Tool of the Month July 2016

Welcome to July's Tool of the Month blog post.

This month it's the Marking Gauge!

Tite-Mark marking gauge.

The marking gauge is one of the most important tools in furniture making, it's used to mark out dovetail joints, mortice and tenon joints, help with planing and can also be used to cut veneer!

This particular gauge is made by American company Glenn-Drake Toolworks. Made from steel and brass, it's very different from the more commonly used wooden marking gauges.

One of the main advantages of this design is that it has a micrometer type adjuster this allows you to dial in adjustments exceedingly precisely, which also means settings can be easily repeated.
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For marking out dovetails this marking gauge is particularly useful as the cutting disc leaves a very crisp line, this allows the chisel blade to use the shoulderline as a secure reference while cleaning up from the saw.

The Tite-Mark gauge also has some extra cutting discs available as optional add ons.

In the above photograph morticing discs have been fitted, these are set to the width of the mortise chisel then the grub screws are tightened. The fence can then be set and the mortice marked out.

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Above is the final optional blade, this one is a scoring blade. Particularly handy for scoring deep lines and cutting veneer.

​Thats all for July, look out for next month's blog post!