# Panel Gauge Question



## CraigyCraigo (25 Mar 2013)

Evening All,

I am going to make one of these over the next few weeks........

http://www3.telus.net/steve_n_shelly/WW_files/WW_proj1_panelg.html

Just wondering if anyone knew where I could get a single bevel edge cutting wheel for it? If I use say a replacement tile cutter wheel its double bevelled and hence would in effect chamfer/round over the piece side of the line...... am I being some what pedantic or would this be ok??? with them being tungsten carbide its not so straight forward as grinding/lapping it down..........

any suggestions or alternatives??? like the round design as there are not real sharp points to dig in by accident.

Cheers

Craig


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## Fromey (25 Mar 2013)

http://www.axminster.co.uk/marking-mort ... rod803278/


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## Eric The Viking (26 Mar 2013)

This is an idea only - not tested and with no guarantees:

Take an M6 bolt, preferably countersunk, and a Nyloc nut and several non-plated washers.* Slip washers onto shaft of bolt, tighten nut down on top to hold them in place. Chuck bolt, thread first, into pillar drill. Spin at slow speed against a medium file, then wet+dry or diamond board held at an angle to the horizontal (i.e. flat but tilted over slightly), to put a cutting edge on the bottommost washer. Move the file and abrasives from side to side, so you minimise clogging and don't wear it in one place (don't attempt this with fingers - stick abrasive to a block of wood!).

Cost: practically nothing.

The only difficulties I can see with this are getting the nut centred and hardening/tempering it. 

Centring: Use a slow drill speed. It's only to give a bit more consistency than a manual process. If you have one wider (the 'blade' you're making) and several smaller washers and a countersunk bolt, it should self-centre the bottom washer. The others will be out of balance, but also out of the way.

Hardening: heat with propane/MAPP gas blowlamp. You might use something like an old tin lid (held with Mole grips perhaps) to sit it on whilst you heat it, then drop it into a tin can 1/4 full of engine or sunflower oil. That will probably make it too hard initially, but you can temper it by reheating to straw colour then allowing to cool slowly in air. The oil ought to give it a nice blued colour too, and a bit of rust resistance.

Obviously, when you use it, you'll need a countersunk screw or bolt to set it immovably in the right place, but it ought to work fairly well. 

I've taken to carefully glueing Nyloc nuts, nylon-insert-first into holes in jigs, etc., with a hole behind wide enough for the bolt to continue on into the wood some distance. You then have a nice thread for a bolt, that can't shake loose and allows fine adjustment. Handy if you want to be able to change it easily. 

All you need is a shallow hole that's slightly smaller than the corner-to-corner distance across the bolt (a bit more than the flats, less than across the corners). Run a _small_ amount of Araldite round the inside with a matchstick before tapping the nut home with the aid of a bolt fitted into it (to thump gently). 

Take the bolt out before the Araldite goes off, in case it catches any behind the nut! If the nut's thread does get gummed up with glue it won't be much. Run a tap through gently, or just a bolt with a slot sawn in it across a diameter (improvised thread tap).

Probably won't work though! 

E. (coffee hasn't fully kicked-in yet this morning)

PS: If M6 gives a cutter that's too big, do the obvious.
*Plating doesn't affect the performance, but zinc fumes are nasty when you do the hardening/tempering.


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## CraigyCraigo (26 Mar 2013)

Thanks for this....... the idea of sharpening washers did occur along with them really fine dremel metal blades..... Never considered heat treating them...... but i would have used 8.8 high tensile washers if i could get hold of them (High tensile generally means relative high hardness - 1/3 Hv rule.)

Was fingers crossed after something off the shelf i could just replace....... other ideas are small hobby paper guillotine blades or tiler cutter blades and just set it quite fine on the cut.

Problem is blades by there natural need to be hard and at these thicknesses the quenches shall be pretty good for through hardness so lapping or grinding them down in a hobby workshop shall prove very difficult!


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## bugbear (26 Mar 2013)

Personally I would use a more conventional knife blade, retained by a wedge or screw.

An end fitted disc is og benefit where you have very little end clearance in use, but I can't see that ever being the case with a panel gauge.

BugBear


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## CraigyCraigo (26 Mar 2013)

bugbear":2flufo8y said:


> Personally I would use a more conventional knife blade, retained by a wedge or screw.
> 
> An end fitted disc is og benefit where you have very little end clearance in use, but I can't see that ever being the case with a panel gauge.
> 
> BugBear



Like the logic here BB. My logic was if i dropped it or anything i thought there would be less chance of damaging the blade or the workspice.

Can you get single bevel cutter knife blades?


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## bugbear (26 Mar 2013)

CraigyCraigo":3ul8l9ex said:


> bugbear":3ul8l9ex said:
> 
> 
> > Personally I would use a more conventional knife blade, retained by a wedge or screw.
> ...



Mine was made from a scrap of power hacksaw blade. Cheap!

Here's some context.

post679278.html?hilit=%20well%20worth%20reading%20#p679278

BugBear


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## CraigyCraigo (26 Mar 2013)

Thanks for the help guys.......

I ordered at lunch some x-acto blades which were single bevel skew chisel like. i'll see how that pans out.......... they are number 19's if anyone is interested.......

C


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## bugbear (27 Mar 2013)

CraigyCraigo":3nosbnwg said:


> Thanks for the help guys.......
> 
> I ordered at lunch some x-acto blades which were single bevel skew chisel like. i'll see how that pans out.......... they are number 19's if anyone is interested.......
> 
> C



They may work, but they're on the borderline of thick enough.

Here's some inspiration on the general theme.

https://www.google.com/search?q=antique ... 40&bih=697

(I note that Chris Shwartz thinks that LN got the design for their panel gauge beam clamping system from David Charlesworth. Nope, DC's gauges are made from a Stanley stock item, that uses a patented-long-ago system).

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodw ... anel-gauge

I know of another system for "locking" beams in gauges, which is used by Colen Clenton of Australia. The beam is made deliberately OFF square, so that when it is pressed down, it tries to twist in the hole, and locks.

post165644.html?hilit=%20Clenton%20design%20work%20#p165644

BugBear


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## Racers (27 Mar 2013)

Yes, the old Stanley ones are very good and easy to replicate





How ever they are tricky to get right, the through hole needs to have two faces accurately paired to 90 deg.
So after finding this nice Ebony and Lignum Vite one I made some more, the advantage is them you can drill a hole straight through and it will be square to the face, I put the face down when drilling, the back them can be any angle its not important. 




3mm Silver Steel for the knife and away you go.




This style could be easily be made into a panel gauge, I need to replace my panel gauge must get round to is sometime.

Pete


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## Steve Maskery (28 Mar 2013)

If you can, arrange it so that the wedge clamps across the stock rather than in line with it. That way, adjusting the wedge does not move the stock at all. Personally I like the look of the wedge system, but for convenience and useability I prefer an embedded nut, knob and pressure plate.

Mind you, Pete's tools are the the dog's prize possessions.

S


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## CraigyCraigo (28 Mar 2013)

Thanks for this! Do you mean like in the link in my original post?

Thanks


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## xy mosian (6 Apr 2013)

Sorry to bring this to the front again, I hadn't realised just how long ago the thread started. If you are still looking for a 'sharpened wheel', I have just seen one on a tin opener. £3.99 at The Range.
xy


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## Steve Maskery (6 Apr 2013)

What a good idea xy. Always worth keeping one's eyes open.
S


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## xy mosian (7 Apr 2013)

Thanks Steve, sometimes the brain sparks usefully.
xy


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## CraigyCraigo (7 Apr 2013)

I'll have to look into that........ is it a single bevel blade??? Good Idea!


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## xy mosian (7 Apr 2013)

The one I saw was a double bevel. I guess most tin openers have something similar, you may find one with a single bevel if that is what you are after. 
xy


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