A while back I wondered (in Derek's thread about the new Veritas wheel gauge) whether the adjustable rod from that gauge could be used in the dual marking gauge.
I bought a spare rod and gave it a go, and the answer is "yes, with some usability tradeoffs".
The micro-adjustable rod can be installed in either side of the dual gauge but not both at once. When installed that way it provides micro-adjustment of the mortise width, which is typically the most critical dimension in the gauge setup. It brings the following tradeoffs, however:
- It's a bit shorter than the stock rods, so it does limit depth of marking. In order to minimize the impact of this I used it to replace the "inner" rod (the one with its wheel's bevel facing away from the gauge's fence) as that's typically used with less extension. I swapped cutting wheels with the existing shaft when I did so.
- If you use the shaft clamp, then it has to be left on all the time as the only way to remove the clamp is to remove the adjustable shaft.
- You have to be a little careful to keep the lock knob on the adjustable shaft facing away from the other shaft.
All in all it's a positive upgrade for me, but I can see why they aren't offering it. The usability isn't up to their standards. They could fix the first and third issues above by making a longer version of the adjustable rod (or a shorter non-adjustable one) so I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see that in the future.