A Panel Gauge I Made

[Chris Griggs]

I've been getting by doing handwork without a panel gauge for far to long, so I decided to make one this past week. Even when I rip on the bandsaw, I like to have a scored line to plane to so its a tool that has been sorely needed.

A fun easy little project, and you end up with a useful tool. I didn't document the build, but I'm guessing a lot of you have made these before, and if you haven't its pretty easy to figure out just by looking at pictures.

This one is walnut. One side has a pencil and for the other I made a cutter out of a piece of an old bandsaw blade. I also filed some ridges into the wedge and roughed up the surface with a cheap rasp, this seemed to make it a little easier to get the wedge to grip, and overall the tool works well.

Definitely, a tool worth making for yourself.

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[Dave Beauchesne]

Very nice Chris!
Love the color of the walnut - you will find it a useful tool I am sure.

[David Weaver]

Big fan of the triangular beam!

[Chris Griggs]

Big fan of the triangular beam!

HA! Yes, I took your advice on the beam. Was great advice!

[Jim Belair]

I'm getting ready to make one and am curious how you secured the cutter.

[Chris Griggs]

Hi Jim.

First I ground down the tip of a screw so that the tip would be flat. I then used the screws length to locate where the slot would be. I wanted the screw to be almost fully seated when it reached the cutter. With the cutter slot marked out, I drilled it out on the drill press with the smallest drill bit I had and then cleaned it up with a small very thin file. I then clamped the beam upright in my vise and used a hand drill to bore the hole in the end grain that the securing screw would go in. I cut the threads in the hole using a screw identical to the one I had ground down but that still had is pointy tip (just cause it was easier that way), and then screed in the ground down screw to secure the cutter.

Hope that all makes sense. If you blow up the 2nd picture you can see the screw that secures the cutter going into the end grain of the beam.

[william sympson]

Chris, a question on the wedge action given that I have one of these on my "to build" list. I haven't studied the tool but when mentally reviewing the design, I had assumed that the wedge would need to be perpendicular to the beam to avoid having the stock move when tightening the wedge. Your experience to date on moving the stock when tightening the wedge?

William

[Chris Griggs]

Yes it can and does move when you tighten it down, but its not hard to prevent. You just kinda need to pay attention and hold it in place so it doesn't. One often ends up dialing in the setting with a few taps on the bench anyway. Just make sure when you set it you error on the side that will tighten, not loosen the wedge when you make fine adjustments by tapping the beam on the bench. For example my wedge tightens when I push it towards the cutter and away from the pencil, so if I'm setting the gauge for the cutter side its better if I end up a little short, so then when I tap the beam, if the wedge moves it will only be tighter. Really though, its not hard to just set it right and then hold the setting has you are tightening the wedge...hand pressure gets it tight enough so you not driving the beam out of place, in the same way that setting a wedge on the plane can drive the iron deeper.

[Will Boulware]

Great work! Maybe this will motivate me to finally make one of these. Thanks for the description of the blade retention screw!

[Mike Holbrook]

Nice Chris, adding this project to my long list. So I am hoping you will keep us updated on any changes or upgrades you might come up with.

[Chris Griggs]

Thanks guys.

Well Mike, probably won't be any major upgrades. I guess I wouldn't mind have a thick piece of 01 for the cutter, but other than that its a pretty basic tool and there isn't much to upgrade (within the the realm of the basic wedged design anyway)

[Mike Allen1010]

Very nice Chris! The panel gauge is the neander equvilent of the TS rip fence. I use mine all the time for large glued up panels. After 2 versions I learned:

I like the round cutters from Lee valley because their self limiting depth of cutis less likely to follow the grain than the shop made blades in my first version.

Length of reference face is key! For laying out parrell side for large case size panels (+24"), a 12" reference fence is better for keeping the cutter parrell to the ref. Edge than an 8" fence.

IMHO anyone w/ a panel gauge has no worries about their neander qualifications!

Cheers, Mike

[Noah Wagener]

Fahrvergnugen.

[Chris Griggs]

I'm with you all the way on the round cutter Mike, but rather than ordering round spurs I just grind my not round-spur style marking gauges with a round edge. I find the rounded cutting edge cuts much truer and I'm also careful not set them too deep, as a light scoring passes are also much easier to keep accurate.

Here's a close-up if the cutter on my panel gauge, along with the cutter I rounded on a store bought marking gauge...not sure if you can tell from the 3rd picture but I even round the tip of my marking knife a little so its less likely to follow the grain.

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Nice tip for the wider gauge. Mine is about 8 inches. The beam is around 23 inches which gives me a max reach of about 20". I was going to make longer but its rare I need that much capacity so I figure I'll just make a second one if I need that capacity. I'm actually half tempted to cut the beam on this one down to more like 14"-16" which will cover 99% of my needs (and be less clunky) and then make one with something like a 30" beam for case sides and stuff...if I do that I'll be sure to make the fence a good 12" wide. Thanks for the tip!

[Noah Wagener]

Yes it can and does move when you tighten it down, but its not hard to prevent. You just kinda need to pay attention and hold it in place so it doesn't. One often ends up dialing in the setting with a few taps on the bench anyway. Just make sure when you set it you error on the side that will tighten, not loosen the wedge when you make fine adjustments by tapping the beam on the bench. For example my wedge tightens when I push it towards the cutter and away from the pencil, so if I'm setting the gauge for the cutter side its better if I end up a little short, so then when I tap the beam, if the wedge moves it will only be tighter. Really though, its not hard to just set it right and then hold the setting has you are tightening the wedge...hand pressure gets it tight enough so you not driving the beam out of place, in the same way that setting a wedge on the plane can drive the iron deeper.

have you ever tried a twist lock style? the tightening motion is parallel to direction of cut. I do not think you could have a rabbetted fence though.