My responding to another post caused me to post this

[Tom Bussey]

Why buy gauge block set, why not switch to decimals and do direct reading. One wants to raise the cutter a hair ( which is about .002-.003) . This gauge is direct reading and my 5 year old grand daughter did it.

492092

If a person wants to cut a 1/4 inch deep groove in a board, this gauge is direct reading and it and measure the rise. Because of the 1/2 inch flat point. the blade can be raised and the blade can be rotated to find top dead center. On most table saws the blade arcs up and the gauge can be mover to Acoma date the arc. The rise is .250 . Say a rabbit is cut with a rabbiting bit on a router table. The distance from the bearing to the cutting edge is .250. So to avoid a duel location I would raise the cutter .255

492094

If a person wants to move a fence .004 to fit a piece of plywood it can be done. Works on tenoning jigs also.

492095

why not switch to decimals and direct reading. If you have a quarter in your pocket, you have the equivalent if 25 pennies. Written out it would be .25. When I grew up we also had 50 cent pieces which was the same as a half dollar. It isn't rocket science to figure out that if you have 2 quarters you have a half a dollar and if you have a half a dollar and a quarter you have 3 quarters or 75 cents. If you have you have .75 and add a zero you get .750 and not you are working in thousands of an inch. If you add .750 and .500 ( or 5 quarters) in you head you have $1.250 or one dollar and 25 cents.

One inch being 1000 pennies or 10 dollars. I say thousands because my mother gave my sister and I a quarter and said we could go to the store and buy what ever but we had to split the quarter which came to 12 and 1/2 cents (written out .125 which is 1/8th of a dollar) Since we couldn't split a penny, We flipped for it.

1/64th is .0156 or rounded off 015
1/32th is .0312 or rounded off.030
1/16th is.0625 or rounded off .060 or .062
1/8th is .125 rounded off is .120 but I never round of an 1/8th.

So if you add 1/8th ( .125 ) and 1/16 (.062) you get .187 ( .1875 if you are using a micrometer) you get 1/16ths.

Lets take 3/8ths. 1+1+1 =3 and 25+25+25 = 75 so 38ths equal .375

3/8ths and 3/8ths is 3/4s and with a little work and memorization one can be doing all this in there head.

[Edward Weber]

It just depends on what and how you learned, what tools you used, and what type of measuring needed to be done.
Personally, I never used decimal inches or metric that much until I started working on mechanical things, before that it was all fractions. With woodworking, most of the material is measured in fractions and the machines in decimal or metric, so you really need to know "enough" of all three.
I like gauge blocks and use them daily for many things, for me, it's easier than reading a dial.
Not sure where you're going with this

[Keegan Shields]

Do people still carry change in their pockets? :)

I like gauge blocks and find them endlessly useful for setup. Plenty of (IMO) silly jigs and measuring devices sold by WP, but I do like the gauge block set. Lots of ways to skin this woodworking cat.

[Cameron Wood]

Interesting points, but direct reading to me does not use numbers at all, and you still need test cuts.
In the example of raising the cutter a hair, the hair is the unit of measurement- why convert it to something else?

[Tom M King]

I always heard measurement terms in blonde or brunette hairs.

I do use precise measuring for some things.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Measure with a micrometer, mark it with a piece of chalk, and cut it with an axe. Precision work, we measured it with a micrometer!

[Bruce Wrenn]

I always heard measurement terms in blonde or brunette hairs. The hairs I have heard of weren't referenced to as any color, more to location

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks for posting this Tom! I found it useful.
Fred

[Cameron Wood]

The hairs I have heard of weren't referenced to as any color, more to location

The finest being red (location) hair, I believe...

[glenn bradley]

I do similar but stay in my imperial world.
492107 . 492106
After nearly 40 years of octal, decimal, metric, and hex working in imperial relaxes me. I think it uses another part of my brain :D:D:D

[Kris Cook]

The finest being red (location) hair, I believe...

Yes. Mustn't leave out the RCH.

[Jack Frederick]

She be smart, Tom. What a joy she must be.

[Tom M King]

The hairs I have heard of weren't referenced to as any color, more to location

To be precise, both location and color. I had to switch to something else when I had Black helpers. They said they'd never seen a Blonde one.

That's more for carpentry though. I do save time with precise help sometimes.

[Wes Grass]

Ain't color it's attitude,

Machinist's world, it's measure and try. And then *compensate* .

Although with tool steels, or even aluminum, there's not much options to 'sand to fit '..

[andrew whicker]

I don't understand what you're saying?

Story sticks, etc are the way to go anyway.

Who cares what you measured prior to the cut. What matters is the actual size of the piece after the cut.

Unless you have power feed, stiff hold downs, and metal machined surfaces for every single machine you aren't getting the accuracy you are describing...

I'm not sure what you're getting at though?

That is an interesting math trick though.

[Bill Dufour]

For hygrometers blonde hair is preferred since it reacts more to humidity changes then any other color.
Wigs are made of black hair since it is coarser and you need less strands to make a equal volume. I am not sure if blonde or red hair is finer.
Bill D

[Kris Cook]

For hygrometers blonde hair is preferred since it reacts more to humidity changes then any other color.
Wigs are made of black hair since it is coarser and you need less strands to make a equal volume. I am not sure if blonde or red hair is finer.
Bill D

Well Bill, I will have to sleep on this bit of wisdom. After being married to a blonde for 38 years I have to consider all the ramifications.

[Mel Fulks]

Don’t consider. Do a good job.

[James Pallas]

Tom, Tom, you’re way out of date. 80% of your knowledge is in your pocket on a phone. The other 20% is intuitive signs like rabbits and turtles. No brain usage required.
Jim

[Mike Cutler]

Tom

Nice post, hair color not withstanding.
If a person has a shaper in their shop, they quickly learn it is a machine of thousandths.
Shaper cutters aren’t set with rulers and gauge blocks. It requires a tool such as you are using.
A router table is a very lightweight shaper, no reason not to set it up in the same manner.

[Tom M King]

I've been looking for an excuse to get that kind of dial indicator base.

[John Kananis]

I've been looking for an excuse to get that kind of dial indicator base.

I'd like one too! Looks like end of January for availability. The only negative I can think of, is that I'd like to use the indicators I have already with the base but looks like it's not available that way.

[Edward Weber]

I don't understand what you're saying?

Story sticks, etc are the way to go anyway.

Who cares what you measured prior to the cut. What matters is the actual size of the piece after the cut.



In my experience, far too many reach this conclusion far too late and some never at all.
Always measure the cut, then work backwards to adjust if necessary.

[Tom Bussey]

Very funny. Whether it is blond brunet or red head it is a moot point. The human hair is still .002- .003 and some times .004 The terminology , move it a hair, means it needs to be moved very little. How do you measure very little.
Yes, of course a test cut needs to be made. Tom King shows a digital caliper. If you have two pieces that measure a different size how do you know how to make them the same.

Woodsmith has a show on PBS and they like to show how to cut a groove so that it is perfectly centered in the board. But if it is not the size you want then how do you make it the size you want. Did I mention that if the fence isn't perfectly perpendicular the grove will be a trapezoid. Then they like Norm put on a Dato cutter and set the height at 1/3 the board board thickness. If the board is exactly 3/4 of an inch then a gauge block will work., but you are relaying on your finger. But what if it is greater or lesser then a gauge block is useless. Then it is flipped over and the second cut is taken. If the cutter is to low then the tenon won't go it and if it is to high the joint will be to loose and the glue won't hold the joint. If it is to tight the cutter needs to be raised half the difference of the of the different dimensions. If the difference is .021 how do you raise the cutter .0105. if you want the tenon to be in the center of the board.

If you are making a raised panel door using that method and each piece of the style and rails are difference thickness ( they are because you ran then through the planner at the same time.) And they will be if everything is prefect which they are not. Then you will have some joints to tight some to loose and maybe one that is right. But it looks so easy on TV. It also sound so easy also and it is repeated until it is the way to d it and , and ,and we only need to buy a set of set up blocks.

Both my router tables have router lifts. And so raising or lowering my bit is easy and I use what I showed rather than depending on a dial. Also up and down you get backlash in the screw. Lets say you want to cut a 1/4 radius on a piece of wood, you set the height of the cutter and take a test cut. The cutter was set to high and you have a lip you do not want. The lip is measurable with what I show but not measurable with a set block. Lower the cutter that amount and you are good yo go. Personally I would do another test cut.

[Tom Bussey]

I use this one way gauge, I believe that what they call it, because It works great. I also use a Digital caliper because it also works works every well, and is that last time I checked around $20. But then I tend to use a steel rule for measurements rather than a tape measure.

If you use a digital or dial caliper at all then you are measuring in thousands of an inch. If you want one that reads in fractions and want tp pay the price go for it. Most people can't add fractions in their head but if you are on the dollar system here in the USA then you already know the decimal system. Use what you know. I just added a little extra and if you memorize it it will help you. Most calculators do not add fraction but they do calculate decimals. I said most.

What I wrote was to hopefully to get you thinking in a different dimension. I wrote because I hoped someone might learn something. They used to plow fields with a horse and single bottom plow. Now the use 4 wheel drive tractors and chisel plow.

If you wish to do woodworking the old fashion way with blinders on go for it. By some of the responses you made me sorry I even bothered to write.

[Tom M King]

That picture of the tenon with digital caliper was one of maybe 120 parts that had just been planed down to the same thickness. I was setting the 1172 tenoning jig to run them all. They were left a couple of thousandths thicker than the mortise width to allow fine tuning as the sash were assembled over the coming days. No glue was used, so they needed to be a tight, but not an interference fit at assembly. Pegs only so parts can be replaced a couple of hundred years down the line like I have done with other old ones.

The dial caliper would have been good to set the tenoning jig with, but I didn't have one ready to go. I will next time thanks to this thread.

Certain hair color is a common reference on construction sites. Hand a piece that's a little long down to the saw man, and it's said to take a _insert color__ _____ hair off of it. My comments about using certain hair color was intended only as a joke.

[Cameron Wood]

Thank you for posting your techniques. Even though it's not an immediate fit for me with my primitive router table set up,etc. and possibly lower standards,

good info for future use.

I've had the experience of putting out what I think are useful tips, and gotten negative comments- I think it's just part of the deal.

I also look at it that we're entertaining each other. I know that I look for stuff to read & think about, & like to provide some material, even if it gets poo-pooed.