Dividers???

[john davey]

I'm in the need of dividers. I have a cheapo pair i got in a set and am not happy with them. Can someone point me to a source for these. I'll probably post a WTB as well on the classifieds but if I could find decent ones at a decent price I would just go new for these. I am playing with Dovetails after watching Cosman's videos and would like a few pair to keep the settings. Thanks, John

[Jim Neeley]

John,

I ordered some Starrett's from Lie-Nielson while I was ordering a dovetail saw from them. Starrett has long made tools for machinists so they're probably overkill but they'd be the last pairs you'd ever need of that size!

[george wilson]

I always like old dividers myself. You can find them on Ebay,and in flea markets. My favorites are the Fay leg pattern Starretts. They have squarish,tapered legs. If you can get the best option,which is the split nuts you can squeeze,and rapidly slide over the threads for quick coarse adjustments,then release and turn for the fine adjustments,it is well.

Machinists really had to depend much more upon dividers in the old days than they do now. They are definitely better finished than new sets. Micrometers around the turn of the 20th.century were expensive tools,and much work was done by feeling with calipers and dividers. Today,more sophisticated means are available.

We have some 18th.C. microscopes in the museum. They work by brass tubes having sliding fits inside of sleeves.They bought a reproduction 18th.C. microscope to use in the Apothecary shop. It wouldn't stay in focus. I was asked to find out why. In checking the repro,I quickly found that the brass tubes were not real round. In checking an original microscope,not only were the tubes perfectly round,having been turned in a hand lathe,rather than extruded like brass bed tubing,the old tubes were not even .001" off anywhere. That was achieved strictly by the use of feeling with calipers. They didn't have micrometers in use at that time. Back in the 50's,my old time machine shop teacher taught us how to"feel a thousanth" with calipers. I have relied upon doing that sometimes. They probably haven't taught that sort of thing in many years in machine shop classes.
This story is just to illustrate the importance of these simple tools in the past.

[Pam Niedermayer]

George, you really should be making videos. You're always coming up with stuff we've never even heard of.

Pam

[Adam Cormier]

Lee Valley sells dividers for a half decent price. Here's the link:

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,43513,43550&p=43202

[Chuck Nickerson]

What don't you like about your current dividers?

That might help us make a recommendation.

[john davey]

My current set is a 3 piece inside/outside caliper and divider that I got for about 10 bucks. They work for the most part but will not stay tight when set and are kind of flimsy.

[Casey Gooding]

I bought several older Starretts on the bay and have been very pleased with them. With tools like these, it's hard to go wrong with Starrett.

[Charles Brown]

I, too, use dividers when laying out dovetails (thanks, Rob Cosman) and found some reasonable dividers at McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com). They have some robust spring-loaded dividers that I use (I think I have the 4" and 6"). I've always been happy with the items I've purchased from them.

[David Peterson]

Deals on ebay are harder to find these days but it regularly lists a lot of dividers that sell pretty cheaply. I've collected a set of vintage Brown and Sharpe dividers and calipers and have rarely paid more than $5 -$10 for any of them.

[george wilson]

When you buy used dividers,usually 1 leg will have been filed a bit shorter than the other. This is so the machinist could use the longer leg of the divider to hang over the edge of a piece of metal,and scribe a line parallel to that edge with the short leg. This difference in length is usually only about 1/16" or so,and the longer leg is readily filed down to be the same length as the other leg if you want them the same length.

[Chuck Nickerson]

If you don't want to rust-hunt, for laying out dovetails Cosman-style I find the 4" dividers at Lee Valley superb.
For laying out dovetails you don't need great reach, so why swing big metal around?

For large scale carvings however, 12" dividers rule the roost.

[Jim Koepke]

Have you looked at drafting sets on ebay?

Most of those have at least two pair of dividers. Some sets remain unsold at less than $10. Some sell for $2.

Then there are the ridiculous bids on some sets that go to the moon.

I have a few of these sets and they come in handy.

I have set out dovetails with dividers, but it is so much easier to do it in other ways that I seldom bother to use dividers or a compass.

jtk