Digital readout freestanding height gauge

Mike Wingate

Using my new table, I feel a need for some accurate and easy measurement of the protrusion of the router bit. I have a couple of 6" digital readout gauges. I will make an alloy base that fits the bottom jaw, with clearance for the smaller inside measuring jaw. Add a large auxiliary jaw to the existing moving jaw. And I should then have a digital height gauge to measure bit height and other setups. Undo a bolt or two, and out comes the gauge to be used for workshop measurement. In the U.K., these gauges are available for£8.For ease of use, and a useful tool, has anyone out there made or adapted such a tool?

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Mike

Uhm, Mike... we work with wood. If a fly farts the humidity can go up enough to make the wood swell. Wood goes through constant movement, do you really want to drive yourself crazy tracking all those minute changes and trying to correct for them? A former co worker may of hit the nail on the head when he said: "It's good enough for the kind of girls we go with." Think about it.

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Mike
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Mike Wingate

I will use it to check the depth of router bit cut in a router table set-up. Just an easy way to see how high above the table the router bit is. A bit easier than using a rule. I will give the base a thick slot. Shim the fixed jaw to size with claerance for the small moving jaw. The extended jaw will be faced with brass or I may make it from a suitable block of hard nylon.

Hamlin

Brass bars would do the same and a lot cheaper too unless I've missed something.

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Ken

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AxlMyk

The problem with a digital readout is the bits won't be at the same height when you change them. Fancy lifts and digital readouts for routers are just something to spend money on. They won't make your work any better. Just my opinion. Brass bars do the job cheaply.

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xplorx4

For my part thanks for the replies, I have often wondered about all that down to the .00? stuff. I find it hard enouth to get to the 1/64th much less anything any smaller!! You have given me hope that I might actually be able to build something I would want to post!!

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Mike

Mike, I was not making fun of your idea. I do feel you are going far beyond what is needed for woodworking. Here are a few of the solutions offered for sale here. These start at $10 and the digital gauge runs $50,

Attached Images

	brass set up bars.jpg (48.5 KB, 61 views)
	Bit depth gauge.jpg (213.9 KB, 53 views)
	Trend height gauge.jpg (40.0 KB, 62 views)
	Digital height gauge.jpg (49.8 KB, 74 views)

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Mike
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harrysin

Mike, we are always on the lookout for good ideas but for routing wood I do think that you are going overboard. As you can see in the first shot, I have a height gauge which I only use for metalwork, also like most hobbyists, I also have dial and digital gauges again for metalwork. The second shot shows how I normally set the cutter height, to a marked line.

Attached Images

	height-of-cutter1.jpg (30.3 KB, 69 views)
	height-of-cutter2.jpg (21.5 KB, 77 views)

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Harry

The best advice that I can give a newcomer to routing is, learn to use the router mounted, this can be as simple as a board held in a vice, with the router firmly attached and a simple fence held with clamps, and when he/she feels competant and confident in it's use and is familiar with all aspects of safety, THEN, and only then proceed to learn how to use the router hand held. This is MY opinion, and may or may not coincide with that of the forum management, but is based on a lifetime of woodworking.


http://members.dodo.com.au/~sharry02/

Mike Wingate

I enjoy making things.I like tools that speed up accuracy and marking out. Last week I made some T-nuts to enable me to add a pair of 1" thick sliding sub fences, to my Incra fence (I am not buying a Wonder fence. I had to use a vertical milling machine to shape the metal bar(I made 5 T-nuts) then drill and tap. I needed my magnetic base and dial gauge to set up the vice. I last used the dial gauge to set up my planer blades after I resharpened them. I will make/covert my spare LCD gauge to a vertical height version. So when I change bits, or require that bit of accuracy, even though it may only be to the nearest 0.5mm, I know it will be there, not there-abouts, for certain things.I have a Jessem router raiser. Measure thrice, check twice and cut once. My school technician and even my cleaner (an ex-machinist) talk and measure tolerance in cigarette paper thicknesses.I am quite happy in 1/32", especially with the Incra system, so why not be accurate. As my eyesight deteriorates and if I do not put on my reading glasses, the LCD readout is a quick check/indication of me being in the ballpark.

TwoSkies57

Mike... I had to read your posts a couple of times to visualize what it is your up to. So here is my two cents worth. First, judging by the amount of thought that has gone into what it is your attempting to make, I have no doubt that you are fully aware of the many different kinds of measuring devices on the market. Each of which, when properly used performs well enough. I think its safe to say, your idea here is as much about making a tool as it is about its function.
Personally I say "go fo it"!!