Making a Marking Gauge

[paulm]

Thanks to Rob (Woodbloke) and Paul Chapman for earlier postings on making your own marking gauges, and particularly inspired by the one Rob made and gave to Philly at Yandles a few months ago, I decided to have a bit of fun making my own.

Had to consult with both Rob and Paul over some of the techniques and best way to go about it, and here is the end result:

Main body is laminated from a piece of iroko or sapele (not sure which), with the stock, saddle and wedge from oak. Just had one coat of danish so far, need to wax it later as well.

Quite pleased with the first attempt. Need to work on making the tolerances finer on the next one now that I have the general idea and proportions.

Thanks for the idea and the help guys !

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Paul Chapman]

=D> =D> That looks pretty good, Paul. I found that you have to make one in order to get your head around the idea. And even if it's not perfect, it still works OK, so the time isn't wasted :wink:

Must make a few more myself - you can never have enough marking gauges...

Cheers :wink:

Paul

PS some nice, subtle gloats in the background of the first picture :wink:

 

[Philly]

Nice one, Paul!!
Top marks.......... :lol:
Philly

 

[NeilO]

Nice one , Paul..

its good to see old flooring put to a better use(the oak, Im presuming)
And a special thanks for your time on Saturday, both myself and Nathan enjoyed ourselves immensely.

 

[woodbloke]

Paul - first one looks good. As a suggestion, the corner of the saddle touching the stem needs to be whittled away so that the pin and stock can touch for marking a very small measurement. At the mo' the distance that can be marked is restricted as the pin will foul the saddle....just a thought for the next one

This is the one that Philly's got except that the stem has been put in 90deg out of sync #-o but you can see the little chamfer on the underside of the saddle - Rob

 

[paulm]

You are right Rob, it does indeed foul the saddle, will need to sort that out before it gets some wax, and probably shorten the pin a bit as well as it looks unnecesarily long and a bit out of proportion.

It is indeed some more of the oak flooring Neil ! Have you managed to get the new vices installed yet ?!!!

Cheers, Paul.

 

[David C]

Nice job.

Making pins short increases difficulty of re grinding and sharpening, when these things become necessary.

David C

 

[cwroy]

Hi guys,

Nice work. I would like to know what did you use for the pin? Looks like the end of a compas?

Thanks,

CWR

 

[paulm]

Hi Charles,

Used an Obo masonry nail ground down and sharpened a bit. To sharpen I ground the head off and popped it in a cordless drill then run the point against the belt sander before giving it a polish on the buffing wheel. All ideas picked up from others on the forum of course !

Being a masonry nail for hammering into brick/concrete they are made of hardened steel and keep an edge or point well.

Can also carefully grind the edge into a small cutting edge, probably on a Tormek or similar, to give a knife like cutting action rather than a point, but haven't tried that yet.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[bugbear]

Nice job.

Making pins short increases difficulty of re grinding and sharpening, when these things become necessary.

David C

An old hand vise might help; some of them have a nice vertical V-groove in the jaws.

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/tour.html#hand_vise

BugBear

 

[cwroy]

Thanks Paul,

I'll give it a try. It's sure to beat the current finish nail on my gauge.

CWR

 

[Evergreen]

Veeery nice. Perfect project for using up small pieces of choice timber.

Regards.