Digital height guage

[Dave Lehnert]

Any experance with the digital height Gauge? The pic below is from Rockler. Wixy also has a similar unit. http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/30980-01-500.jpg

[glenn bradley]

The price tag is just a little over the top for me for what you get. I did this (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=41045&d=1150501146) after seeing it in Wood(?). HF caliper = $6 or so on sale. I epoxied a flat washer to the tip after this pic was shot. It also works for fence depth when laid on it's back.

[Ray Scheller]

I haie the Wixey and I've found it quite reliable and accurate. It's very easy to set the height on saw blades and router bits.

[Dave Lehnert]

The price tag is just a little over the top for me for what you get. I did this (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=41045&d=1150501146) after seeing it in Wood(?). HF caliper = $6 or so on sale. I epoxied a flat washer to the tip after this pic was shot. It also works for fence depth when laid on it's back.
Thanks for the idea. I always used a ruler but now making some small boxes and blade height is more critical.

[glenn bradley]

No prob. I just re-read my post. I didn't mean to make it sound like these items are not worth their price. I made the one pictured on a whim figuring I would get something serious later. I'd be lost without this thing or something like it. It just happened to work out better than expected.

TS blade height, RT bit height, fence depth, hand router bit depth, straight edge offset, etc. etc. Whatever version you get/make I am sure you will find it valuable ;-)

[David Werkheiser]

Height gauges are great on shapers, especially with cope and stick cutters. I wright down all my router and shaper set-ups in a loose leaf binder, it helps when you need to remake a rail or stile.
David Werkheiser

[Bob Ross]

Just today I bought a digital fractional caliper on ebay. Depth settings is one of the reasons I want one. Converting decimals hurts my feeble brain :D.

If you go looking, be careful. Some are described as fractional and are not.

[Bruce Page]

Dave, as long as you can zero out on a flat surface, there’s not much that can go wrong with them – they have been around machine shops for several years. Personally, I still prefer the direct reading vernier type. They’re absolutely bullet proof, unless you drop them, and batteries aren’t required. :eek:

[Joe Vincent]

I have the Wixey and like it a lot. One of the reasons is that I like to be able to come back and set up my blade, dado, bit, etc. to an exact height so that I confidently have repeatablity.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have the unit pictured. Previously I used a dial micrometer mounted to a piece of wood, which I think worked equally as well, except you can zero this one to any height and my micrometer travel was limited to 1". Since my calipers are digital and this height gauge is also, it is a piece of cake for to us wihtout having to convert to fractions and back to decimal.

I'm not sure I would have purchased without an incentive (ie., discount) but it was given to me as a birthday gift.

[Dan Friedrichs]

So - dumb question, but how do you use one of these? If you're adjusting TS blade height, don't you need one hand on the gauge and one on the handle?

I had been thinking of building one of these, but want to put a spring in it so that the "flat" piece that touches the top of the blade is always being pulled down by the spring. That way, if you want to set your blade to any given height, you just set the gauge over it, turn the handle, and the gauge instantly and constantly show the height without you having to mess with it.

[Bruce Wrenn]

The price tag is just a little over the top for me for what you get. I did this (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=41045&d=1150501146) after seeing it in Wood(?). HF caliper = $6 or so on sale. I epoxied a flat washer to the tip after this pic was shot. It also works for fence depth when laid on it's back.It was in ShopNotes, April 06, if memory serves me correctly. I have built several for gifts.

[chet jamio]

I bought the Rockler version shown in the photo. After 5 minutes of usage, I returned it. I've since ordered the Wixey and like it much better.

[James Adinaro]

OK, maybe a second dumb question...

I can see how one of these might be useful on say, a router table. But how do you use one of these on a tablesaw? Wouldn't it require finding the Top Dead Center of the arc of the blade, trying to hold the peak of one of the teeth directly at TDC with one hand, manipulating the height gauge with another, and adjusting the blade height with a third?

I've tried this approach in the past, and returned the device. It's always been vastly quicker to just cut a piece of scrap and measure the depth of cut with calipers.

Maybe I'm just missing something basic in my technique - but I can't see how this would give you something even close to repeatable.

Thanks!

[glenn bradley]

I can't see how this would give you something even close to repeatable.Thanks!

I took a tip from somewhere and drew a set of cross-hairs on my blades with a magic marker. This make it relatively easy to get a tooth in the TDC position visually. It sounded kinda silly when I read the tip but in practice . . . its really pretty handy.

As long as the gauges contact area is wide enough to move the blade a few degrees either way to feel it touch, your good. The thing I don't see these doing well is horizontal work; bit to fence on a router or other 'near surface' measurement.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Yep. That's a problem with it. It isn't spring loaded like my dial indicator version.

[AL Ursich]

The price tag is just a little over the top for me for what you get. I did this (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=41045&d=1150501146) after seeing it in Wood(?). HF caliper = $6 or so on sale. I epoxied a flat washer to the tip after this pic was shot. It also works for fence depth when laid on it's back.

Another GREAT IDEA !!!! :D I just ordered 2 from HF for $9.00 I think... Missed the $6.00

Thanks,

AL

[Jeffrey Hightower]

Add me to the "big fan of height gauges" category, particularly for router table setup and for repeatability of all sorts of things as David points out. HGs are definitely not a required shop item, but I find that I use mine all the time; I hardly ever touch my setup blocks or homemade height thingy anymore because the HG is so fast.

To constrast Glenn's nice DIY post, this post is probably best used to highlight what is available at the other end of the price spectrum since I use a Mitutoyo 570.
http://www.tylertool.com/mi5712dihega.html

The clear downside of Mitutoyo's stuff (Starrett's too) is that it is definitely not cheap, even when picked up used (I got my HG along with some calipers and a depth gauge from a local machine shop that liquidated). I think of it as sorta the Cadillac (Lexus?) of gauges if you're looking for super-smooth action and rock-solid construction. If you've ever tried a pair of $150 calipers after a pair of $20 calipers you know what I mean.

I have no stake in any of these companies, of course. I'm just a happy user. I used to be a metal-head before I became a wood-rat so I have a soft spot for these sorts of tools. :)

[Dan Mitchell]

The price tag is just a little over the top for me for what you get. I did this (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=41045&d=1150501146) after seeing it in Wood(?). HF caliper = $6 or so on sale. I epoxied a flat washer to the tip after this pic was shot. It also works for fence depth when laid on it's back.

OK I GOTTA have one of those!

Dan

[Dan Mitchell]

Another GREAT IDEA !!!! :D I just ordered 2 from HF for $9.00 I think... Missed the $6.00

Thanks,

AL

Just picked one up at a local HF to make a height gauge, after playing with it a bit I may get another just for general measuring (I currently have a dial-type).

One tip: if you're planning to get them at a store rather than online, print out the online listing (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93293), bring it with you & they will match the online price (as they do with all online prices). $9.99 online, $12.99 in the store. What the heck 3 bucks is 3 bucks, right? ;-)

BTW, HERE'S (http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/2008/06/19/sn/) the article referred to above. I think I may try to come up with a design more along the lines of the Rockler gauge, though.

Dan

[Dan Mitchell]

I built one of these configured like the Rockler/Wixey models from a 4.5 digit stainless steel digital caliper available right now at HF for 10 bucks. In fact, the body of the guage is identical to the Rockler example. Pretty easy to do. I posted a brief discussion about it over on Wood Central, with pics & construction details, at this link (http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/messages3.pl?read=372147), if anyone's interested. There's a step by step toward the bottom of the thread.

Dan

[Doug Shepard]

LV just recently added a listing for one too
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=61612&cat=51&ap=1
Haven't compared it to the Rockler/Wixey ones though to see what the difference is.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

One tip: if you're planning to get them at a store rather than online, print out the online listing (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93293), bring it with you & they will match the online price (as they do with all online prices). $9.99 online, $12.99 in the store.

This one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=97675
is a better one for only $10.00 more than the sale price of the composite one when that one is on sale, and $7.00 more when it's not.
I bought one about a month ago and have used it constantly.
It has better resolution (x.xxx vs x.xx), plus it's also fractional, plus it has the thinga-ma-jigger to lock it in place and the little knobbie thing to creep up on measurements - plus it's metal instead of plastic.

Both are a great value for the money. I used the heck out of the cheaper composite one for close to a year and a half. I still use it for a lot of things.
I ran into a wall with it though when I needed to split 3/4" measurements in half due to the resolution. The readout was/is too ambiguous even when switching it to metric.

[glenn bradley]

It was in ShopNotes, April 06, if memory serves me correctly. I have built several for gifts.
That sounds about right. It was a reader tip. I love the silly thing.