How many marking gauges do you have?

[lowell holmes]

357753

I have eight counting the two pin marking gauges. I have four Stanley Gauges, a 61, 77 and one which is a slot marking gauge.
One of the Stanley's have two beams with single pins opposite each other.

I have three home made gauges . I can't count, there are four home made gauges.
One is a cutting gauge, one with two pins at 1/2" apart and the other a single pin gauge.

I also have a two blade cutting gauge.

I made the gauges after reading an article in Pop Wood magazine.

I just wonder if I am tilted somehow, or are there others with the same affliction. :)

I can't count, I also have two wheel gauges.

[Phil Mueller]

Not there yet. I have four. One wooden Crown with one and two pin option, one Titemark, one Veritas single wheel, and one Veritas double rod/wheel. The only add I'm looking to get is a panel guage. Guages are cool. Even thought I don't think I need any more, I'm sure I wouldn't walk away from a reasonably priced yard or estate sale one or two...

[ken hatch]

On last count I could round up over 30, of those less than 10 are in daily use.

[ken hatch]

Just to add, there is no one gauge that is perfect for all tasks. Hense the need fro several different gauges for any one project.

[steven c newman]

Hmmm...all I have is just a simple, all wood, single pin gauge...

Should I feel deprived?
357757357758357759
Maybe?

[lowell holmes]

Steven,

You might want to consider a cutting gauge. There's times when I find I really need it. That's why I made it.

Also, the two pin gauges are really handy for marking mortises. The three pin Stanley is my favorite gauge. It adjusts to mark mortises of any width on one side and the other side of the gauge is one pin.

[Mike Henderson]

I have eight: Two LV, four Tite-Marks, and two Taylor tools. Plus an old pin gauge which I never use.

[Oh, and I forgot the LV double ended one that I have. Not a micro adjust. That makes ten.]

Mike

[Frederick Skelly]

3. Two from LV. One home made.

[Rob Luter]

Not really sure. At least three or four.

[Pat Barry]

On last count I could round up over 30, of those less than 10 are in daily use.
I also have less than 10 in daily use. I have one that I use. Its an LV gage. I have 2 homemade knife gages that I'm working on (very slowly). Most of the time I use my Starrett type adjustable square.

[David Ryle]

Three pre-set mortise gauges,1 marking pin, 1 cutting gauge,oh, and a panel gauge,, all homemade,once I started couldn't stop.

[steven c newman]

I'll keep a lookout during this years Rust Hunts, but...so far all I had needed is that one. A 6" combo square and a sharp knife also works nicely..

In those old Chinese Wood Working Videos ( GE Hong) The woodworker there has a simple block of wood, with a curved edge, and four "cutters" sticking out. He can set any to the sizes he is working on, and mark about any mortise with a single swipe. Same gauge can be made with four allen wrenches, sharpened along one edge. Tap to adjust each. You rotate to engage which of the four cutters you want to use. Might be worth checking out?

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

Too many? Nah! Five Tite-Mark cutting gauges (in various sizes/blade configurations), a Veritas Dual Marking Gauge, a Veritas Pocket Marking Gauge, two of my grandfather's pin marking gauges, a terribly ugly shop-made one (I made it, so I can say that) and a vintage mortise gauge.

[Derek Cohen]

Too many? Nah! Five Tite-Mark cutting gauges (in various sizes/blade configurations), a Veritas Dual Marking Gauge, a Veritas Pocket Marking Gauge, two of my grandfather's pin marking gauges, a terribly ugly shop-made one (I made it, so I can say that) and a vintage mortise gauge.

Megan, you're my kind of girl! :)

I must admit to a liking for wheel gauges. I have 2 Tite-Marks, which I like a lot, but then I also like the Veritas stainless steel ones that came without a fine adjuster as much (these were available for a short while, and a real bargain - I purchased two).

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Marking%20and%20Measuring/A5_zpsc5c4fd82.jpg

The Veritas dual marking gauge is excellent, although I am not convinced that one needs a reversed blade when the wheel cuts such a fine line.

I like the wheel style so much I even built one of my own design.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Mortice-CuttingGauges_html_3ec0b08.jpg

I also have a few woodies. The best is a Kinshiro mortice cutting gauge, which is no longer available. I liked the ergonomics of the design so much that I built a few versions, which include both single irons ..

Alongside the Kinshiro ...
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/KinshiroOnTheCheap_html_m6481cde7.jpg


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/KinshiroOnTheCheap_html_79d09510.jpg

.. and a double cutter for mortices ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Mortice-CuttingGauges_html_3ae886dd.jpg

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Mortice-CuttingGauges_html_1ff5cd98.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[lowell holmes]

Derek,

Following your article at the time, I bought a Kinshiro and modified it like you suggested, except I did not do the inlay. Maybe I'll go back and finish the modification. Can you post the article again please

Also, an article of interest is :

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/mystery_of_the_marking_gauge

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Currently 2: Tite-Mark with the additional Mortise blades and a 4" Hamilton. Eventually I'll get a panel gauge and call it enough.

[Derek Cohen]

Derek,

Following your article at the time, I bought a Kinshiro and modified it like you suggested, except I did not do the inlay. Maybe I'll go back and finish the modification. Can you post the article again please

Also, an article of interest is :

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/mystery_of_the_marking_gauge


Hi Lowell

I'm not sure which article you mean, so here are a few:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/CuttingGauges.html

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/KinshiroOnTheCheap.html

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Mortice-CuttingGauges.html

Hope that helps.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Warren Mickley]

I have three marking gauges, which is adequate for a professional shop. I have a marking gauge, a mortise gauge and a panel gauge. If there were another guy working in the shop I would definitely buy two more gauges.

In the Seaton chest (1796) there is a cutting gauge, a marking gauge, and a set of mortising gauges. In those days mortise gauges with movable pins were not in general use, so there needed to be one gauge set up for each mortise chisel. In the Seaton chest each mortise gauge beam had four sets of pins, one on each face.

[Brian Holcombe]

I have three mortising gauges, one panel gauge and one marking gauge. I cut a lot of double tenons and typically setup two gauges for that, then a spare if I'm running multiple jobs at the same time.

[Tony Wilkins]

I have a titemark long, titemark regular, a couple of four inch Hamilton and a cheap Marples pin gauge. Just ordered an KV micro adjustable

[James Pallas]

I have 11. Veritas twin beam, veritas pocket, marples mortise, marples cutting, Stanley twin beam metal, Stanley metal pin, plus ones I made, pin, single bevel knife, Japanese style knife, spear point knife and a panel gauge. All are used for different situations. The one most used is the spear point knife that I made.
Jim

[lowell holmes]

This string of responses proves I am not the only one that is taken with marking gauges. :)

[Adam Schultz]

I only have one lee valley wheel guage. I have a feeling that will eventually change. I think I'll make one someday, something like the sexy ones I see pictures of with dark exotic wood and shiny brass... Ohhh Yaaaa.

[Don Orr]

Probably 8 or 9 including a few vintage ones. Why do you ask ? :rolleyes::o;)

[steven c newman]

I think I'll just get by with that one I have....would get a bit confused as to which gauge was marking what spot....KISS

[Steve Bates]

I've got just one, a Stanley 47-061, unused before I bought it for $2 at a Rocky Mountain Tool Collectors meeting. I've used it numerous times and enjoyed planing to the line.
Replaced all interior doors of the house. Doing a full remodel, just the kitchen left to do. Started taking cabinets off the wall yesterday.

[Derek Cohen]

As Warren notes, one only needs a few gauges for most work. And as Steven points out, more can become confusing. Still, gauges are cheap tools, and if you like experimenting, then go for it. I only keep out the ones I am using at the time, generally 2 or 3. The flip side is that there are many times with some projects that you will wish for an extra gauge to avoid changing settings on the gauge(s) being used.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Kees Heiden]

I have a couple of gauges too, but also use mostly two on projects, a pin or knife gauge and a mortising gauge.

About getting confused, I have a pin gauge with two pins, one on the top and one on the bottom of the beam, independantly adjustable. Often I don't remember which is which and have to remeassure. I think I am going to cut one of.

[michael langman]

I thought I was extravagant buying 2 Marples Mortice marking gages from Tools for Working Wood. Double pins on one side and single pin on the other side. Under 20.00 apiece so I splurged.
That said, I cannot break myself of the habit of setting my try square to length with a set of dial calipers and scribing off of the rule end.

[Kelly Cleveland]

Just one...
357924

[Robert Hazelwood]

I mostly use a Veritas dual wheel marking gauge, which I really like. However some recent work has me thinking I need a couple more types, but I'm not sure I've seen the types I'm thinking of. I plan to make them myself, but I'm curious if any of you have something like these.

One is a mortise gauge with the reach of a panel gauge. This would be for marking mortises on wide pieces, like for joining a divider to a carcass side with multiple through-mortises. Most mortise gauges only go out to 6" or so...I'd like to be able to go out to perhaps 16". I know this can be done by transferring marks from another board, but this can be sketchy on a very porous wood like red oak. With a gauge there should be no second guessing whether that is really a knife tick or a wood pore. I've also used a combo square and it's pretty tedious.

The other is for marking a thickness line on a live edge or waney board. The wheel gauge blade is only an 1/8" or so deep, so if the edge isn't reasonably flat and square to the reference face, the blade can't reach the area where it needs to mark. Most gauges try to keep the blade exposure short to minimize flex, which is great except for this situation. The solution is straightforward enough, just make a single blade gauge with a thick, rigid blade that extends maybe 1" or so past the beam. Just curious if anyone else has something like that.

[Ted Phillips]

Eight here, including a TiteMark (my go to), a Bridge City Toolworks Panel Gauge, and a handful of wooden and metal ones from various sources.

TedP

[Brad Swanson]

My collection
- 4" Hamilton
- 6" Hamilton
- LV single wheel
358120

[Jim Koepke]

That would depend on what qualifies as a marking gauge:

358210

The try square was drilled by a previous owner. It was found at an estate sale. The finger grip is my doing, something many of my try squares have added or in reality, subtracted.

358211

The try square, combination square and the gauges to the left are not used much compared to the others. The story sticks have been used with a pencil as marking gauges. The Odd Jobs works better for short distances from an edge. The combination plane with a slitter can make an excellent marking gauge. It will cut fairly deep, that is why it has a depth gauge with the slitter blade.

A combination square and the Odd Jobs are both good for stepped marking. This can be useful in laying out repeated drill centers for shelf supports.

The rosewood gauge is for marking mortise and tenons.

Most used would be a toss up between the Odd Jobs and the Tite Mark® gauge followed by the two wooden Stanley gauges.

There are two or three more combination squares and a few more combination planes. Even without a slitter a combination plane or any plane with a fence and a spur can be used to leave a controlled mark.

jtk

[ken hatch]

I ran across an old photo of some of the herd, like I posted I've a marking gauge jones but day to day less than ten are used. Some gauges work better than others for some jobs, I've never found the perfect gauge although the TiteMark comes close.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh222/VTXAZ/markingGaugeB160503_zps5k3cnkxd.jpg

ken

[David Eisenhauer]

Ok Ken, you need some serious hep son.

[Shawn Pixley]

Two. But I only use one.

i have a wodden Crown and a Titemark. I use the Titemark almost exclusively.

[ken hatch]

Ok Ken, you need some serious hep son.

Ain't that the truth :p

ken

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Ken! Whenever my wife asks if I have enough tools I will show that photo :)

[ken hatch]

Nice work Ken! Whenever my wife asks if I have enough tools I will show that photo :)

Brian,

Glad to help :). Anytime you need backup I expect I can provide a photo. I'm really not a tool collector, yeah right Bubba, but I do seem to like trying things most of which end up stuck on a shelf.

ken

[James Pallas]

I ran across an old photo of some of the herd, like I posted I've a marking gauge jones but day to day less than ten are used. Some gauges work better than others for some jobs, I've never found the perfect gauge although the TiteMark comes close.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh222/VTXAZ/markingGaugeB160503_zps5k3cnkxd.jpg

ken
Observation: Keep the truck, RAV4 not near big enough.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Brian,

Glad to help :). Anytime you need backup I expect I can provide a photo. I'm really not a tool collector, yeah right Bubba, but I do seem to like trying things most of which end up stuck on a shelf.

ken

I think this is called being a tool collector by accident or circumstance, hah! ...wasn't the intention, but somehow it just happened.

[ken hatch]

Observation: Keep the truck, RAV4 not near big enough.
Jim

James,

A lot of truth in that. I've pretty much made that decision, besides I need the truck to carry the portable work bench and the smaller tool chest.

ken