Latest shop made tool design.

[Steve LaFara]

What you see is my interpritation of a dovetail marking gauge and square that I recently made. The birds eye maple one was a gift to one of the guys over on WoodNet and the ebony one is my keeper. I learned a lot making these as this is the first time I've made a knurled brass knob, inlayed mother of pearl and used Transtint dyes on the maple. It's pretty cool what kind of effects you can get with mixing different dyes if you are willing to experiment a little. My little Sherline mill and lathe came in very handy on the brass parts. Now I just need to figure out an efficient production routine as I've had a few requests to purchase one. Critiques welcome.

http://www.fototime.com/A2E3900D715FB25/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/84D762C9EF269BA/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/C2AF7F8583F26D8/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/CEEDEF8AD6A933C/standard.jpg

Thanks for looking.

[Marcus Ward]

Whoa! That's brilliant looking!! Triple wow. I'm not 100% certain why you made the gauge slide down except maybe so you could mark pins and tails at the same time? Which is in itself, brilliance. I really like em and the finish work is gorgeous.

[Billy Chambless]

That's the kind of beautiful tool that simply inspires good work.

[Steve LaFara]

Whoa! That's brilliant looking!! Triple wow. I'm not 100% certain why you made the gauge slide down except maybe so you could mark pins and tails at the same time? Which is in itself, brilliance. I really like em and the finish work is gorgeous.


The concept behind the sliding bar is that you can vary the width of the tails if you want from very skinny to wide plus you you loosen the knob and flip the blade around to use as a square if you want. Make sense?

[Jim Becker]

Exquisite tools, Steve. They caught my eye in the "best of 2007" thread in GW, too.

[Tim Leo]

The concept behind the sliding bar is that you can vary the width of the tails if you want from very skinny to wide plus you you loosen the knob and flip the blade around to use as a square if you want. Make sense?

Could you expand on that a little? How does sliding the bar down change the width of the tail? I don't get it...:confused: It looks like the tapered part of the brass aligns with the wood flat when the bar is in the full up position, sliding the bar down will expose the straight part of the bar. How does that change the width of the tail?

btw, the gauge is stunning and I may have to make one for myself.

[Marcus Ward]

Yes, I understand what you're saying now. I guess what I thought was if you had a jig you could clamp both the tail and pin pieces in you could slide it all the way down and mark both at once. Turning it around for a square is a brilliant idea too. It's clear you spent a lot of time thinking about this. Beautiful design.


The concept behind the sliding bar is that you can vary the width of the tails if you want from very skinny to wide plus you you loosen the knob and flip the blade around to use as a square if you want. Make sense?

[Don C Peterson]

I'd love to have one of those... They are a great idea.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Beautiful tools Steve. Made from some of my favorite woods.

[Thomas Knighton]

I'd love to have one of those... They are a great idea.

Ditto! Very nice!

Tom

[Steve LaFara]

Could you expand on that a little? How does sliding the bar down change the width of the tail? I don't get it...:confused: It looks like the tapered part of the brass aligns with the wood flat when the bar is in the full up position, sliding the bar down will expose the straight part of the bar. How does that change the width of the tail?

btw, the gauge is stunning and I may have to make one for myself.


Tim, after thinking about what you said it finally dawned on me that you are absolulty correct. Having the slot allows the bar to be filpped around and used as a square and can be retracted or extended as needed. Not sure what the hell I was thinking when I wrote that first response.:confused:

[Bruce Page]

Those are beautiful Steve. I have found that unless you have the perfect diametrical pitch / feed-rate dialed in, diamond knurling results can be unpredictable, at least when I do it.. :o