only one or maybe two, I'd have thought. :?

 

[Benchwayze]

They are obviously right and left-handed gauges!