Making a Panel Gauge - Part 2

I've never been good with metal work.  I thought about buying an X-acto knife blade to use for the cutter in this panel gauge, but I decided to make a cutter from a piece of one of my thicker (0.039") card scrapers.  I hope the metal is good enough to hold an edge.

Hacksawed a bit over 5/16"

Filed it to a width of 5/16"

Then filed one end to a point and started putting an edge on one side

And got the final profile - all with a straight single-cut file

I used an off-cut from the stem of the gauge to practice mortising for the cutter and wedge.  This turned out to be very important.  In the following picture, the mortise on the far right was my first attempt.

First mortise at right, final practice try in center

I was a little worried about blowing out the wood to the right of the mortise when chopping and that's exactly what happened.

Can you see the end grain protruding?

So I decided to first drill out the hole with a 1/4" drill bit and then pare away the waste with a 1/4" chisel.  The mortise is 5/16" wide.  On the bottom it is 5/16" long and on the top it is 13/32" long.  The wall closest to the end of the stem is straight and the other wall is angled.  I took my time and pared carefully.

When it was time for the real thing I marked very carefully, drilled the hole, and pared away.  BTW, I started the mortise about 3/4" away from the end of the stem.

Mortise layout on bottom

And on top

Drilled from both sides to avoid blowout

Chiseled out the waste

Used an auxilliary light to see the inside better.  See the hump in the middle?

I pared away until a chisel laid on the wall was flush with top and bottom edges.  With the mortise cut it was time to fit a wedge.  I had a small oak scrap, already at 5/16" width and cut the angle to get an approximate fit.

Tight fit on bottom ...

But not so good on top (mind the gap!)

I tweaked the wedge until I got a tight fit top and bottom.  Then I trimmed the wedge and the back end of the cutter to get the lengths I wanted.

This cutter isn't going anywhere!

There are a couple important points about this picture.  First, the wedge sticks out of the bottom of the stem a little bit.  This allows you to overhang the cutter but not the wedge at the end of the bench.  A light tap loosens the wedge.

Tapping the wedge to loosen the cutter

On the other side, the wedge sticks up higher than the cutter so you can tap it to tighten the cutter in place.

Tapping the wedge to tighten the cutter

For finishing, I gave all parts two coats of shellac.  Then the stock and stem (except for the side that opposes the wedge) got a coat of wax.  What a difference in how the stem slides in the mortise!  No wax on the wedges so they will hold better.

Shellac drying (how exciting!)

In use, to tighten or loosen the stem at a certain location on the stock, it takes just a tap on the bench.  But it really holds TIGHT.  It's no wonder wedges were such an integral part of woodworking shops for centuries (and still are in some shops).

Tightening the wedge

Loosening the wedge

In use, the rabbet cut at the bottom of the stock will slide along the straight edge of a board.

Slides nice after waxing

And the requisite glamour shot:

The finished product

I almost forgot - I drilled a 9/32" hole in the other end of the stem for a tight fit with a pencil when I want a pencil line instead of a knife line.  If I ever use skinnier pencils or if the fit gets loose I'll put a screw in from the side to tighten it down.

Turn the stem around and use pencil for a non-knifed line

And there you have it.  Another "to-do" list item done.  Finally!  Now I have to wonder how and where to store this ...

Edit: I'd appreciate it if anybody can recommend whether or not I should harden and temper the cutter.  Thanks.

Making a Panel Gauge - Part 1

This project has been on my To-Do list for a really long time and the time is finally now.  After some image searching I drew up a sketch of the stock (the fence) on cardboard and cut out a template.

Layout of the stock - red dots are centers for drawing radii

At some point I'll draw this up in Sketchup, so if anyone wants a copy just contact me.

I have some beech that was on the undercarriage of a table I found on the street and some of it is quartersawn.  I thought this would be good for the stock in that the mortise wouldn't go out of shape with the seasons.  The squared up block ended up a little less than 15/16" thick.

Laminated beech all squared up

Nice quartersawn grain

The cardboard template was transferred to the block, a 1/2" x 5/16" deep rabbet was marked, and the mortise location was laid out front and back.  The mortise is close to (not exactly) 13/16" x 13/16" - just a little smaller than the piece of oak I'll be using for the stem.

Stock laid out on front ...

... and back.  Can you see the knife nicks at bottom for transferring the vertical mortise lines from the front?

Time to cut the mortise.  Used a standard 3/4" bevel-edged chisel and took it slowly.

Mortise about 1/3 complete

I used a small square with its blade through the mortise and the stock registered on the face to check if the mortise walls were flat.

Blade of square poking through and even with mortise edge

Once the mortise was complete it was time to fit the stem.  I chose a piece of oak that had been a stile on an old kitchen cabinet.  Squared it to about 13/16" and then planed and checked the fit, planed some more and checked the fit.  Used a caliper to check for consistent thickness in both directions.

That's a tight fit - actually too tight.  Still needed to plane some more.

The next step was to make a smaller mortise along the side of this mortise for a wedge to lock the stem in the stock.  I set a mortise gauge for 5/16" and centered it on the side of the larger mortise.  The extents of this mortise were offset front to back by about 3/32" to create the angle of the wedge.  The sides were cut with coping saw and the waste removed and cleaned up with a chisel.  It took a lot of chiseling to get the angled bottom flat.

Wedge mortise done

Then it was time to make a small wedge and fit it to the slot.

Wedge in slanted mortise, but level with larger mortise wall

With this fitting well I turned to shaping the stock.  First I used my new-to-me Record #778 rabbeting plane to cut the rabbet.  This was finicky and I had to clean up the walls with a shoulder plane later.  Then it was saw cuts to remove the bulk of the waste.

Bulk of waste removed and relief cuts made

I thought I'd use a chisel to shape the curved sides, so I cut some relief kerfs.  This wood is hard and my chisels were not up to the task, so I cut a LOT of kerfs and sawed away the waste with a coping saw.

That's a lot of relief cuts

The shaping was completed with rasps, files and sanding.  This took a long time, but it's finally smooth to the touch.

Looking good

Next time: making a cutter and wedge for the stem, mortising the stem, and finishing.