Thread: Large marking gauge

Hi Lance. Looks great -and you put the wedge in the right way. Ian will be impressed ! I just made a beeswax and BLO paste wax today. It's in the fridge as I type. My recipe was 2 parts oil to 1 part wax. Wax came from a friend 5 mins down the hill and is organic (not sure about the PC-ness of the BLO though )

Lance,
That looks excellent, I love the I just make it idea,
And the enjoyment that comes with using later on,you just can’t get that with a brought tool.

So how many handmade tools is that now?

Cheers Matt.

Looks fantastic! Well done

Hi Lance,

Intuitively, I would have wedged the marking blade the other way, thinking that the bevel would deflect it away from the fence?

Mind you, the thickness of that blade must make it very stiff and prevent any "bending"?

Looks very nice!

Cheers Yvan

Made me smile = you can't buy equipment like that. What a satisfying build. Like the use of Narex steel.
It looks like it will be a pleasure to use

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi Lance. Looks great -and you put the wedge in the right way. Ian will be impressed !

I must confess that in the heat of the moment I never bothered looking at any examples, and just cracked on with what seemed logical. Phew.

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

I just made a beeswax and BLO paste wax today. It's in the fridge as I type. My recipe was 2 parts oil to 1 part wax. Wax came from a friend 5 mins down the hill and is organic (not sure about the PC-ness of the BLO though )

Mine's not a paste but more of a BLO cordial with beeswax flavouring. I mixed it at 8:1, so still very runny. I may decant some and add some more wax to compare. My beeswax came out of our hives at then end of last summer .

Originally Posted by yvan

Intuitively, I would have wedged the marking blade the other way, thinking that the bevel would deflect it away from the fence?

That is my goal in a sense, but as the blade won't deflect, it should pull the fence in tighter to the reference edge and hopefully stopping it wandering. My intuition suggests that the bevel facing the fence would achieve that. Your thoughts on that?

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Like the use of Narex steel.

Except that Peter Pointer on my left hand is sliced to ribbons. I'd not had cause to use my 12 mm mortice chisel to date, and forgot that when preparing the others for first use I needed to ease the back edges as they're incredibly sharp out of the box and just holding the chisel is a dangerous affair. None the less, after realising that I had once again signed a new piece with blood, several strokes across the diamond plate took the arris off.

The worst cut to the bone was with a wood carving crooked knife of very hard steel.

I use pairs of Narex 12 mm skews to cut V-grooves in form-line relief carvings.
The factory 25 degree edge is a big push to open the wood so I ground them down to a wood-carving conventional edge of 20 degrees.
So good in fact that I bought a second pair a week later. Really a pleasure to do the carving.
Now, they might need a lick on 1500 grit paper then a few wipes on chrome green.

Lance

I suppose I am really only reiterating what others have already said, but I love the purpose made tools fashioned from whatever is to hand. It appeals to my sense of improvisation. When it looks good too, that's a bonus.

regards
paul

Very nice and well made tool. Your shed is very clean too. Who do you get to clean it.

Bit slow spotting the thread, Lance, but I'll add my pat on the back.

Dunno how it came to be on your woodpile, but your 'chance' piece looks a lot like N.G. Rosewood, going by he grain pattern (& the borer holes).

Which side you place the wedge for the stock is the prerogative of the maker, of course, but I put them on the side facing the user (which would be as you've done, for right handers), because you can operate the wedge with your thumb whilst holding the stock in place gainst the workpiece. I would advise re-making it as a captured wedge sometime, preferably before you lose the current one in the shavings in the middle of a job...

That's a very robust cutter you made there, my lad! Handy if you want to use it as a cutting/slitting gauge, though you might want to reduce those bevels a bit to make it more knife-like if you need to make deep cuts. Typically,the bevel is set like you've got it for the reason you suggested, it tends to pull the stock against the workpiece rather than pusing it away. Very, very occasionally I may switch which way the bevel faces. That's easy with my gauges, I only have to loosen the grub screw & twist the cutter around. The need is rare, it's only when you want to cut a very deep line for some reason, and the waste is on the 'far side'. As you intuited, you have to take great care when using the cutter this way, they do like to take the path of least resistance and follow any (in)convenient grain line!

I went a bit overboard with a large gauge I made last year. I decided to make it a jack of all jobs, and made a fitting with a cutter one end, & a point on the other: 3 Double ended insert.jpg

The bitey bit that isn't in use is covered up by a cap: 4 Cutter mode.jpg

And for an encore, a pencil will fit in the same hole in the beam, for those jobs where I don't want to make permanent marks: 1 Pencil mode.jpg

It's handy on this very large gauge, which is awkward to fit in my tool cupboard, but my smaller gauges are all one-trick ponies - surprising how many times you can have 3 or 4 gauges set to different settings on the one job!

So don't hesitate to make a few more......

Cheers

Hi Lance and Ian. L you inspired me to remake the wedge for my marking gauge and in the process, re orient it. That would also improve my standing with Ian . However due to a version of my friend 100mm Harry I mucked up the measurement and ended up with a 20° bevel for the wedge. Re correcting the angle has seen the wedge get bigger and bigger but at least it's a captive one now. Only snag is that for smallish parallel lines the wedge hangs past the beam. Good news is that I usually use this for bigger marking requirements.

20200825_115731.jpg

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

.....Only snag is that for smallish parallel lines the wedge hangs past the beam.....

Yes, that is a drawback with a captured wedge set parallel to the beam, MA. Fortunately, it rarely causes a problem, but occasionally it does.
The solution is to fit the wedge across the beam. This one has a round beam and a tapered dowel for a wedge. The beam has a small flat to prevent rotation & engage the wedge: 3.jpg 3a.jpg

It's quick & easy to make if you have a lathe, but it's not much more trouble to make the same style with a square beam & flat wedge.

Cheers,

Hi Ian. As Maxwell smart used to say, "Good thinking 99". Nice solution and not something I can recall seeing before. I hope you don't mind me including you as my benchmark in some of my posts, it is out of respect (with maybe a touch of naughty schoolboy).