Homemade guage blocks for woodworking?

[DigitalM]

On more than one occasion, I've found myself creating quite accurate (to say 1/10mm) blocks from hardwood offcuts so that I can repeatedly set things like fence offsets and end stops accurately. "Memory sticks" if you will. Obviously, it's only worth it when you're producing lots of the same thing, and the same offsets keep cropping up on different tools, for the same job. For some jobs I'm able to use the outside arms or depth stop on a vernier caliper, but you can't always do that. Guage blocks would probably be a good idea, but I've always got something better to spend a couple of hundred quid on than a full set, and frankly, do I really need that level of accuracy?

Anyway, long and short of it ... has anyone made their own hardwood guage blocks? Is that a daft idea?

Maybe there are other tools out there for this sort of thing?

 

[DigitalM]

http://www.axminster.co.uk/veritas-9-pi ... ric-101709

Just saw this, was after a 1-2-3 block anyway (think it's 25-50-75 in metric!). Maybe I should just buy this one.

 

[SteveF]

I have this set

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ci ... set-506390

Steve

 

[DigitalM]

How do you find them in use Steve? Are they as handy as they look?

 

[LancsRick]

I use a bag of plastic window shims. They're great when fettling things as you can use double sided tape to tack them on to identify the right size spacer you need to make up.

 

[SteveF]

How do you find them in use Steve? Are they as handy as they look?

i find them good...I have 2 sets
only niggle is getting them out of box is fiddly
i guess I could rectify that easily tbh

Steve

 

[lurker]

Lego can work for this

 

[Phil Pascoe]

How do you find them in use Steve? Are they as handy as they look?

i find them good...I have 2 sets
only niggle is getting them out of box is fiddly
i guess I could rectify that easily tbh

Steve

Yes. Don't put them back in them.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I have a set of blocks on a string, like a big bunch of keys. Great for setting router depth stops and the like. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10mm thicknesses, then 15 - 75 or so long in 5mm increments. Very useful.

 

[deema]

I started out wanting gauges on all my machines, very near Calipers and all sorts of stuff. The more I've produced the less I use any of it. In fact, apart from checking lengths to make sure the finished item will be near enough to the right size (everything that's not free standing I've found needs fitting!) I now rarely use any gauges and instead use one cut to mark the next / setup the next machine. The only time I really find them useful is when I've not planed up enough stuff for the project / had a billy do and need to make some more.

 

[yetloh]

I started out wanting gauges on all my machines, very near Calipers and all sorts of stuff. The more I've produced the less I use any of it. In fact, apart from checking lengths to make sure the finished item will be near enough to the right size (everything that's not free standing I've found needs fitting!) I now rarely use any gauges and instead use one cut to mark the next / setup the next machine. The only time I really find them useful is when I've not planed up enough stuff for the project / had a billy do and need to make some more.

Quite agree, most of the time attempts at "accuracy" are spurious; does it matter if a panel is 17'5 mm thick rather than 18? As my very wise furniture making tutor is wont to say, there is the drawing and then there is reality.

Jim

 

[DigitalM]

Just to be clear, while the original question mentioned gauge blocks, I don't have an accuracy fetish. I just want a way to quickly make a stack of say, 57mm (or whatever the particular offset is) for things like router fences.

Despite my mentioning making blocks myself, to about 1/10mm, I don't need "thou" level accuracy for what I'm doing – it's just relatively easy to make stuff to that accuracy on the planer. It just happens that guage blocks are usually made to an extremely high accuracy because machinists need it.

As I understand it a "Grade B" set, for general workshop use, starts from something like £175, and is accurate to a tolerance +0.25 um to −0.15 um. I only wish they did a "Grade E" set, for the "hobbyist woodworker in a shed" – I think that's pretty much what the veritas set is.

 

[Gerry]

If you have access to or know someone with a 3d printer you could print a set of blocks for basic setting purposes. It should be possible to get them within 50 microns

Gerry

 

[deema]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a set of slips or indeed any form of accurate gauges. What I'd like to suggest is that if you find that they are a major element in your woodworking, then I think that with a little pondering, it will surprise you just how much is possible and easier without the need to set a router fence accurately. A quick pencil mark initially on one part and set the cutters by eye to it is normally all that is needed to start. The matting part can be and I would propose best set from the part already produced.

Repairs to already made stuff, or reproduction of a new chair for instance to match a set of existing chairs is different and accurate measuring equipment helps a great deal.