Thread: Didital Metal Marking Gauge ???.

d4.jpgd1.jpgd2.jpgd3.jpg


Few pictures and link from Lee Valley website


Digital Marking Gauge - Lee Valley Tools

This'll bring the old carmugeons out of the woodwork again. So I'll be the first one to say "What a complete waste of time".

The purpose of tools like marking gauges is for repeatability & accuracy, not precision. Who out there currently scribes lines to the 3rd decimal place???

You normally set the point or points of marking gauges against some object (the width of a board, a chisel width, or whatever). Since the limit of resolution of the average human eye is around 0.2mm, this is a far greater source of error than the digital gauge is capable of measuring. What's the point of measuring an inexact distance to the 3rd decimal place?

As a measuring tool, it could have its uses, but for all practical purposes in everyday cabinetmaking, it is far more precise than necessary. I suppose there are so many of these digital devices being made, & people are desperately looking for something to do with them.....

That should light the wick....
Cheers,

Didital

...maybe this was designed bt Itha Butterosthe

Originally Posted by IanW

This'll bring the old carmugeons out of the woodwork again. So I'll be the first one to say "What a complete waste of time".

The purpose of tools like marking gauges is for repeatability & accuracy, not precision. Who out there currently scribes lines to the 3rd decimal place???

You normally set the point or points of marking gauges against some object (the width of a board, a chisel width, or whatever). Since the limit of resolution of the average human eye is around 0.2mm, this is a far greater source of error than the digital gauge is capable of measuring. What's the point of measuring an inexact distance to the 3rd decimal place?

As a measuring tool, it could have its uses, but for all practical purposes in everyday cabinetmaking, it is far more precise than necessary. I suppose there are so many of these digital devices being made, & people are desperately looking for something to do with them.....

That should light the wick....
Cheers,

For the same reason the Great Wall ute is better than Mazda BT-50

Nothing new under the sun is there?
Japanese patternmaking apprentices had home made ones at the Skill Olympics a few decades ago.
You could add the relevant contraction by hooking them up.
Was fun to watch the Koreans and Japs videoing each other for later coaching.
Its going to be interesting when China feels confident enough to eliminate those islands off the coast that so humiliated them 80 years ago. Guess whose side we're on
H

Thought I might give the pot a little stir...

I can see where this tool would come in handy.

I read a post recently from a guy (name withheld) who was making a cot for a grandchild and showed the tools he was using to make it and it included 6 x marking gauges, each set at a different measurement for its own purpose.
I am in a similar boat, I recently did a course with Garrett Hack and when fitting the hinges to the frame he advised to keep the gauge at the same setting ready for the door. I am not ready to do the door yet so my favourite gauge cannot be used for other tasks so I have to go digging for another gauge for other jobs.

Using the digital gauge you can still set the measurement by eye or off the width of a lump of timber and then write down the measurement.
By having the number recorded on your drawing you can easily reset the gauge to the same value at a later date, this would really come in handy if half way through a project you mess up a part like a table leg and need to recreate it, you will be able to use the same settings as found on the other three legs.

Regards,
Polie

Polie, no bout adout it, having 5 or 6 gauges on the bench at once can be a pita.

However, I'm not sure the digital gauge makes resetting any easier than for a simple gauge. If I have to change a setting, then go back to a former setting (which I used to do all the time when I only owned one or two gauges), there is usually a scribe line from the original setting, somewhere on the job, from which one can re-set - pop the point in the scribe line, snug up the fence, tighten the thumbscrew, done! Leaving a gauge on a setting for weeks at a time seems like a much bigger hassle to me, whatever Mr. Hack sez.

The best argument in favour of such a tool so far is what 'clear out' mentioned, a patternmaker being able to automatically calculate shrinkage values - that is something a simple gauge can't do, unless you inscribed it with slide-rule scales!

Hmm, maybe I've just thunked-up a new tool.......

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Hmm, maybe I've just thunked-up a new tool.......

Cheers,

Yep, and you will also need a digital hammer .........




Fair Winds

Graeme

[QUOTE=GraemeCook;1728041]Yep, and you will also need a digital hammer .........



Gotta have one of those, how much do they cost...

Would be cool, you hit the nail then you can look at the digital display to see if you hit the nail hard enough...

Hard enough isn't the problem, I want mine to tell me the exact angle of the strike.

Originally Posted by GraemeCook

Yep, and you will also need a digital hammer .........Fair Winds
Graeme

Too late Graeme, I'm sure all of us have hit our digits with a hammer.

Originally Posted by jimbur

Too late Graeme, I'm sure all of us have hit our digits with a hammer.

Touché

Had a cheap plastic gauge for many years, and used it all the time. After years of lusting after a digital gauge, I bought one for $40 at a wood show. Every couple of months I have another measurement, and I pull out the digital gauge, only to find it's out of batteries. There is no way to read the measurement manually, so back goes the digital gauge and out comes the cheap plastic one. Unless you use it regularly, the batteries don't last between projects, so each use requires a new battery. I would rather have a nice metal vernier gauge than a digital one.

surfdabbler, I know the feeling too well! My cheap digital calipers have exactly the same problem. It must maintain a small battery drain, even when it should be 'off'. If I remove the battery between uses, it's fine, but what a pita that is, as it requires a jeweller's Philips head driver of just the right size, which I use rarely, so it's always right at the back of the drawer where I keep them. I hate tools that need batteries!!

A couple of years ago I got a set of dial calipers. They don't do Imperial/Metric conversions at the flick of a switch, but it's easy for my chronologically-challenged eyes to read, and it doesn't ever have a flat battery!

Cheers,