Height gage help

[EmilioG]

Check Ebay: There are some really nice Mitutoyo dial height gages for sale that come up often.
(I know it doesn't help your current situation but if you're looking for something else, consider Mitutoyo dial HG's).
I recently bought a Mit 6" dial HG in crisp condition with wood case. The Mit 509 series are excellent.
Very accurate and well made. 6" and 12" dial HG models available on Ebay. (no longer made, discontinued).

 

[jamby]

Umm I am probably not reading this right but when I got paid to lean on a granite slab we always sat short stuff on a 1-2-3 block and against an angle plate set off the block and scratched em.

Jim

 

[TakeDeadAim]

The catalog photo is not the height gauge the OP has. In the catalog the beam is mounted at the back of the base. The posted photo has the beam mounted more toward the center of the base. It would be my suspicion that you may have a gauge made up of parts that were not intended to go together. Many of the parts interchange between models and brands. Is there a model number on the tool anywhere? Finding out what you have and getting more information about what parts it is supposed to have may help.

 

[Joe P.]

It is a 12" model 585. There are several for sale on eBay, they all look identical as mine. There seems to be an offset scriber available at one probably to allow measurements under 1". The height gage reads accurately when I compared it to 2,3,4 and 5 micrometer standards. My plan is to somehow remove 0.040" and make an offset scriber.


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[RJSakowski]

If the gage reads correctly with the micrometer standards, I wouldn't grind the bottom. It will no longer read correctly. It may well be that the gage was never intended to go down to 1.000".
Here is an eBay sale which includes both jaws.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Sharp...8dbdc7&pid=100338&rk=1&rkt=30&sd=142252799114

 

[WoodBee]

All I can say then is to grind .040" off of the bottom of the slide, or accept it the way it is.

RJSakowski,
Bob didn't advise to grind the bottom of the gage, but rather the underside of the slide. This will not influence the readings, but will allow it to go lower.

Peter

 

[Bob Korves]

RJSakowski,
Bob didn't advise to grind the bottom of the gage, but rather the underside of the slide. This will not influence the readings, but will allow it to go lower.

Peter

I personally would never grind the bottom of the slide to get the .040". I would classify that as butchering a nice old tool. But people look at things differently, and if that is a requirement to the owner, then it would certainly be possible and would achieve the desired results. Leave the base and the vertical column alone, just carefully grind the bottom of the slide by about .050", IF there will be room for the arm where the scriber is mounted to clear the base after grinding it. There is some clearance visible in the photos, but unsure if it is enough. I would absolutely not grind on the arm that holds the scriber for fear of warpage. We are not talking about taking the slide to a bench grinder, either. I could do a nice clean job in a few minutes on my surface grinder, if I was into that sort of thing.

 

[rgray]

Wouldn't you want to unpin the column if possible and surface grind the top of the base?

 

[Joe P.]

Wouldn't you want to unpin the column if possible and surface grind the top of the base?

That's along the lines I was thinking. It would be clean and appear unaltered.


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[Bob Korves]

I would not unpin the base. I think that is asking for trouble when putting it back together with keeping the column vertical and the joint tight. A loose or crooked column height gage is scrap metal...