I was recently asked about making some dovetail gauges of the type used by Paul Sellers. Here's a pair, made in aluminum.
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| That was the easy part. Outside dimensions and square shoulders cut. |
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| The tricky part is the angled shoulders. I made a special fixture for this. It holds two gauges at a time. One shoulder is cut at a time, then the gauges are swapped and the opposite shoulder is cut. |
Once I had the fixture done, there was some math and the rest was just cutting. I think I'm going to change the fixture a bit to make the process easier...we shall see.
I have about 20 of them but all in wood. I think metal is a better choice for a dovetail gauge especially so if you use it a lot. Pencils tend to round the corner junctions.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Just in general, I like any kind of gauge or measuring tool to be made from metal.
DeleteI never felt the desire to make a wooden square and I don't use wooden rulers. I have wood winding sticks, but have since replaced them with metal ones as well.