Panel gauge

[Mark Baldwin III]

Hi, all. I'm looking for suggestions to add a cutter to a panel gauge I picked up. I needed something longer than my marking gauges and ran across this one at the antique store. No real idea on the history of it. It is marked "J.F. Kennedy", though. At the moment, it has no pin or cutter. I have an idea or two, but my imagination isn't running at 100% at the moment.

[John-Paul Volkenant]

Hi, all. I'm looking for suggestions to add a cutter to a panel gauge I picked up. I needed something longer than my marking gauges and ran across this one at the antique store. No real idea on the history of it. It is marked "J.F. Kennedy", though. At the moment, it has no pin or cutter. I have an idea or two, but my imagination isn't running at 100% at the moment.

This is a panel gauge I built. I chucked an extra drill bit in my drill press, turned it on, held a file to the end and shaped it into a pin. It could probably be ground into a cutter on the bench grinder.

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This pin needs to be exposed a little more.

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[Mark Baldwin III]

Thanks John-Paul. I think you gave me a great idea. Should be able to knock something out during my lunch break at work tomorrow!

[Johnny Kleso]

David Charlesworth uses a 3 cornered pin..

But your hole looks pretty large so it may have had a blade heald by two collects..

Best pins are DRILL BLANKS as they are hard HSS the shanks of a standard drill are soft and not the best but a good choice..
You can find drill blanks at eBay super cheap for pins or for making card scraper burnishers or McMaster @ full price

[lowell holmes]

I would make another arm to fit in the fence and experiment with cutters. You can make a cutter from a sabre saw blade.

This approach will preserve the arm that came with the gage.

[John-Paul Volkenant]

That's a good idea. I made a cutter with a junk jigsaw blade for my Benjamin Seaton-based marking gauge. It works well. I just ground it on my bench grinder to a fingernail shape and secured it with a wedge.

[Mark Baldwin III]

Here's what I did. I used an old drill and cut the cutting end off. Then I ground half of the thickness away and made a round profile. It still needs a final sharpening. The button on the gauge makes a nice bearing surface to keep from tipping, so I put the new pin just outside of it. Hard to get the camera to focus on the pin. The hole for the pin was drilled a few thou smaller than the drill I made the cutter from (thank goodness for number drills).
Didn't see the saber saw idea til after I had finished this.

[Jeff Hamilton]

Hey Mark this is how I mount the blade on my panel gaugeshttp://www.hamiltontools.com/product_images/l/274/pg1_closeup__12895_zoom.jpg

[Gary Hodgin]

I'd want to know more about the J.F. Kennedy bit. Might be an expensive panel gauge.

[Staffan Hamala]

I don't own a panel gauge at the moment, but I plan to build one. I'm thinking of using the French marking gauge as a model (see the PDF for more details):
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/hand-tool-techniques/mystery_of_the_marking_gauge

I think the idea with the wedge would work with a panel gauge as well.

[Derek Cohen]

Jeff, that is a beautiful gauge.

Mark, I made a blade out of a 3/16" HSS drill bit ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Marking%20and%20Measuring/Panel%20Gauge/PanelGauge3.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Marking%20and%20Measuring/Panel%20Gauge/PanelGauge6.jpg

Note that the tip of the blade is slightly rounded. It is not a point.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mark Baldwin III]

Jeff- That's one nice gauge you've got there!
Derek- I did exactly the same thing, just with a smaller bit. I couldn't get my camera to focus on it.

[Jeff Hamilton]

Derek,Mark- Thank you for the compliments on the panel gauge. Mark I use the same grind on my blades that Derek uses except my blade is flat. I think that the profile of the blade can really make or break a panel gauge. A flat grind will allow the blade to track to the grain of the work piece. But a finger nail grind helps to hold the fence to the work piece and the most important thing it keeps the line true.

[lowell holmes]

Following Staffan's post.

Here is one of these gages I built as a cutting gage. The blade can be used on a panel gage.

IIRC, the author of the article Dean Jansa showed this way of making the blade. If not Dean, another member of the Google Group I was in showed it. This is not my original idea.



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