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Thread: Intriguing Dovetail Marker

  1. #1
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    Intriguing Dovetail Marker

    Ok, so I was browsing and ran across this really interesting looking Dovetail Marker (gauge) from a company called Collett Engineering, which appears to be out of business. I say interesting because it looks quite complex for such a simple task.
    So that made me curious as to how it works and why it might appear so complex. However, I can find no videos where one is used by doing a keyword search. I also have found next to no info about them by using Google. Other than a few for sale on that auction website we're not allowed to name. So I figured I post this on here and see if anyone knows anything.

    .tmp_19003-images765795531.jpg
    "I've cut the dang thing three times and it's STILL too darn short"
    Name withheld to protect the guilty

    Stew Hagerty

  2. #2
    I have one of those. Mine came in a box WITH INSTRUCTIONS! I'll scan the instructions and post the file on my web site. After I do that, I'll come back here and post a link.

    I never used it - way too complex for what should be a simple task.

    Okay, here's a link to the instructions. It's at the bottom of the page, so scroll down. I used your picture of it, Stew - hope that's okay.

    Mike
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 07-18-2016 at 10:51 AM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  3. #3
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    If it wasn't labelled as a dovetail marker I would have thought it had another use, though I can't imagine what.

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    It looks to be another over engineered idea. Sure it works, but it may actually be more work than laying out dovetails by conventional means.

    It seems a lot of companies with "better ideas" went out of business due to people thinking, "I don't need that."

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  5. #5
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    I have one of those too. I probably bought it when I was still young and foolish. I've cut a fair number of dovetails since then, but never used the gauge. I think mine is still in the box in a drawer somewhere, but it would be hard to find I expect.

  6. #6
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    I completely agree Jim & Jim.

    Mike, thank you for posting the instructions. It's just as complex as I figured it was. I had a hunch that it was made so that you could set your spacing, but then I thought... Naaa, it's so easy otherwise, why would somebody make something like that? Apparently they did.
    "I've cut the dang thing three times and it's STILL too darn short"
    Name withheld to protect the guilty

    Stew Hagerty

  7. #7
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    Whatever happened to good old dividers and saddle markers? :-)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
    Whatever happened to good old dividers and saddle markers? :-)
    Or a bevel gauge with a ruler and pencil?

    I like my dovetail gauges:

    Dovetail Markers.jpg

    There are many commercial or shop made options requiring less work and certainly less thinking than the Collet Engineering model.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chase View Post
    Whatever happened to good old dividers and saddle markers? :-)
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    Or a bevel gauge with a ruler and pencil?

    ...or just sawing them like the old guys did?

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    Or a bevel gauge with a ruler and pencil?

    I like my dovetail gauges:

    Dovetail Markers.jpg

    There are many commercial or shop made options requiring less work and certainly less thinking than the Collet Engineering model.

    jtk
    To be honest I usually layout with a ruler and pencil. The dividers only come out when I'm being [more] obsessive [than usual].

    The thing with the Collet Engineering gauge is that it appears to be complexity that only serves to make your life harder, even by my standards (and I have a high tolerance for complexity). If you want to pay for massive overkill in your dovetail gauges then why not something like these? Expensive, yes, but they work as well as anything.

    Full disclosure: For "standard" angles I use the Aluminum Veritas saddles. Same idea as the ones at TFWW, but much cheaper.

  11. #11
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    I made a set of dovetail saddle markers 8 years ago from brass angle. These range from 1:5 through 1:8.





    These markers are deceptively simple in design and to make, but most could do them with just a hacksaw and sandpaper. There is a tutorial on my website: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...rsinbrass.html

    The Sterling markers (in Patrick's link) are recent additions to the market, and copies of the WoodJoy marker.



    The important design feature of a good dovetail marker is that it can mark the angle and the cross section without lifting the pencil off the work piece. Many designs only mark the angle. This runs the risk of introducing inaccuracies into the marking out.

    The dovetail markers have two ends, the dovetail angles and also a small square.

    I have never felt a need to replace these.


    Regards from Perth

    Derek

    Last edited by Derek Cohen; 07-19-2016 at 9:48 AM.

  12. #12
    The best are the home made ones.

  13. #13
    I remember Jim Kingshott showed one of those in his dovetail video. He placed it right back into the box and did it an easier way.

    I prefer this simple do-dad...
    IMG_20160213_165438.jpg
    If it ain't broke, fix it til it is!

  14. #14
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    Purchased one of those many years ago as well. Think I got it from Leichtung if I remember correctly. Still have it in the box but haven't seen those instructions in many years. I used it to mark most of my early dovetails not knowing any better and having no one where I live to "mentor" me. Needless to say, no internet in those days either for learning.

    Thanks for that reminder of how I used to work.

    Clint

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    The Sterling markers (in Patrick's link) are recent additions to the market, and copies of the WoodJoy marker.
    Such saddle markers have been around for ever, so I'd say that WoodJoy and Sterling (and everybody else making similar markers) are simply copying the same longstanding historical practices. IMO there aren't enough unique design features here to be able to say that a "modern copy" has been made with the same certainty that we can about WR and L-N planes, for example.

    In any case, I wasn't specifically recommending the Sterlings (as noted I use the cheaper L-N ones). My point was more that if you're determined to get something that's complete overkill, at least get one like the Sterling that doesn't make your work harder. At the very worse you'll have overpaid for more steel and a finer finish than you needed, and that's far better than trying to sort out some needlessly complicated contraption.

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