Essential measuring & marking tools

[worn thumbs]

Nobody else has mentioned it,but for the last few years a pair of glasses has been essential for accurate work.

 

[recipio]

In general if you have a quality tool you will use it all the time as you can trust it. Forget all those digital vernier for £7 - they will fail eventually. Stump up for a Mitutoyo digital vernier which is a joy to use. Otherwise a Starrett angle finder is beautifully made and takes angle readings directly from the workpiece - absolutely no room for error. About £ 50 unfortunately but so useful.

 

[scholar]

I thought this was a good question and it encouraged me to clean out my travel box of essential marking and measuring stuff. Leaving aside a few duplicates and rulers, this is the assembled lot that I can get everything done with.

A few comments:

- in most case they are fairly basic as in not Moore & Wright or Mitutoyo, but they are good enough for pretty much any woodwork.
- squares hmm.. I have lots of squares few of which agree with each other. My best is a heavy Hardened big Moore & Wright that I keep in the workshop and is the only one I ultimately trust. I have found the set of steel squares I got from Axminster yonks ago the best everyday ones.
- marking gauges - these Tite-Mark gauges are nice to adjust but in truth they are not so easy to mark a line as a normal pin-type marking gauge, maybe the slender shaft does not allow such a good grip as a wooden gauge and the balance is not helpful.
- possibly the nicest tool is the Veritas sliding bevel - just lovely to use - no longer made, I believe.
- various angle measuring and setting tools - the little level box is invaluable.
- Easyscribe - there are frequent discussions about scribing tools - I have tried most of them - this is absolutely brilliant and not gimmicky.
- the little 2m tape measure is really good - metric markings top and bottom - I keep this to hand always.
- Trend depth gauge - very good for setting saw-blade or router cutter height/depth. .
- Marxman - a recent find - puffs a little bit of green marker down a deep hole.
- yes, glasses - 3 pairs

Cheers

 

[pe2dave]

Some unusual definitions of 'essential' ;-)

 

[Yojevol]

puffs a little bit of green marker down a deep hole.

Er, of course

 

[scholar]

Er, of course

tbf not really a cabinetmaking tool!

I bought it principally for marking some rainwater downpipe fixings on some rough stone walls - absolutely excellent.

 

[Sideways]

tbf not really a cabinetmaking tool!

I bought it principally for marking some rainwater downpipe fixings on some rough stone walls - absolutely excellent.

If you have predrilled timber battens and want to drill and plug a wall to match rather than using hammer through frame fixings, these are brilliant. they'll blow a dense little dot of bright green chalk down a two or three inch deep hole in a batten without difficulty. It's quicker and easier than finding a nail/etc to fit your hole for an accurate mark.
They're good at transferring the position of mounting holes of electrical and other boxes too.

 

[Britman]

The Veiko measuring tools you can get from China (Banggood) seem to have favourable reviews, I recently bought the 600mm square. Extremely well built I have to say, she's a heavy one too. And surprisingly square out the box. They also do a range on smaller squares.
And like other, I have 2 Behco combination squares. They get constant use. I'd also recommend at least one engineering square and a good speed square is so dam handy

Have a look on YouTube for Hooked on Wood. Dennis has reviewed so many tools in his China tools series. That's where I heard about Veiko.

And if money is no object and you want to buy British, Benchdogs range of measuring tools is mighty impressive and easily on a par with Woodpeckers.

 

[pe2dave]

The Veiko measuring tools you can get from China (Banggood) seem to have favourable reviews, I recently bought the 600mm square. Extremely well built I have to say, she's a heavy one too. And surprisingly square out the box. They also do a range on smaller squares.
And like other, I have 2 Behco combination squares. They get constant use. I'd also recommend at least one engineering square and a good speed square is so dam handy

Have a look on YouTube for Hooked on Wood. Dennis has reviewed so many tools in his China tools series. That's where I heard about Veiko.

And if money is no object and you want to buy British, Benchdogs range of measuring tools is mighty impressive and easily on a par with Woodpeckers.

A second for hooked on wood, youtube channel. Fair reviews of lots of measuring kit

 

[Doug71]

In recent years I have picked up on a couple of items that I have added to my go to tools for marking/setting out and measuring, the first of which was a set of Japanese carpenters squares 150mm, 300mm & 500mm these came from Workshop Heaven Japanese squares, not cheap mind, but are the main things I use now, the other piece is the BMI tape tape, superb tape when setting out linear measurements on stock, taking inside dimension again a go too tool for me.

@HOJ one of those little BMI tapes has been on my to buy list for ages and your post prompted me to finally order one.

Turned up today and already had plenty of use, I got it for the workshop but now ordering another one for the van.

Thank you

 

[WoodYewToo]

Many thanks to everybody who commented.

Great advice.

Thanks again.