Thread: This IS a marking gauge.....

I have one of the little ones made of dead finish.

Nice

and nice grain in that sheoak (?)

do you have a piccy of the head, face on?

Ian,
They both look fantastic, the little fellow, is this an attempt at trying to infiltrate it in to a very nice tool cupboard to look like another very nice tool cabinet that has been getting a fair bit of talk about lately. On here and else were.

Also ,the long one will there be issues with the beam moving twisting.
Were you able to use a bit of timber that had been 1/4 cut.?
I just love how you just go to the work shop bang a couple of tools out before smoko.
Do a quick little post on the forum and call it a day.

Cheers Matt .

Can you please put the linen back in the cupboard when your done ,dust free

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

I have one of the little ones made of dead finish.

Yeah, but not as little as this one, Cliff. I used to think of the size you have as "little" but I decided I'd take it a step further.

BTW, I used up the very last bit of the Dead Finish I got from you, a month or so ago. I thought it was long gone, but stumbled on a piece at the bottom of a box where I keep 'useful' small bits. It was just big enough for a marking knife handle: DF.jpg

The pic doesn't do it justice, you need to roll it in your hand to appreciate the depth & complexity of figure in it. I wish I had a truckload of it, it was the most magical wood I've ever come across. A b*gg*r to work, but so worth it when you get there. You said it was very special, and you were right! I've since got hold of a few more bits of DF, which were nice, but not remotely as nice as this!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Simplicity

...... the little fellow, is this an attempt at trying to infiltrate it in to a very nice tool cupboard to look like another very nice tool cabinet that has been getting a fair bit of talk about lately......

Nope, Matt, I just decided I wanted a really teeny gauge, and it seemed like a bit of a challenge, so I went at it. In fact, it was quite easy, far easier than making the whopper. I found room for it in my big tool cabinet.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

...... Also ,the long one will there be issues with the beam moving twisting.
Were you able to use a bit of timber that had been 1/4 cut.?...

Well, I did worry about such a long beam remaining perfectly straight & true, but the grain is pretty symmetrical, and experience shows that She-oak is a very stable wood, once you get it dry (in one piece!), so I am mildly confident it will last a generation or two. The new owner is talking about it being an heirloom, so I reckon he'll take care of it while he's custodian, at least.

Speaking of getting she-oak dry without splitting; this is wood I harvested about 4 years ago on my brother's place on the Atherton Tableland. I was really careful with it, and most of it has dried very nicely, but the thick piece fdrom which I cut the stock had a couple of fine internal checks that I didn't find 'til I'd cut out the shape, so had to start over on that. Fortuntely, I hadn't done much other than cut the rebate, so not much time wasted. The tree this bit of wood came out of had an old injury down one side, well covered by several inches of new wood. The wood that grew around the injury has some quite interesting figure, including a strange sort of fiddleback that makes a herringbone pattern. I have seen that before in She-oak off the old farm, but it's not common.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

...... I just love how you just go to the work shop bang a couple of tools out before smoko.
Do a quick little post on the forum and call it a day......

Well, not quite. I've been doing the two big gauges (there is also a pencil-gauge that I didn't quite finish tonight) for about 3 or 4 interrupted days - so probably almost two full days worth in those. The little one was only a few hours' worth, but again, spread over several days. Retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be - people (like spouses) seem to think I have all the time in the world to do other things besides live in my shed....

Originally Posted by Simplicity

...... Can you please put the linen back in the cupboard when your done ,dust free...

Done.

Cheers,

I put the finishing touches on the other big gauge this morning, so I have to show you a couple of pics of the pair: Panel Gs x2a.jpg Panel Gs x2.jpg

They turned out ok in the end. The reason the second one wasn't finished yesterday is because I had to remake its beam, thanks to another deep check I didn't notice when I was roughing it out. Darned She-oak - great stuff, but it can be treacherous!

I tried to get a good pic of the 'herringbone fiddleback" figure in the She-oak, but it doesn't show very well in a static picture, you need to move the wood to get the full effect. Those monster medullary rays tend to obscure the more subtle pattern. If you have a good imagination, maybe you can see it: Panel G figure.jpg

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I put the finishing touches on the other big gauge this morning, so I have to show you a couple of pics of the pair: Panel Gs x2a.jpg Panel Gs x2.jpg

They turned out ok in the end. The reason the second one wasn't finished yesterday is because I had to remake its beam, thanks to another deep check I didn't notice when I was roughing it out. Darned She-oak - great stuff, but it can be treacherous!
Panel G figure.jpg

Cheers,

It is a lovely timber ,You have done a great job with those Ian .

I used to gather a lot Sheoak here it in the forests of the SW of WA, often times being disappointed with time & money spent on what I would deem poor results from the allocation areas by the authority controlling the forests.
I got wise in going to the Forest Commission auctions in Harvey as well as private auctions Bunbury back in the 90's getting my hands on some cube of enough good stuff to hopefully see me through the ensuing years.
The grain can be tricky at times,not always easy to get stable timber.There used to be a merchant in Bunbury running Kilns full of Sheoak ,but costly if you wanted to purchase timber.
Cheers

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Also ,the long one will there be issues with the beam moving twisting.
Were you able to use a bit of timber that had been 1/4 cut.?



Cheers Matt .

Matt

Once a a piece of timber is square it can be regarded as both quarter sawn and back sawn (unless it has been carelessly cut so the grain is diagonal, but even that qualfies technically) So realistically quartersawn and backsawn timber is a featue of rectangular section boards.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

......Once a a piece of timber is square it can be regarded as both quarter sawn and back sawn (unless it has been carelessly cut so the grain is diagonal, but even that qualfies technically) So realistically quartersawn and backsawn timber is a featue of rectangular section boards.....

Not sure I can agree with how you've put it, Paul, but I think I can see where you are going..

In the case of the gauge beams, they are square, so it's going to be hard to call them either quartered or backed, that's for sure. Grain orientation will still have an effect on the change in cross-section with moisture ingress/egress, because there is a fairly big difference between radial and tangential shrinkage (quoted as ~1.5% radial & 6% tangential, green to dry). You might think that should make it a pretty unsuitable wood for something like a marking gauge beam, since it could result in your nice square beam turning into a strange quadrilateral if the moisture cycle is extreme, but my own experience, & I guess that of people like Colen Clenton, suggests it isn't a problem & it actually holds its shape very well. I think there are a couple of reasons, at least, for that. One is that the annual moisture cycle is far less than the % change from green to dry, so the actual amount of water absorbed or released only takes it through a very small part of its range. Also, dense woods like SO take a long time to equilibrate, so this limits the volume change even more, since it's always lagging behind the trend in ambient humidity.

I was careful to cut the beams as close to parallel with the long grain as possible, & also to keep away from any sapwood, which could cause bowing, since sapwood often shrinks & expands along as well as across the grain....

Cheers,

Ian

Yes, I suppose I am being ever so slightly provocative in my phrasing, but imagine a 100 x 25 board that is backsawn and cut a 25mm strip from it. The end grain now presents both quartersawn and back sawn. The same is true if a quartersawn board had 25mm ripped from it.



Of course the question of distortion during drying is still there as you have identified.

Nice gauges btw.

Regards
Paul

Looks good Ian but they seem to be missing a few features compared to the latest LV offering:
https://youtu.be/lQAm9OjV8iQ

Originally Posted by hiroller

Looks good Ian but they seem to be missing a few features compared to the latest LV offering:
https://youtu.be/lQAm9OjV8iQ

Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon

You said it, TT. I forgot it was April 1st yesterday. They keep coming up with some beauts, don't they, hiroller? I don't think I could ever cap that!

Cheers,