# The Universal Marking Gauge!



## MERLIncMan (Nov 26, 2020)

Gentlemen,

     Many a time, and oft, must the man make the line parallel to the edge - whether in iron or wood, be that edge straight or curved and the line so desired drawn by pencil, scribed by scorp, or cut into the grain....

SO! Using the new Milly I obtained a square of aluminum with M4 drilled and tapped into the ends, with some 0.078" holes cross bored for the pencil lead or scriber made of some bicycle wheel spokes (a rather hard kind of stainless - don't know what it is) - the M4 holds a grub screw to affix the marking device, I got these two grub-screws left over from my recent DRO install.

Also, making use of the steel strapping that previously was wrapped around my Mill's crate, I bent some 90 degree angle with an integral blade - I welded a bit on the end to make the blade rigid, and ground/filed/honed a bit of a profile in it - I know that strap steel will not hold an edge well, but it is fine for me.

The body is maple and mahogany scrap from the bin, and the sliding-face is a bit of some mysterious-exotic rose-type wood that is RIDICULOUSLY dense, and harder than aluminum; I don't know what it's called, only the weird smell that it makes on a sander...

On the rear end of the gizmo, I attached two 1/4" pins, so as to allow the thing to be used to scribe off a curve.

The aforementioned blade can be used alone like a Japanese Cutting Gauge, or in concert with the scribe to make for a mortising gauge.

The bar and blade are held at the setting by means of a cam-lever. I love cam-lever clamps... have made many things in that manner. This cam is held in pivot with a bit of 1/8" stainless welding rod (never used that stuff to weld, just to make all sorts of stuff - it is ridiculously useful!)

It does its job! It is not as I would wish, there are some issues with it, but it sure is pretty, and I believe, humbly, that it is far superior to any marking gauge on the market - and I made it with scraps lying around!

It was fun to make, and I even used Milly to put the dado in the maple body - protecting the ways from the maple of course (most wood contains silicon - sand - is why it is so hard on tools!) so it's even got a precision dado!

Anywho, here are the pics - the design is mine, so if you want to copy it, go ahead! If you sell it and make money, be kind to the guy who gave you the idea!

Also, happy un-Thanksgiving. Cancelled or not, may your yams be yum and your gravy ever great!

Thanks for looking.


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## schmidty13 (Nov 26, 2020)

MERLIncMan said:


> View attachment 345467



  It looks purrrrfect!


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## benmychree (Nov 26, 2020)

The sliding face looks like IPE, pronounced "E Pay", it is used for decking, and actually sinks in water, I have made a few projects with it, in some ways similar to your project.


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## MERLIncMan (Nov 26, 2020)

schmidty13 said:


> It looks purrrrfect!



Donkey Stain!


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## MERLIncMan (Nov 26, 2020)

benmychree said:


> The sliding face looks like IPE, pronounced "E Pay", it is used for decking, and actually sinks in water, I have made a few projects with it, in some ways similar to your project.



Ipe you say?

Thus it shall be known!

It's a really strange wood, I ended up with a few chunks of it years ago while working at the cabinet shop - this is the first thing I've made with it. In weird ways it's brittle, but it's hard enough that my bandsaw couldn't get a straight cut cross grain. I did this piece with the table saw and it rings all the way through the cut, but then the last bit will break. It drills like a really hard wax, and takes to 800 grit sandpaper like a steel.

Carving out the recess for the cutting blade took about an hour and a half - marking knives barely make a dent in it, and the chisel kept trying to chip out rather than cut. All-in-all weird stuff - I'd hate to try it on a lathe.

Someday I thought to try and make a xylophone with it - its sound is really nice. It rings without any thump if that makes sense.

Thanks for letting me know a name for it - accurate or not, that's what I'll call it!


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## benmychree (Nov 26, 2020)

Some call it ironwood --- try dunking a piece of it in water and see if it sinks.


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## eugene13 (Nov 26, 2020)

Ipe, thanks, it always feels good to learn something.


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## silence dogood (Nov 26, 2020)

The wood may be cebil, also known as Patogonian Rosewood.  That's my best guess.


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## MERLIncMan (Nov 27, 2020)

silence dogood said:


> The wood may be cebil, also known as Patogonian Rosewood.  That's my best guess.



Your wrench in the works sent me down a rabbit-hole. This site: https://www.wood-database.com.

Now, I've got to go shine a UV light at the stuff to see if it fluoresces! Apparently Cumaru is mistaken for Ipe, but Cumaru can fluoresce. Cebil however does not apparently have a distinct smell while working, so it is unlikely that my mystery wood is Cebil - but it may be... or not.... or could!

Thanks for ruining everything!


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## BROCKWOOD (Nov 27, 2020)

Looks good.


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## ThinWoodsman (Nov 27, 2020)

I was just showing a friend the fence on a Stanley router plane, which has the same shape for the same purpose (following straight, convex, or concave edges). Neat idea to use it as a marking gauge.


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