Pythagoras Gauges

[Jerry Thompson]

I have seen these advertised. It seems one could make them easily enough. Has anyone out there done it? If so how?

[James Taglienti]

A few years ago there was an article in wood magazine about making one they called it a golden rule or phi caliper or something

Edit
im sorry that was a Fibonacci gauge ... um... Totally different dude.

[Mark Dorman]

Pick good wood like you would use for winding sticks or straight edges if you're going to make some.
Make one part lets say 24" long cut the points on each end add a hole in the middle.
Cut second part 13" long point on one end and a hole at 12".
Thats about it.

A framing square is more usefull IMHO.

[Steve Baumgartner]

What makes these work is that the distance from the pivot to all three points is the same (which actually has nothing to do with the Pythagorean theorem). So, cut a piece for the movable arm and put the point onto the end of it. Cut another piece a bit more than twice as long. Attach the movable arm to the center of the long arm with something that lets it pivot precisely, with as little wobble as possible. Then rotate it to match first one end and then the other end of the long arm, mark and cut them to match the point of the movable arm. The only hard part is making a pivot that will stay tight with use.

Steve

[Eric Brown]

You could try making some proportional dividers but you might be better off studying the designs you feel are attractive.
Using math alone might be futile. Develope your eyes instead.

(I wish George Wilson would write a book on this subject. I would buy several copies in a second.)

Good luck with your quest.

Eric

[Kenneth Speed]

Yes, I suppose one could make them. I find myself asking why one would want to do so. To me they seem like a solution to a non-existent problem. How are these better than an engineer's square or a good adjustable square or measuring diagonals or squaring blocks or using a drafting square?


I'm not trying to be rude but I simply do not see much utility in these things.

[Mark Dorman]

I agree you can do more with one square than a set of these.

[John Coloccia]

This does seem like a very odd solution to a very simple problem. If I were going to make one, though, I would go to the hardware store and pick up some brass or nylon bushings, and build it around that. You want something in the pivot so that it stays nice and tight. I would think, though, that this principle would be far more useful on a large scale, like with two pieces of string tied to some post, and you stretch it out to see if the post is plumb. Better yet, you use several of these and tie them off to the ground to actually HOLD the post plumb while you secure it. That seems like a far more useful implementation of this.

[Maurice Ungaro]

I agree you can do more with one square than a set of these.
I also agree with John. This appears to be an over engineered solution to a simple problem. For the record, I'm getting tired of red anodized aluminum tools. While I love my router lift, I may have to remove the red from the table inserts!