Shop made marking and mortise gauges
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2 February 2015 at 7:18 am #124225
I built a couple of marking gauges and a mortise gauge this weekend. The marking gauges are pretty common, but the mortise gauge is a pretty neat design. I can’t take credit for it, it is based on an old one that Peter Follansbee wrote a blog post about. I found it via the Literary Workshop blog after a google search.
I wrote them up on my blog at https://toolsofourfathers.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/shop-made-marking-and-mortise-gauges/ with the original articles linked, more pictures, and some commentary but here are enough pictures for you to understand how it works.Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.2 February 2015 at 10:56 am #124236I’ve got a shop made marking gauge that works quite well, but I’ve been labouring over how to do a decent shopmade mortise gauge. Until now the best I could come up with was a twin beam design. I like yours better. I can see where I might make my own adjustments, but the principle is sound. Now I kind of wish I hadn’t spent good money on a new mortise gauge, because frankly the construction isn’t very good, and it’s a screw mechanism one, which are very slow and quite fiddly to adjust.
2 February 2015 at 11:42 am #124238Great work Charles, very neat. They look to be just about everything you need a mortise or marking gauge to be.
It’s a shame about the chipping around the dowel holes, has that happened through use?
Looks like a very well thought through design, particularly the mortise gauge, thanks for sharing.
Matt
2 February 2015 at 3:40 pm #124239Hi Charles..
The Kerfing plane has turned out to be a good tool that sees a lot more use than I expected it to. I use it for cutting mortise shoulders, knife walls for dados and a bunch of stuff. There are two blades a 12 point and a 8 point both progressive rip.
Do a Google search for ( How to make woo woodworking tools by Charles Hayworth) I was given the book as a child The tools are good and worth making, also go to the site Logan cabnet shop, Bob is a good teacher, look up his blogs on making gages and saw sharpening. There is a lot to see in this blog.
have fun
FrankjThis is the mortise gauge I’m going to make for myself one of these days. I especially like how you can wrap your whole hand around the 2 beams to hold your pin setting while you adjust the beam length. This is a little bit hard to do on the cheap-o Harbor Freight combo gauge I currently use. Thanks for sharing!
2 February 2015 at 10:09 pm #124267Thanks for the kind words everyone.
@chemical_cake The chipping around the dowel holes isn’t from use, its from a bad auger bit. Since I wanted to use only my hand tools on this and I have better luck following an angled hole with a brace than an electric drill, I didn’t have a perfect bit as my #6 auger bit (garage sale find in amongst several others) has a scoring wing with a ding in it. I can’t correct it without filing from the outside of the bit (which would completely ruin it), so I didn’t sweat it too much. Honestly when I first started these I thought it would be more of a rough prototype to just try the design, but I liked them enough that I finished them out. Since they won’t be seen outside of the shop, I didn’t worry too much about it. Doesn’t affect the use at all.
@frankj Thanks for sharing. I’ve read that book by Hayworth, it’s a great resource. I had forgotten about it, and thought that your kerfing plane was from Tom Fidgen’s latest book “The Unplugged Workshop”, he uses it for creating kerfs to follow when resawing thicker boards into thinner stock. Hadn’t really thought about how it would work for the things you mentioned. As far as the Logan Cabinet Shoppe, that was where I first saw the marking gauge design a couple of years ago. I recently found it again from the Literary Workshop blog when I was looking for a mortise gauge design. I embedded Bob’s video in my blog post, but didn’t think to share it here. I’ll post it here so others can see it, Bob has created some great content over the years.
@juan-m One thing I shot for with this build was a tight fit between all the parts, and then took a couple of shavings off after that to allow for the finish. I took care to get the mortise for the sliding block pretty tight so there is enough friction there that you can set the pins and not disturb that setting when you adjust the fence. I might have to loosen it up if it tightens up because of wood movement, but I hope not.5 February 2015 at 4:50 pm #124406Thanks for the inspiration. These look great. Started one with an old hunk of Walnut last night.
6 February 2015 at 8:28 am #124427@gary I bet that gauge is really comfortable in the hand with the rounded edges on the fence! One thing I see and it might just be the photograph but the pin looks like it has some rough facets on it? One thing that has helped me with my pins is to chuck them up in my electric drill before I install them and spin them against the side of a running bench grinding wheel. Makes a nice round SHARP point at whatever angle you like. Actually I did it on both ends of my pins as they are drilled into but not through the arm. Works great!
6 February 2015 at 6:53 pm #124443Here’s the one I made from walnut. It’s still a little rough — i need to get rid of some of those rasp marks on the curve yet, etc. But it’s usable. I’m currently using a finishing nail filed flat on one surface to a bit of a knife-like surface. I need to find a better marking tip so that it holds an edge better (and looks nicer).
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