Mortising Gauge *LINK*

Re: Thanks

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Re: I could see how it could be tricky to move the fence without changing the cutter width

I found a simple modification to my gauge overcame this problem - I added a small bolt to hold the two knives together. I had to drill a small hole in the stem of the gauge to get at the bolt head. (I've posted about this before, but since I updated my web-page, the links to the old pictures are no longer valid). The bolt holds the position of the knives relative to each other constant, and allows you to move the reference head without affecting the knife settings.

As much as I love the tite-mark marking gauge, for mortise marking I prefer the Japanese type gauge. I bought the one pictured for $80 Cdn, so it's not cheap either.

Re: The screw holds the blades,

paul womack

>OK. I stand better informed, but the key criticism remains; the adjustments for position and width of the mortice are not independantly adjustable.

The gauge remains usable, of course, but IMHO less convenient.

Clearly it is possible to mark mortices with 2 normal marking gauges, or even 1 marking gauge if you're prepared to change settings for each side of the mortice.

But surely the point of a task-dedicated tool is to make the task easy. And the easier the better.

BugBear

Re: Thanks

paul womack

>I have one of the single wheel marking gauges from Lee Valley (I may have purchased it at Woodcraft). I find it very difficult to mark a straight line with the grain.

This may be a quesiton of technique. Any marking gauge, be it wheel, knife or pin, is a little tricky when marking with the grain. There is a tendancy to follow the grain. The time-served solution is not to try to make a clear, deep mark in a single pass. By pressing the cutter deep wnough to make this (desirable) mark, the cutter can generate substantial force as it tries to follow the grain; sometimes this force can be enough to overcome your pressure on the fence against the workpiece.

The solution is make multiple, gentler passes. This not only reduces the forces, but all passes other than the first have amark for the cutter to follow, reducing the tendancy to follow the grain.

In practice, 2 passes is often an adequate solution.

BugBear

Re: doh!

paul womack

>On my last project, the only tenons were "bare faced" on one side, so I marked them with a marking gauge.

I had this so strongly in my mind that I forgot that mortice gauges are used to mark the tenons.

Sorry.

BugBear

"not independantly adjustable." well, sort of....

John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)

>I have a pair of the JW gauges; while the blades cannot be locked together independently of the fence setting, there is much more friction between the two metal arms than there is between the bottom arm and wood beam. Once the mortise width is set between the arms, finger pressure keeps them from moving while the fence is set. Very easy, and very fast. If a gauge had mortise arms that locked together in an "earthquake-proof" fashion, you would then be left with a lock setting for the fence; seems that fiddling with two locks would be a lot more trouble.

I am very much open to being corrected here; my other one is a brass-faced rosewood pin gauge, and the pins don't lock respective to each other there, either. It sets about as quickly, but with a smaller fence face against the work, and the unmodified pins track equally well (or poorly) in long and face grain--both less precisely than the knives of the JW gauges, which also have better visibility to the work at all stages, even if the pins were reshaped to track better.

It did take a certain amount of fuss/fettling to get them working well, though--scraping the paint off the arms, straightening and smoothing them, smoothing/waxing their wood "run," etc., but now that this is done, I only reach for the pin mortise gauge when the other two are set for a project and I need a third.




/jvs

Re: doh!

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>No need to apologize, I've made more than my share of mistakes this week. To be honest, I hadn't thought of a half-lap tenon. What did you use this for?

Pam

Re: doh!

paul womack

>The plant stand described on my web site:

home page

The braces are let into the legs with a barefaced tenon, so that there's a nice visual distinction.

Note that normally the shoulders of a tenon conceal any messiness in your mortice cutting, so when using this joint, you have to cut your mortice very cleanly.

BugBear

Re: doh!

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Very nice looking stool, Paul, looks very strong, too.

Thanks,

Pam

Re: doh!

paul womack

>The lack of an "apron" gives it a very light and delicate appearance.

The legs are actually held to the top by the splats acting via the braces! Most unusual.

The "normal" plant stand design has an apron at the top (with usual M&T to legs, and buttons or through screws to top) and bracing low down between the legs; either stretchers, diagonal stretchers, or a low shelf.

I find these "over built" in appearance. I really must photograph the version I made from these plans.

BugBear

Re: doh!

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Over built? I don't know, maybe the slats take up a lot of space that's not required, maybe some grecian urn shape would work. I agree with your first assessment of light and delicate.

Of course, the top is bearing much more of the structural burden, it probably wouldn't be suitable for human loads nor all the twisting and turning people do.

Pam