Mortice gauge marking and morticer bit

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johnfarris

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In me garden shed
While chopping my mortices out today I noticed that my mortice marks I had made with my gauge seemed to be wider than the actually bit I was using to chop them out.

I think that it must be when I set my mortice gauge using the bit I push the bit to the back of the pins when maybe I should have set it just using the front of the pins?

John
 
johnfarris":34auq39v said:
While chopping my mortices out today I noticed that my mortice marks I had made with my gauge seemed to be wider than the actually bit I was using to chop them out.

I think that it must be when I set my mortice gauge using the bit I push the bit to the back of the pins when maybe I should have set it just using the front of the pins?

John
I always set the gauge with a scale, having measured the chisel first (or read it off the body). Seems easier somehow.
 
Jacob":1un5w2w0 said:
johnfarris":1un5w2w0 said:
While chopping my mortices out today I noticed that my mortice marks I had made with my gauge seemed to be wider than the actually bit I was using to chop them out.

I think that it must be when I set my mortice gauge using the bit I push the bit to the back of the pins when maybe I should have set it just using the front of the pins?

John
I always set the gauge with a scale, having measured the chisel first (or read it off the body). Seems easier somehow.
Hello thanks for replying. When setting do you use the exact same measurement? Is the mortice bit supposed to take out the marking gauge lines?
 
johnfarris":22b0b9wo said:
Jacob":22b0b9wo said:
johnfarris":22b0b9wo said:
While chopping my mortices out today I noticed that my mortice marks I had made with my gauge seemed to be wider than the actually bit I was using to chop them out.

I think that it must be when I set my mortice gauge using the bit I push the bit to the back of the pins when maybe I should have set it just using the front of the pins?

John
I always set the gauge with a scale, having measured the chisel first (or read it off the body). Seems easier somehow.
Hello thanks for replying. When setting do you use the exact same measurement? Is the mortice bit supposed to take out the marking gauge lines?
In theory, for most things, the cut should remove half the width of the line i.e. to be spot on - exact same measurement.
 
johnfarris":ptwkrw4n said:
I think that it must be when I set my mortice gauge using the bit I push the bit to the back of the pins when maybe I should have set it just using the front of the pins?
John

It's the sharp ends that make the mark, not the other ends. Your marks will be wide by the diameter of a pin. (assuming of course that the pins are the usual shape)
 
That must give you a great sense of satisfaction using a hand tool you have made.
What is the wedge made of? How do you find adjusting it?
 
johnfarris":3qj3nq0w said:
That must give you a great sense of satisfaction using a hand tool you have made.
What is the wedge made of? How do you find adjusting it?

Its not bad to use I have since made an another clamp so you can lock the stems together before setting the offset.
When the top of the arms are flush it only makes a single line so you set the arms to the width of you chisel to get the exact width.

The wedges are Rosewood and the rest is maple.

I tend to make a batch of gauges.

Marking gauges by Pete Maddex, on Flickr

Pete
 
Great stuff Pete. What do you use for the pins BTW? At a guess I’d say they aren’t sharpened masonry nails which was what I was thinking of using.
 
3mm Silver steel, easily filled to shape then hardened and tempered with a blowtorch.

I got mine from eBay.

Pete
 
memzey":2z0dai6k said:
At a guess I’d say they aren’t sharpened masonry nails which was what I was thinking of using.
Nowt wrong with those. Hard steel is hard steel, no matter what you get it from.

Cheap HSS drill bits are even better. But the best possible material would be the shaft of inexpensive carbide burrs; using solid carbide it's entirely possible they'd never need resharpening by the majority of us.
 
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