# Simple and cheap taper gauges.......



## brino (Sep 9, 2019)

Years ago when I was trying to find B&S #11 taper tooling for my mill I wanted a quick way to help me sort tapers.
(https://www.hobby-machinist.com/gallery/albums/my-1916-cincinnati-3s-milling-machine.364/)

I looked around for a cheap set of taper gauges and found nothing useful for Morse and B&S sizes.

So I thought I'd try making some.
These are NOT meant to be used for comparison when cutting a taper, but only to help ID what is in the used tools bin at the tool store.
They've been very useful for that.

I took a sheet of plastic, got out my Machinery's Handbook and drew centre lines, and then measured out the taper sizes and lengths from the centre line.
I cut them out with an x-acto knife and ruler.
This left me with both male and female "gauges".

Morse:






B&S:






If I was to redo it today I'd probably 3D-print some gauges, but I did not have that ability years ago.......

-brino


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## Latinrascalrg1 (Sep 9, 2019)

For some reason my minds eye seen it a different way when you first mentioned doing this.   I visualized you where "Warping" the material around/into the taper to measure and i thought that was a good Idea but now seeing what you meant and now I kick myself for looking past the more Obvious and superior method! 

Thanks for Sharing.


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## hman (Sep 10, 2019)

Durn!  Absolutely great idea and execution.  Maybe send the photos to Little Machine Shop or PM, and see if they can put something like this into production.


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