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Author Topic: Depth/Height gauge jig  (Read 748 times)

dntwnbro

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Depth/Height gauge jig
« on: February 04, 2012, 11:50:44 am »
Laney and anyone else that may be interested,
I just wanted to let you know that I built one of the depth gauges years ago from plans that were on like Wood Magazine and it works great. I never liked a few of the things that mine had like ugly thick (1/4”) plastic that was too thick so I decided to watch your video and make a better one. (In fact I decided to build 4 new ones and give them to my friends.)
A few things I changed/added was I put a quarter round bit in my router/table and routed the top and base pieces on the fronts and sides (Not the bottoms or upright sides). Looks much better.
I also put 2 wood screws in the uprights and bases after I glued them. Very strong.
On the upright and top I air nailed after I glued them together.

Another was that I used a 1” dowel and it too worked great. (I only made mine 8” long but that is plenty)
I noticed that you put your dowel in your vice to plane it. I used a jig I had already made up that has a ½” wide groove running down the center and is about 15” long. I laid my 8”  dowels in/on the ½” groove cradle and put a thinner stop block at the far end of the dowel. Then I took my electric hand plane and planed off the flat sides. Surprisingly the dowels stayed down good in the groove. Those came out very good but I also reversed the jig and ran my belt sander on them too.

After I snapped my 1” x 1/8" wide Plexiglas I drilled and counter sunk the small holes before I bent them to shape. Much easier to use the pre-drilled holes when drilling on into the dowels.

On my old gauge I had cut off a ruler and drilled two screw holes to mount it. Worked great but didn’t look very nice because of the screws I used. I like your idea of using double sided tape to at least start holding the measuring device. Then I can always put a couple little (nice) screws in later when I’m sure everything zeros out, if I want.

I plan on either staining and/or Polyurethaning the wood before I mount the measuring and plastic devices.

It has been fun building more of them and better as I enjoy making jigs of all kinds and mine has always been very useful.  I have decided to add a picture of it/them.


Thank you for sharing your video with us and I hope this may help you with projects in the future.
Sorry about being so long winded.

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Wood_Jedi

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Re: Depth/Height gauge jig
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2012, 12:49:59 pm »
Nicely Done! I like the jigs you made for planing the dowels down. The rounded off edges gived the guages a nice look. I appreciate the feedback and the tips for future guages I may make. Great Job!, Im sure the friends you give the guages to as  gifts will enjoy them. Thank you for posting!! :O)

Wood_Jedi
Laney Shaughnessy
Wood_Jedi aka
Laney Shaughnessy, Craftsman