Beam=7.5 (length) x 1.25 (width) x .5 (thickness)
Body=4.25 (width) x 2.375 (height) x 1 (thickness)
Brass Plate=4.25 (width) x 1 (height) x .0625 (thickness)
Knurled Knob=1.5 (length) x .25 (diameter)
Cut the hole in the body blank that will hold the beam, drill a hole in the bottom of the body and install the threaded insert, screw and glue the brass plate into a shallow rabbet in the body, sand the face flush, and cut the outer shape
of the assembled body/brass plate to fit your hand. Round over the edges of the beam and tweak it until it slides through the body with little resistance. Drill holes through the little brass plate and the end of the beam and cut a shallow mortise into the end of the beam so it matches the profile of the exacto blade. Screw on the little brass plate and file flush to match the end of the beam.
Thank you! I asked you to post this information and imagine I wasn't alone in making the request. I know I won't be your only reader to try my hand at this!
ReplyDeleteAfter the Holidays I'll find the moment to give it a whirl, and in the odd event I should succeed I'll send you a snap shot!
Thanks again for being so kind, and God bless.
You're welcome! It occured to me that I could at least post this information, since I didn't have time to make one and show progress shots. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email. Looking forward to seeing your marking gauge!
ReplyDeleteYeah thanks for dimensions and photo. I'm just looking for a marking gauge and having freakin' sticker shock.
ReplyDeleteThis oughta do the trick if I can locate the brass.
tommyboy
Tommyboy,I just did a quick search online for brass plate/sheet and found some at www.metalsdepot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for searching.
ReplyDeleteFound this. Not too pricey and thicker than specs, although I don't expect that to be a problem.
https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=1364&step
=4&showunits=inches&id=83&top_cat=79
tommyboy
Hey Tommyboy, the brass plates we used started out thicker than .0625" but then we sanded them flush with the wood body. You can use a thicker sheet of brass than the dimension I gave; it won't affect the marking gauge's performance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the supplemental info, but now I'm thinking..... if I'm going on the cheap why spend the bucks on brass? Wouldn't, lets say, copper do functionally as well. Maybe sand down the faces of a pew pennies, forstner some proper sized holes, glue in the lincolns and then sand the entire face flat. Whaddaya think?
ReplyDeletetommyboy
It would certainly make for an original marking gauge! I don't know. Why not try it? I guess the only thing that might be a problem is if for some reason the pennies were no longer coplanar from seasonal wood movement or changes in the epoxy— some situation where the pennies no longer gave you a flat fence with which to ride along your workpiece.
ReplyDeleteOr, you might never have a problem with it and you would have quite a converstion piece in your handtool!
Curiouser and curiouser as today I began the penny project. 1st penny sanded down a bit and looking good for a glue-in. Then began sanding the 2nd penny and huh? What's going on? Didn't anyone tell me? Was I out sick that day? It seems pennies are no longer made of copper through and through. I have a copper colored penny and a silver color penny. I am dilemmafied and want my money back.
ReplyDeletetommyboy
Hey, maybe that silver penny is worth something! Could be a highly sought after collector's item. : )
ReplyDeleteHey Kari, nice work on the marking guage. The problem I have run into is locating the right size thumb screw. From your build list I assumed it was a 1/4"-20 screw size, but so far I have only located stainless steel vice brass. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Hi Anon,
ReplyDeleteSteve provided those for us in class, but I measured it and it is 1/4". I had tried to find something similar when I made scratch stock and was only able to find stainless steel as well. A friend told me you could get brass thumb screws from MSC Direct, but that you have to buy a whole box of [I think] 100.
This is such a cool project. I just started woodworking and will begin working on building my first marking gauge this weekend. It probably won't be anything this fancy, but hopefully it will work. Wish me luck!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work Kari. I have a question regarding cutting the mortise for the beam.
ReplyDeleteI tried this using a 1/2" drill bit, but dressing up the ridges left a less than square mortise. How did you get yours to be so clean? Did you use a router?
Regards,
Brad
Denver Brad, Steve Latta brought blocks of wood to our class that already had the mortise cut in them, but I'm pretty sure he used a router. I'm guessing he clamped a larger board down and then used a plunge router to cut a bunch of mortises spaced apart, and then cut the larger board into the smaller blocks that we used for the body of the gauge. If I were to do it, I would drill the two end holes, chisel out the middle, and file as necessary.
ReplyDelete