Harbor freight mortise gauge?

[Garrett Ellis]

Hope I don't get laughed at, but does anyone have an opinion on the HF mortise gauge?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94645

I have a project where I only need a handful of tenons, so I'm thinking about trying to hand cut them.

[Jim Koepke]

Just my opinion...

For $10, it is not a big loss if it is the usual HF quality.

Would I buy it?

No.

If you end up enjoying hand mortise & tenon work, you will likely want to buy a better gauge.

If that happens, maybe the $10 could be considered well spent for taking you down a new road.

jim

[James Davis]

I have one. It is a good gauge. It does not offer the screw adjustment mechanism for the width of the mortise. Other than that, it is as acurate as ony mortise gauge out there. For ten bucks how could you go wrong? If you like handtool work, it's a cheap push start. If you don't like it then you are not trying to get your money back from a more expensive tool.

James

[Garrett Ellis]

I have one. It is a good gauge. It does not offer the screw adjustment mechanism for the width of the mortise. Other than that, it is as acurate as ony mortise gauge out there. For ten bucks how could you go wrong? If you like handtool work, it's a cheap push start. If you don't like it then you are not trying to get your money back from a more expensive tool.

James

What do you mean it doesn't have the screw adjustment? Does this mean you can't adjust the width of the mortise at all? If so, what is it preset to - 1/4"?

[James Davis]

What do you mean it doesn't have the screw adjustment? Does this mean you can't adjust the width of the mortise at all? If so, what is it preset to - 1/4"?

The adjuastable pin is mounted on a slide that moves along the length of the arm. There are some gauges that have a screw in the end of the arm to adjust the pins, this one does not have the adjustment screw. It works like a charm. Sorry for the confusion.

James

[Jon Toebbe]

I've got one, and it's been just fine for my light usage. I'd hand select one, if you can. I bought mine at a local Harbor Freight, and of the four they had in stock two looked okay. The brass inlay on the third wasn't flush. One of the pins on the fourth appeared to have been snapped off. As usual with Harbor Freight: caveat emptor.

That said, mine appears to be made of some fairly pretty tropical hardwood (rosewood? hard to say under the thick, junky lacquer). The adjustable pin is nice and snug in its groove. The head stays put with moderate thumbscrew pressure.

For ten bucks, a good one is a steal, and a lousy one is a waste of ten bucks.

[Matt Evans]

As much as I hate saying this, this is in my shop. And, after filing the points like a marking knife rather than the cone shape they come in, it works as well as any other gauge I have.

I don't pick up many tools at HF, but the few that I have(and didn't toss in the garbage after two minutes in utter frustration) work well.

[James Taglienti]

Honestly i have some turning tools from Windsor Design and they are actually quality steel... i had to rehandle them, the original handles were as soft as balsa wood

[Greg Lucas]

If you have a Rockler in your area, you might want to pick one of these up instead. I much prefer this style for accurate marks and I own multiples of both styles. The wooden ones just never have worked well for me. Price being the same, I'd go for the wheel.

[Rob Young]

If you have a Rockler in your area, you might want to pick one of these up instead. I much prefer this style for accurate marks and I own multiples of both styles. The wooden ones just never have worked well for me. Price being the same, I'd go for the wheel.

Except that is not a MORTISE gauge. It is a marking gauge.

A mortise gauge marks both sides of the mortise simultaneously. The best part is you can set the gauge to the exact width of your mortising chisel first and have nicely scored lines to guide your chisel.

You can mark for a mortise using one of these but it is a bit more fiddling around or you need two of them. And if you do use a cutting gauge to do the marking, I'd suggest you mark all pieces with one line, then adjust the gauge and using the same reference side on your work pieces, mark all the second mortise edges.

[art san jr]

I have one, works fine for what I do. Was on sale for $7.00

Didn't have a 20% off coupon, oh well. Can't win them all.

Art.

[Ryan Stokes]

I had one and ended up returning it due to it being out of square by about 8 degrees.

[Greg Lucas]

Based on naming conventions, you are correct Rob. But since the average mortise is centered, a marking gauge works just fine as you get the same distance inward on both sides. The time it takes to set up a true marking gauge, such as the one under discussion here, is much longer also. The worst part, at least for me, I never end up with the lines nicely centered on the work. But, again, your initial statement was correct.

[Rob Young]

Based on naming conventions, you are correct Rob. But since the average mortise is centered, a marking gauge works just fine as you get the same distance inward on both sides. The time it takes to set up a true marking gauge, such as the one under discussion here, is much longer also. The worst part, at least for me, I never end up with the lines nicely centered on the work. But, again, your initial statement was correct.

Naming, shmaming. I'm basing in on intended use.

Trust me, don't keep using a marking gauge for your mortises. Get a mortising gauge. Even the hinky $9 job from HF makes it easier. You set the pin width to your mortise chisel width and set the fence for the offset. One pass and done.

If you get the HF model, sharpen the pins, this pretty much goes for any guage that uses pins. Plus you can flat their sides a little which makes it easier to set the gauge to the chisel.

And don't restrict yourself to centered mortises. That is very design limiting. There is the strength argument but really, so long as you have a least the same width of the tenon for one mortise wall, the other can be thicker. And how many elephants do you plan to have dancing on that table anyway?

[Greg Lucas]

Rob... No harm meant but what works for you doesn't mean it works for everyone else. I had multiple MG's for quite some time before I got a marking gauge. I don't like them for, as previously stated, multiple reasons. I lay out my M&T's according to the intended use. The last few projects have had nothing but offset compound angles. I truly don't see any reason to have a mortise offset without a corresponding design requirement. That's not a limitation. It's what I feel is strongest and works best. Sorry, I'll trust myself on this one.