Gauges for use when sawing with guide rail

[John Stevens]

Just for what it's worth, here are pics of a couple of jigs I made a while back.  They're for making it easier to measure when sawing with the guide rail.  If the rubber strip has worn a little or has been gouged, sometimes it's not so accurate to simply place the edge of the rubber strip on your mark.  These gauges allow you to know exactly where the cut line will be as long as you use the same blade that you used when you made them.  (If you find these useful, you may want to make a pair for each blade you use.)

The first one is just a piece of ply or MDF about 80mm (~ 3") wide and somewhat longer than the width of your guide rail.  Put two nails, screws, dowels, dominos, whatever, at the back edge.  Then place the piece under your guide rail with the nails (or whatever) registered against the back of the rail and make the cut.  Repeat for the second one.  This gauge has two uses.  The first for cutting sheet goods.  Set it on the cut line, then register a stop against the back end.  (A "C" pr "F" clamp works fine for this.)  Now you can remove the gauge and put down your guide rail, registering the back of the guide rail to the stop.  Do this at the front and back end of the cut, and the edge of your saw blade will be right on the cut line.  In another thread, Dave Ronyak came up with an idea for using two of these gauges in a pair to make duplicate narrow rip cuts.   See messages 16 & 17 here:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=3148.msg35432#msg35432

The second gauge is the same as the first but has a hook added to the front.  It's for when you want to use a ruler or story stick on the MFT but you don't want to do the subtraction necessary to register it from the back edge of the guide rail.  If you already have a rule on your MFT fence, this gauge can be helpful whenever you want to recalibrate it.

Hope this is helpful to someone.  I'm up way past my bed time, so if this explanation isn't clear, please let me know

Regards,

John

 

[Les]

John,

Great tip.  ;D Thanks for posting with the pic's. Made it easier for me to understand. :-[

 

[Michael Kellough]

Just for what it's worth, here are pics of a couple of jigs I made a while back.  They're for making it easier to measure when sawing with the guide rail.  If the rubber strip has worn a little or has been gouged, sometimes it's not so accurate to simply place the edge of the rubber strip on your mark.  These gauges allow you to know exactly where the cut line will be as long as you use the same blade that you used when you made them.  (If you find these useful, you may want to make a pair for each blade you use.)

The first one is just a piece of ply or MDF about 80mm (~ 3") wide and somewhat longer than the width of your guide rail.  Put two nails, screws, dowels, dominos, whatever, at the back edge.  Then place the piece under your guide rail with the nails (or whatever) registered against the back of the rail and make the cut.  Repeat for the second one.  This gauge has two uses.  The first for cutting sheet goods.  Set it on the cut line, then register a stop against the back end.  (A "C" pr "F" clamp works fine for this.)  Now you can remove the gauge and put down your guide rail, registering the back of the guide rail to the stop.  Do this at the front and back end of the cut, and the edge of your saw blade will be right on the cut line.  In another thread, Dave Ronyak came up with an idea for using two of these gauges in a pair to make duplicate narrow rip cuts.   See messages 16 & 17 here:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/index.php?topic=3148.msg35432#msg35432

The second gauge is the same as the first but has a hook added to the front.  It's for when you want to use a ruler or story stick on the MFT but you don't want to do the subtraction necessary to register it from the back edge of the guide rail.  If you already have a rule on your MFT fence, this gauge can be helpful whenever you want to recalibrate it.

Hope this is helpful to someone.  I'm up way past my bed time, so if this explanation isn't clear, please let me know

Regards,

John

Hi John, the back end is the end with the Dominos?

Is this the procedure?
1. align the front of the gauges with the cut line
2. put stop blocks up to the back of the Domino end of the gauges, (this is the step that throws me)
3. remove the gauges
4. butt the backside of the guide rail to the stop blocks and make the cut

Seems like if you do that then the rubber strip is about an inch behind the mark you lined the front of the gauge to. I must be missing something, maybe I'm up too early  :-[

It makes sense to me if you add a step

1. set the guide rail on top of the gauges, butted to the Dominos
2. align the front of the gauges with the cut line
3. clamp down stop blocks set to the back edge of guide rail
4. remove the guide rail and gauges
5. butt the guide rail against the stop blocks

Then the rubber strip should be registered with the mark.
Is this right or am I out of register and need recalibration?

 

[John Stevens]

Is this right or am I out of register and need recalibration?

Y'know, there's embarassment and then there's embarassment.

You're right, Michael, about my procedure being wrong.  As for whether yours is right, I am embarassed to say you're on your own.  Truth is, I was pretty sleepy last night when I posted this thread and I went with my best recollection, but obviously that was wrong and even today I can't remember what the heck that first gauge is really for.  The second gauge, the one with the hook at the front end is used as described.  But the first one...

I remember I made it back in January and it was good for something.  Now I think it was something I was doing with my MFT, but I can't remember.  I just tossed it in a drawer for next time (whatever/whenever that would've been!) and didn't think about it until Dave Ronyak posted his idea on the other thread.  After reading Dave's idea, I thought, hmm, you could do that with a pair of those gauges I made back in January.  So that's the thing that made me think it was worth posting the idea here, but...if I could only figure out what they're really for  ???  :-[  :'( 

Well, I always try to look at the bright side of things like this--I only have to ward off senility until my son is old enough to support himself, another 16 years if all goes right.  ;D  ;D  ;D

Regards,

John

 

[Dave Ronyak]

John and Michael,

I just thought of some additional variations (?Improvements?) to John's gauges, for use when cutting narrow strips (to be trapped under the splinter guard of the Guide Rail).

1)  Make the (MDF) bodies of gauges longer, so they protrude further beyond the back edge of the Guide Rail and calibrate them for use with the Side Stops that come with the Hole Drilling Set.  Then you can repeatably set your "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges" in 1/10 mm increments, if you want!!

2) If you have an Incra or JoinTech machine, you can use it to calibrate your "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges"  and then mortice for dominos to be inserted to setup the amount of the set back of the front edges of the gauges to rip strips of any of the various widths you frequently want to make.

3) Other posts on FOG have stated that Incra sells both Imperial and Metric "Incremental track" components with which you could construct an extremely accurate and repeatable pair of adjustable  "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges."  Then you can repeatably set your rip gauge in ?0.002 inch? increments.  (I have no idea what the smallest increment step of Incra's metric indexing track sections are.) 

Maybe this post would be better added to the other thread?

Dave R.

 

[poto]

Seems to me that those first gauges are perfect for cutting thin strips: you make the gauges as described, so that the right-hand edge is exactly at the cut line (the splinter guard of the guide rail). Then you get a piece of something that is exactly the width of the piece you want to end up with, and place it between the dominoes and the left-hand edge of the guide rail. Then snug the piece to be cut up against the right-hand edge of the gauge under the right-hand edge of the guide rail, and cut. The cut piece should be exactly the width of the spacer piece between the dominoes and the left edge of the guide rail. My only issue is how to keep all the gauges from moving under the guide rail...

 

[John Stevens]

Maybe this post would be better added to the other thread?

Well Dave, as you can probably tell, I'd prefer to forget about this thread    BTW, you're way too generous with trying to name the gauges after me, when the idea was yours, and you keep coming up with improvements to boot.

Regards

 

[Michael Kellough]

John and Michael,

I just thought of some additional variations (?Improvements?) to John's gauges, for use when cutting narrow strips (to be trapped under the splinter guard of the Guide Rail).

1)  Make the (MDF) bodies of gauges longer, so they protrude further beyond the back edge of the Guide Rail and calibrate them for use with the Side Stops that come with the Hole Drilling Set.  Then you can repeatably set your "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges" in 1/10 mm increments, if you want!!

2) If you have an Incra or JoinTech machine, you can use it to calibrate your "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges"  and then mortice for dominos to be inserted to setup the amount of the set back of the front edges of the gauges to rip strips of any of the various widths you frequently want to make.

3) Other posts on FOG have stated that Incra sells both Imperial and Metric "Incremental track" components with which you could construct an extremely accurate and repeatable pair of adjustable  "Stevens' Rip Strip Gauges."  Then you can repeatably set your rip gauge in ?0.002 inch? increments.  (I have no idea what the smallest increment step of Incra's metric indexing track sections are.) 

Maybe this post would be better added to the other thread?

Dave R.

Dave, please elaborate on these when you get a chance, they're interesting.

I'm not an expert on Incra stuff but I was looking at their stuff on the Incra website a couple of days ago and didn't see a metric version of the incra jig. I think the pitch of the teeth is 1/32". Anyone know for sure?

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks, Michael.  I really need to get a digital camera and learn how to use it.  Sorry that my writing isn't clear enough to enable you to visualize what I have in mind.

If Dan Clark, aka the picture cop, or Matthew S. or Frank Pellow sees this thread, maybe one or more of them can comment on the following.

Is it possible / practical to load a PDF of a handdrawn sketch into a post on FOG? 

If "yes" how should it be done?

For example, what settings should be chosen when making the scan of the drawing or photo into PDF, so that size limitations are not exceeded? 

Is there a way to manipulate a PDF of a photo or drawing to reduce its bytes size without destroying its quality, similar to what others do when resizing photos for posting on FOG?

I do have access to machines that can scan a document and create PDF files.  I could sketch some of these ideas and post them.

Dave R.

 

[Ned]

I'm not an expert on Incra stuff but I was looking at their stuff on the Incra website a couple of days ago and didn't see a metric version of the incra jig. I think the pitch of the teeth is 1/32". Anyone know for sure?

I know this has been discussed somewhere, but I'm too lazy to hunt it down.  This is from memory but I'm confident I've got it right.

The Incra racks are bolt on pieces.  Standard racks are 1/32" pitch, but 1mm racks are available direct from Incra.  The metric parts are green.

Any Incra product (positioner or fence) that uses the racks can be converted. 

I believe that would exclude the LS model.  LS = leadscrew, which is inch.  There is no metric leadscrew substitution available.

Ned

 

[Scott W.]

Thanks, Michael.  I really need to get a digital camera and learn how to use it.  Sorry that my writing isn't clear enough to enable you to visualize what I have in mind.

If Dan Clark, aka the picture cop, or Matthew S. or Frank Pellow sees this thread, maybe one or more of them can comment on the following.

Is it possible / practical to load a PDF of a handdrawn sketch into a post on FOG? 

If "yes" how should it be done?

For example, what settings should be chosen when making the scan of the drawing or photo into PDF, so that size limitations are not exceeded?   

Is there a way to manipulate a PDF of a photo or drawing to reduce its bytes size without destroying its quality, similar to what others do when resizing photos for posting on FOG?

I do have access to machines that can scan a document and create PDF files.  I could sketch some of these ideas and post them.

Dave R.

Dave,

FYI

If you have acrobat you can go to file save as and save a pdf as another filr type like jpeg.

Scott W.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Thanks, I'll have to check into that.  The home scanner is a HP 6100 series, about 4 years old.  My son has the the full Adobe CS3.

Dave R.

 

[Corwin]

I'm not an expert on Incra stuff but I was looking at their stuff on the Incra website a couple of days ago and didn't see a metric version of the incra jig. I think the pitch of the teeth is 1/32". Anyone know for sure?

I know this has been discussed somewhere, but I'm too lazy to hunt it down.  This is from memory but I'm confident I've got it right.

The Incra racks are bolt on pieces.  Standard racks are 1/32" pitch, but 1mm racks are available direct from Incra.  The metric parts are green.

Any Incra product (positioner or fence) that uses the racks can be converted. 

I believe that would exclude the LS model.  LS = leadscrew, which is inch.  There is no metric leadscrew substitution available.

Ned

That is correct. 

I have wanted to get a review of the Incra products posted, but I've been a little slow...  I am working on some updated versions of jigs using these products -- finished one jig today that I will be testing this week.  Don't know just how much longer this will take, for I will be covering several jigs.  Parts for another jig have proved to be a problem getting just right, but the unit I just finished my help on that front.  Sorry I cannot get this done sooner, but that's just the way it's going.

 

[Dave Rudy]

No pressure Corwin.  Your adaptations are always thorough and precise -- we wouldn't want to rush you.  We'll just think of you as another UL (of sorts) and be patient.

 

[Ned]

We'll just think of you as another UL (of sorts) and be patient.

No name calling, Dave! 

Ned