Marking Gauges Conclusion

After final sanding with 220 grit, I was ready for finish.  I used Chris Schwarz workbench finish.  Equal parts oil based varnish (I use satin) boiled linseed oil, and odorless mineral spirits.  I wiped on two coats with a piece of old tee-shirt.  I let the first coat dry overnight and the second coat dry for two days.

The beech takes on a nice color with the first coat of finish.  The original color was almost as white as the pine sticks I have the parts sitting on.






The final step of the finish was to clean up the parts with 0000 steel wool and apply a coat of paste wax.

The last part I needed was the steel marking pin.  I made these from music wire that measured .078 inch diameter.  I cut them 1-1/8 inches long. I filed the flat and used a bench grinder with an 80 grit wheel to round the back side.  It ends up being kind of a football shaped.

I heated these to bright red and quenched in water then tempered them to straw color.  OK, some of them may have been more blue than straw.  You have to be very careful when heating something this small.  Either way, then are harder than when I started.

I refined them on my sharpening stones until I had a nice sharp edge.

I laid out the hole location 3/8 inch from the end of the beam.  Then used my drill press with a #48 drill bit which measures .076 inch diameter.  This proved to be a little too tight so I ran the same drill through again using a cordless drill and it took out just enough to make the pin fit.  It's still pretty tight, I tapped them in with a small hammer.  I think that's the kind of fit you want so it won't slip.


This was a fun project and I'm very pleased with the way these turned out.

You may be wondering why I need six marking gauges.  I plan to keep three and give the rest to friends who also enjoy woodworking.

Marking Gauges Part 2

I made a layout wedge out of scrap to help mark the mortise for the locking wedge.  I can't swear to it but I think I used 10 degrees.







I knifed in the first line about 1/32 inch above the bottom of the beam mortise using a square.  I deepened the line slightly with a chisel then chiseled out a little wedge of material.  I deepened the knife line again and removed more material until I could set my layout wedge against the knife line.  This way I could use the wedge as a guide to knife the second line.

I used a carcase saw to cut down both sides of the mortise then removed the bulk of the waste with a chisel followed up by a router plane.

The front piece has the knife lines and chiseling to guide the saw.

In the back, you can see the beam extends slightly into the wedge mortise.

This shows a test fit with the layout wedge holding the beam in place.

Here are both parts of the head before glue up.  The front piece is a little more than 5/16 inch thick.

By leaving both parts a little bit thick, I could come back and plane off the layout lines later.



I resawed and numbered the parts so I could match up the grain when I glued them back together.  This makes it look more like a single piece of wood when it's finished.

I used numerous spring clamps to hold it in place while the glue dried.  I also used an F-clamp to keep the edges aligned.








I used a plane to clean up the long sides, making sure to keep them square to the top and the faces.  Then I used a square, marking knife, and marking gauge to transfer the mortise location to the opposite side.  I tightened my layout wedge into the wedge mortise to keep from blowing out the fibers inside the part when I chiseled through.  I had some tear out but it was minor and won't be seen when the gauge is assembled.

I used the lid from a can of spray paint to mark the radius on top the head.  I cut these on the bandsaw then cleaned them up at the disc sander.






I failed to get photos while making the wedges.  On the first batch, I fitted the wedges before gluing the head halves back together.  I think this made it a little easier to see just how well the wedge fits.  I forgot this lesson on the second batch so it took a little longer but everything still worked out fine.

The back of the head gets a 30 degree bevel and the back edges were rounded over at the router table.  I think I used a 3/16 radius, could be wrong, the bit was already in the router and it looked good on a test part. :)



Unlike the first batch, I made sure that I situated the parts so the thickest part of the head stock (the part with the wedge mortise) was at the back.  This way, when I cut the 30 degree bevel, it doesn't expose the glue line.  As you can see here, the glue line is practically invisible and the grain matches very well.

I broke the corners along the length of the beams with a block plane and chamfered both ends with a chisel.

Stay tuned for the conclusion.

Marking Gauges Part 1

I had seen this article and this tutorial on making traditional marking gauges which  inspired me to make some of my own.  I took some liberties with the process and the wedge orientation to come up with a method that is easy and fun using 'mostly' hand tools.

This article documents the construction of my second batch of gauges.  The first batch came out fine but I didn't get many pics and I learned some things in the process that made the second batch a little bit nicer.

This is my first batch made with bubinga that was left over from another project.

I placed my wedges under the beam rather than on top as in the original.




I had seen one online with the wedge oriented this way.  I think this makes it more comfortable to hold and use.

I decided to make the second batch of three from beech, since I had some quartersawn that I had bought a few years ago.  I had 2x2 inch stock and was able to resaw it on the bandsaw to get the beams and stocks from one 9-1/2 inch length.   I had to saw another 3-1/4 inch length to make the wedges.  That left me with plenty of extra wedge material if I decide to make more gauges.

This is my beech stock roughed into beams, stocks, and wedges.  The stocks or heads are resawn into two different thicknesses which will be glued back together during the build.

After planing away the bandsaw marks and squaring the stock, I marked out the mortise on both sides of the thicker piece of the head.  These are 2 x 3 inches and a bit more than 5/8 thick.

I used a 9/16 Forstner bit to remove most of the waste.  I roughly squared up the corners with a 1/4 inch chisel, then finished up with a 1/2 inch working from both sides.  The finished mortise is approximately 5/8 inch square.

I was aiming for a close, slightly snug fit.  It took some minor paring inside the mortise then planing the beam to fit.

I mortised all three before moving to the next step.










Stay tuned for part 2.

Chisel tweaking

I have some Shop Fox brand chisels I bought a while back from Grizzly.  They appear to be identical to the ones Paul Sellers talks about buying from Aldi stores in the U.K.   Although I paid more than Paul did, these were still quite reasonable.  Tonight I decided to give one of the handles the Paul Sellers treatment to make them look a little nicer.

I removed the handle by driving it off with a steel pin-punch, which pretty much destroyed the thin steel ferrule.

I tried several methods to hold the handle.  Holding it between bench dogs in the tail vise was the winner.  Raising the dogs above the surface of the bench allowed me to work the top and a little around the sides with a spokeshave.  Rotate and repeat.

I used a card scraper to remove the painted on label and get rid of the machine marks and most of the old finish.  Then I followed up with a file and sandpaper to blend and smooth everything.

The refined shape along side the original.

Machine marks were pretty evident before scraping.

This last photo shows the handle with two coats of amber shellac.  I think I'll spray on a couple coats of clear shellac just to build up the finish a little more.  I ordered brass ferrules from Lee Valley so I'll wait until they arrive to shape the rest of the handles.

I'm happy with the results, I think it looks a lot less clunky with the new tapered shape.  The darker color is a winner as well.

Bench Hooks Conlusion

Now that I had dowel stock, I could finish up my bench hooks.  I laid out the dowel locations on the narrow hook, drilled 3/8 -inch through holes, and glued in three dowels.

Dowels before final trimming.

I laid out seven dowel locations on the mitre hook to make sure nothing moves after I cut through the fence.

Finished Bench Hooks.

After trimming all the dowels and planing or sanding them flush, I cut the 45-degree slots in the mitre hook and this project is finished.

What prompted this flurry of activity is that I finally put a shelf under my workbench so I could have my planes close at hand.  I added a second shelf about 10 inches above the first to hold my shooting board and now my bench hooks, and apparently some chisels.

A handy and useful space now.

Making Dowels

I needed some dowels to finish up my bench hooks.  I have a few lumber yard/hardware store dowels in different sizes but they are not very round or very accurately sized.  I also don't know what species of wood they are made from.

Making your own dowels is great if you want to match them with the wood in your project.  In the past I have turned them on the lathe.  It works but it's slow going sneaking up on the correct size and it's easy to screw them up.

I considered ordering a dowel plate from Lie-Nielson or Lee Valley but they are kind of pricey and, since you drive the wood through them with a hammer, are only good for making relatively short dowels.  I had previously seen some DIY dowel makers online and decided to spend some time researching the matter.  There were a number of different takes that were interesting but the one that Izzy Swan made seemed like the best of everything.  It seemed easy to build and could cut long dowels in just about any type of wood species.

I had a piece of 3/8-inch thick 1018 cold rolled steel that was the perfect size for this.  I laid it out for every common size dowel that I should ever need and one or two I may never need.

Beginnings of a dowel maker.

I scribed layout lines where I would drill my holes then marked them with a center punch and drilled through with an 1/8-inch bit.  Then I proceeded to drill the actual sizes from 3/16 to 1/2 in 1/16-inch increments.  I drilled the smaller holes at about 940 RPM and the larger ones at 380 RPM.

Dremel style cut off wheels.

I had two different diameter cut off wheels.  I used the smaller one on the three smallest holes and the large one on the rest.  I cut slots across the holes every 45-degrees to create kind of a star pattern between a 1/16 and 1/8-inch deep at the edge of the holes tapering to nothing as it led away from the hole.

Star pattern on three of the holes.

I had some small strips of birch and decided to try it in the 3/8 hole.  I ripped the material on the table saw to near 3/8 square.  I sharpened one end on the disc sander so it would start in the plate and roughly rounded the other end to fit in my drill.  I started running it through the plate but it was going really slow and starting to burn the wood.  Then I recalled Izzy saying that the material needed to be very close to final size for this to work well.  I ran the blank through the 1/2-inch then the 7/16-inch holes to get it closer to size.  It went through both of them fairly easily since it was really just taking off the corners.  It was a little more difficult in the 3/8 hole since it was taking a full round cut but it went through better than before.

I thought I would try modifying the 3/8 hole by filing some clearance angle on the back of the slots.  I used a diamond needle file for that.  I really couldn't tell much difference in the way it cut compared to before so I abandoned the idea.

Clearance angle filed in lower right hole.

  After making and measuring the first dowel, I could see that they were just a few thousands oversize.  A little sanding had them down to size.  They were a perfect fit in a hole drilled with the bit I had used to make the dowel plate.  Unfortunately, I sometimes use Forstner bits and mine seem to drill about .008 to .010 oversize.  To allow for this, I turned the plate over and re-drilled the holes 1/64-inch oversize.  Now I can just sand the dowels to fit whichever drill I happen to be using for a project.  I didn't have a 33/64 drill so the 1/2-inch hole is not oversize.

Finished plate and some sample birch dowels.

This project was definitely a success.  After a little sanding, these dowels look as good or better than anything I can buy and in any wood species I want.

Bench Hooks

I can't count the number of times I've tried to cut some small piece of stock with a handsaw only to chase it all over the bench because I hadn't taken the time to build a simple bench hook.  This weekend I decided to finally break down and build a pair of them.  I think a pair will be handy when working on long stock.  I can spread them apart and support the longer pieces.

'50s vintage plywood and a strip of hard maple

I saved all of the old plywood doors from my kitchen cabinets.  This is not that crappy, made in China, home center plywood.  No, this is 1958 cabinet grade birch veneer plywood.  Nice and flat with no internal voids.  The inner cores appear to be some type of fir.  Nice and flat!

I scraped and sanded the varnish off of both sides of the door and cut it to 12 x 18 inches.  I came up with a narrow strip of hard maple for the fence.  I decided that I would like to have a fence that was tall enough to double as a mitre box so I would need to laminate two pieces.

Gluing up the fence.

Gluing the fence to the base.

I glued the fence and the bottom cleat to the plywood base.  Then decided how wide I wanted my two bench hooks to be.  I settled on 10 and 8 inches wide.  The narrower of the two has a short fence for square cuts.  I made the other a little wider for cutting mitres.

Knife lines for the mitre slots.

I marked out the 45 degree lines for the mitre slots but decided I should do something more to attach the fence than just glue before I cut it into three pieces.  Rather than using screws, I'll use dowels to reinforce the fence attachment.  Now I need to build something to make dowels!  I'll post about that tomorrow.