Marking Gauge

Re: What I did to solve this problem

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Pretty cool, how'd you cut the slot and bolt into knives?

Pam

You just gave me an idea

mike recchione

>I like the notion of having a mortise gage set up for each of your commonly used mortise chisels. I don't have a ton of mortise chisels - only half a dozen or so - and of those, I most frequently use maybe two or three. Why bother having the spacing between the pins or knives or whatever adjustable at all? It might be cool to make two or three arms with fixed cutter spacing to match the most commonly used chisels, all sharing the same fence (or make separate fences for that matter). That way they'd always be matched to your chisels and never go out of adjustment.

- Mike

Second (fourth?) that

Clay Craig in Miami

>I'm a relative rookie, and I find my Tite-Mark a lot easier to use than my 'standard' wooden pin gauge, or any of the other styles I've managed to borrow.

Nice to be able to get an eye right down on the work and then make the final adjustment, and lock the position, all with the one hand that's holding the gauge. Also nice to be able to hone the cutting wheels, so that a light touch won't follow grain, nor leave a mark too deep to plane off with a stroke or two. (Someone mentioned that the LV version's wheels aren't sharp enough?)

I find it helps to wax the face very lightly, so it won't 'chatter' when sliding along.

Re: What I did to solve this problem

GolfSteve in Calgary

>I cut the slot by drilling a series of holes, then cleaning up the sides of the slot with a narrow file.

Thanks, Steve.

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>

Re: Marking Gauge

John in NY

>I was taught to oversize my drawer or case, as per Ian Kirby and plane down to the finished dimension. This involves planing about 1/64" off the case sides so the marks are completely planed away. This makes sense to me for 2 reasons. 1)I can get a better clamping pressure when the pins are lower than the tail sides and 2)To get a really good fit on a drawer I need to plane after the box is constructed. This means I can take out any small twist, bow or misalignment AND still have a good sliding fit. I wouldn't try to do a piston fit drawer any other way!

Japanese Mortise Gauge Modification

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Hi Pam, I just scanned in some new pictures of the mortise gauge modification we were talking about earlier � a simple bolt holding the two knives together.

You have to drill a small hole in the top of the beam so that you can insert and remove the bolt.

(above with pics)

GolfSteve in Calgary

>I've also filed two lines line on the sides of the knives that indicates where they should be set for a 1/4" mortise chisel and where they should be set for a 3/8" chisel.

Re: You just gave me an idea

Michael Kieta-Ramstein, Germany

>I remember reading in FWW a long time ago about a craftsman made mortice gauge with interchangable "cutters." Separate cutters were filed the same width as each chisel 1/2", 3/8", etc, and a half-round arch was filed in the ends of the cutters so each side came to a point. A slot was cut longitudinally in the end of the bar, the selected cutter put in place and a screw was used to tighten the slot on the cutter. You end up with one gauge and cutters to match your mortice chisels. I never made one, but I always thought you could use pieces of an old saw blade for the cutters, and convert an old marking gauge into a mortice gauge by sawing the slot, and adding the cutter and screw, or of course, make it all George suggested.

Michael

Re: You just gave me an idea

GolfSteve in Calgary

>I was thinking along the same line when I installed the slot & bolt, however the execution didn't work out properly.

I wanted the length of the slot to be such that when the bolt was at one of the the slot the blades would be exactly 1/4" apart. When the bolt was at the other end of the slot, the blades would be exactly 3/8" apart.

However, without a drill press I was not able to drill the holes accurately enough.