Marking Gauge advice

[yan89]

Morning all,

Please excuse my idiocy, but I’m having trouble marking out a wide piece of timber with a marking gauge. I’m sure there’s a simple answer and I’m being daft, but any help would be appreciated.

My gauge, pictured below, has a screw on the block that clamps the block down whilst also clamping the lowermost pin in place. This works well on smaller work, but the legs of my workbench I’m building are clunky pieces and it seems the brass runner is too short for the task.

My chisel is 15mm wide, the timber is 95mm wide, marking gauge block is 30mm deep and there just isn’t enough play in the pins for me to get to the mid point to mark the mortice before the block moves the lowermost pin.

Do I just need to invest in a better (or bigger?) gauge, or do the task another way?

 

[Jacob]

Morning all,

Please excuse my idiocy, but I’m having trouble marking out a wide piece of timber with a marking gauge. I’m sure there’s a simple answer and I’m being daft, but any help would be appreciated.

My gauge, pictured below, has a screw on the block that clamps the block down whilst also clamping the lowermost pin in place. This works well on smaller work, but the legs of my workbench I’m building are clunky pieces and it seems the brass runner is too short for the task.

My chisel is 15mm wide, the timber is 95mm wide, marking gauge block is 30mm deep and there just isn’t enough play in the pins for me to get to the mid point to mark the mortice before the block moves the lowermost pin.

Do I just need to invest in a better (or bigger?) gauge, or do the task another way?

Two single pin marking gauges. Just the normal woodies not those fussy metal jobs - very cheap even new. All marks from the same side, either face or edge.

 

[rogxwhit]

For an unknown reason the sliding bar is extra-short. It looks like a joke gauge. Personally I'd bin it.

So there isn't a single pin on the reverse - that with a reset could be used twice, once for each mark?

It's ok to make marks seperately, as long as they're off the same reference edge.

 

[Jacob]

For an unknown reason the sliding bar is extra-short. It looks like a joke gauge. Personally I'd bin it.
.....

Oh yes I hadn't looked! Just file off the pin on the short bar?

 

[johna.clements]

Does the large pin unscrew? if so unscrew it, slide the block and screw it back in.
Then you maybe ok as long as the distance you need to set the pin at does not fall under the block.

 

[Orraloon]

The sliding bar on that one is very short. I would slide the sliding bar with its pin out and just use it as a single pin gauge like others have said for this job.
It is good to have a few gauges to use as each one can be set for a particular setting. Its hard to get back to the exact same setting you had before. Think I have 7 now. They are easy to make.
Regards
John

 

[Limey Lurker]

Does the large pin unscrew? if so unscrew it, slide the block and screw it back in.
Then you maybe ok as long as the distance you need to set the pin at does not fall under the block.

That was my first thought, but the screw on the block would no longer hold the slider in place.

 

[johna.clements]

That was my first thought, but the screw on the block would no longer hold the slider in place.

It must be able to unscrew to a certain extent or the guage would not work. It would only be able to mark the position shown in the photograph. The block and the pins must be able to move.

 

[rogxwhit]

I can feel my brain turning to jelly .... weren't we meant to have finished the job and had it out the door yesterday? ;-)

 

[johna.clements]

I can feel my brain turning to jelly .... weren't we meant to have finished the job and had it out the door yesterday? ;-)

You have it wrong. The gauge was being used on the door. We can not leave until the door is fixed.

 

[rogxwhit]

Oh Lordy. Pass the hip flask ...

 

[johna.clements]

Morning all,

Please excuse my idiocy, but I’m having trouble marking out a wide piece of timber with a marking gauge. I’m sure there’s a simple answer and I’m being daft, but any help would be appreciated.

My gauge, pictured below, has a screw on the block that clamps the block down whilst also clamping the lowermost pin in place. This works well on smaller work, but the legs of my workbench I’m building are clunky pieces and it seems the brass runner is too short for the task.

My chisel is 15mm wide, the timber is 95mm wide, marking gauge block is 30mm deep and there just isn’t enough play in the pins for me to get to the mid point to mark the mortice before the block moves the lowermost pin.

Do I just need to invest in a better (or bigger?) gauge, or do the task another way?

Just found my mortice gauge, thought it had run away with the pencils.

Its a Draper No 54 nothing special. The nob on the second slider does not unscrew ( I assume it is glued or was put into the slider cold!) just allows you to pull the slide. my block is 28mm and the slider is 73mm from the edge of the nob to the centre of the pin. That gives 45mm max from the edge of the block to the sliders pin. It would just about mark a 15mm wide mortice near the centre line from either side.

 

[rogxwhit]

A better sort has a lead screw down the middle of the stem that governs the moving pin, and the thumbturn for the pin adjustment is out of the way at the end of the stem. But it is, of course, slower to adjust ...

 

[Tris]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17543508...XwgzqajSc-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
It's often said you can't have too many