Veritas Micro-Adjust Wheel Marking Gauge

[Derek Cohen]

In the excitement of the new Combination plane, no one has noticed another new tool from Lee Valley/Veritas, an adjustable wheel marking gauge ...



I have been using this one for several months, and it has become one I like to reach for.

Some of you will recall that I have spoken fondly of a stainless steel Veritas wheel gauge that was sold as part of an Anniversary special some years ago. I liked not only the heft of these gauges, but also the offset fence. This fence offered a choice of more or less registration ...



The gauge did not have a fine setting, however this does not mean a great deal to me for most of the marking out I do. I am happy to use fingers to set the distance. The design enables this to be done with one hand.

The new Veritas gauge is in brass and shares the same fence and locking screw. It has the same nice heft and works the same way - loosen the locking screw and push the beam forward with pinched fingers. Lock down when ready. All done with one hand ...



One of the features I like about wheel gauges is that the single-bevelled wheel can be set flush to the fence. This enables precise settings when transferring the thickness of one board to another, such as tail- and pin boards when dovetailing. Let gravity set the depth ...



At the rear of the beam is a lock screw and a knurled knob. Loosen the lock screw and the wheel cutter can be fine tuned using the knurled knob.

The upside of this gauge is that it is possible to fine tune settings. It is like the best of both worlds - a quick, single-handed movement to get close, plus the ability to then fine tune the gauge precisely.

The other feature to note is that Lee Valley are selling the beam (plus adjuster and wheel) separately, and this may be used to retrofit similar wheel gauges. A cheap upgrade.

There is a downside, and this is that the fine tuning requires a second hand. Compare to the Tite-Mark, where the fine adjuster is at the rear of the fence, and fine adjustments may be made with one hand ...



Which do I prefer? Oh, no doubt here - the Tite-Mark fine adjuster is in a class of its own. I own two of the TMs, and I like them very much. Then again, the Veritas is half the price of the TM, and I find I reach for my Veritas gauges first, since I do not need the fine adjuster all that often. I am not giving up my TMs and I am not giving up my Veritas!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Joe Tilson]

Very nice indeed, and the price isn't bad either. Under $50.00 U.S.
Thanks Derek!

[Simon MacGowen]

Good information, Derek.

I did notice the new gauge and the upgrade rod has been in my to purchase later cart, meaning I am waiting for the next free shipping event.

In a past thread, someone pointed out TM has not filed for any patent protection and now TM copies (made in China?) are available at Amazon.

Simon

[john zulu]

Just added to my list of future acquisition.

@Derek When is the review for the Veritas combination hand plane.

[lowell holmes]

I have two wheel gauges already, I don't need another one. If I didn't, I would get another.
One of my wheel gauges is adjustable.
I also have cutting gauges, both bought and made.
Check this article. If you make one, they will grow like rabbits. I made several, one of them a cutting gauge,
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp...king_Gauge.pdf

[Patrick Chase]

I notice that they're selling the rod alone as an upgrade to "all existing wheel gauges". Does anybody know if that includes the dual-rod mortise gauge? Having one of these to fine-tune the spacing on that gauge would be nice (using a second one to fine-tune position would be problematic, as it would muck with the spacing).

Kudos to LV for innovating as usual instead of copying, even though they legally could have done so in this case. Like Derek I like the Tite-Mark adjuster a lot, though I also like the eccentric fence on the Veritas mortise gauge, which this new gauge inherits.

[Mike Henderson]

It looks to me that the fine adjustment mechanism is at the far end of the rod. Is that correct? Seems that would make it a bit awkward to adjust unless you use two hands. One of the advantages of the Tite-Mark and the Taylor Tools gauges is that you can adjust them one handed.

And the older Veritas marking gauge had a micro adjustment - it just took two hands to adjust.

I must not understand how the new one adjusts.

Mike

[Oops, I see that you state that it takes two hands to do the fine adjustment. What do you think is the advantage of this rod with the fine adjustment over the old way of doing the fine adjustment?

I guess if you put one of these rods into an old Veritas marking gauge, you'd have two ways of doing the fine adjustment since the fine adjustment is in the body of the older marking gauge and not in the rod, but both would take two hands.

I wonder why they came out with this since it still requires two hands to make the adjustment.]

[Patrick Chase]

[Oops, I see that you state that it takes two hands to do the fine adjustment. What do you think is the advantage of this rod with the fine adjustment over the old way of doing the fine adjustment?

I guess if you put one of these rods into an old Veritas marking gauge, you'd have two ways of doing the fine adjustment since the fine adjustment is in the body of the older marking gauge and not in the rod, but both would take two hands.

I wonder why they came out with this since it still requires two hands to make the adjustment.]

It's actually possible to adjust the old version one-handed, though it takes some coordination and practice. You pinch the body of the fence (or the tension knob if necessary) between thumb and forefinger, while rotating the knurled parts of the fence with your middle finger and curling your pinkie around the shaft to add some leverage. Once you have it where you want you can grip the shaft with your middle, ring, and pinkie fingers while tightening the tension knob with your thumb and forefinger. The Tite-Mark is awfully hard to beat for single-handed convenience, though.

I suspect they came up with the new mechanism for 3 reasons:

First, their existing micro-adjust mechanism doesn't work as well with the eccentric fence (where the shaft doesn't go through the center of the fence) in the new tool. You have to rotate the fence relative to the shaft to adjust it, and that may be clunky in some cases if the fence isn't rotationally symmetric. For example the single-handed adjustment technique I outlined above would probably be unworkable. Interestingly the Tite-Mark design would also work well with an eccentric fence as the shaft and fence are rotationally fixed by the keyway, though Glen-Drake haven't taken advantage.

Second and on a related note, their existing micro-adjust mechanism doesn't work at all with the dual-shaft mortise gauge, both because there simply isn't room for a collet-style lock and because rotating the fence relative to one shaft would be exceedingly clunky. Note also that the clamp that they provide to lock the shafts together wouldn't work if either of the shafts needed to be rotated. The new one should work (and be very useful) in the mortise gauge, unless I'm missing something.

Third and probably least important, it's slightly more convenient for quick coarse adjustments. One drawback with the old one is that you have to loosen both the locking knob and the collet before you can move the fence to make a coarse adjustment. This can lead to annoyance if you forget that you left the collet locked down for your previous, fine-adjusted setting. This is an aspect in which they've arguably improved on the Tite-Mark.

One negative of the new design is that it appears to be incompatible with shaft extensions, though Veritas doesn't offer those anyway.

The Tite-Mark does have a negative that I haven't seen discussed here: It has two threaded interfaces in the mechanical path from the rear tension knob to the fence, and those add noticeable play and backlash. The fact that the tensioning screws are a bit loose side-to-side in the keyway adds yet more play. It isn't a big deal, but you sometimes have to be consistent about which way the fence is biased when trying to make very fine adjustments. Both of the Veritas designs have a single screw, and the old one has no perceptible backlash. I expect the new one will be similar.

[Derek Cohen]

I see that you state that it takes two hands to do the fine adjustment. What do you think is the advantage of this rod with the fine adjustment over the old way of doing the fine adjustment?

Mike

I think there were two main reasons. Firstly, in building a new gauge (based on the stainless steel design I mentioned earlier), Lee Valley were careful to avoid stepping into the domain of Tite-Mark. This is an ethical-moral issue that is considered very important to Lee Valley. Under Rob Lee, they strongly support the small manufacturers, even those in competition. Consequently, the new gauge required an original design. Secondly, there was an opportunity to create a design that could be retrofittable to other, similar gauges.

I like gauges to be used one-handed. I like the TM because it may be adjusted with one hand. I like the SS version of the Veritas because I can set it up with one hand. Ditto their twin-beam mortice gauge, and the Japanese cutting gauges I have bought or built. This new Veritas gauge is essentially a one-handed gauge with the facility for fine tuning, however the latter requires two hands. It only requires one hand if you use the finger squeeze method, and one may never use the fine adjuster much. One handed is fast - and faster than the TM (where two knobs must be released compared to the single knob of the Veritas). The TM is not ideal for fast, non adjuster setting. It excels when fine adjustments are needed. Much of the time I do not need or use a fine adjuster. I like this new gauge because I can use it like the SS version - and there is the fine adjuster if and when it is needed.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[lowell holmes]

There is another reason, they can sell more gauges.

[Mike Henderson]

It's actually possible to adjust the old version one-handed, though it takes some coordination and practice. You pinch the body of the fence (or the tension knob if necessary) between thumb and forefinger, while rotating the knurled parts of the fence with your middle finger and curling your pinkie around the shaft to add some leverage. Once you have it where you want you can grip the shaft with your middle, ring, and pinkie fingers while tightening the tension knob with your thumb and forefinger. The Tite-Mark is awfully hard to beat for single-handed convenience, though.

I suspect they came up with the new mechanism for 3 reasons:

First, their existing micro-adjust mechanism doesn't work as well with the eccentric fence (where the shaft doesn't go through the center of the fence) in the new tool. You have to rotate the fence relative to the shaft to adjust it, and that may be clunky in some cases if the fence isn't rotationally symmetric. For example the single-handed adjustment technique I outlined above would probably be unworkable. Interestingly the Tite-Mark design would also work well with an eccentric fence as the shaft and fence are rotationally fixed by the keyway, though Glen-Drake haven't taken advantage.

Second and on a related note, their existing micro-adjust mechanism doesn't work at all with the dual-shaft mortise gauge, both because there simply isn't room for a collet-style lock and because rotating the fence relative to one shaft would be exceedingly clunky. Note also that the clamp that they provide to lock the shafts together wouldn't work if either of the shafts needed to be rotated. The new one should work (and be very useful) in the mortise gauge, unless I'm missing something.

Third and probably least important, it's slightly more convenient for quick coarse adjustments. One drawback with the old one is that you have to loosen both the locking knob and the collet before you can move the fence to make a coarse adjustment. This can lead to annoyance if you forget that you left the collet locked down for your previous, fine-adjusted setting. This is an aspect in which they've arguably improved on the Tite-Mark.

One negative of the new design is that it appears to be incompatible with shaft extensions, though Veritas doesn't offer those anyway.

The Tite-Mark does have a negative that I haven't seen discussed here: It has two threaded interfaces in the mechanical path from the rear tension knob to the fence, and those add noticeable play and backlash. The fact that the tensioning screws are a bit loose side-to-side in the keyway adds yet more play. It isn't a big deal, but you sometimes have to be consistent about which way the fence is biased when trying to make very fine adjustments. Both of the Veritas designs have a single screw, and the old one has no perceptible backlash. I expect the new one will be similar.

Thanks for the explanation, Patrick. Those reasons make sense for the asymmetric head and the dual shaft gauge. I don't think it would provide much advantage to someone with the older symmetric head gauges.

You're also right about the lash in the Tite-Mark and the Taylor Tools gauges. I've learned to work with it, however, and can get an accurate setting with both. But you have to be aware of the backlash.

Mike

[Patrick Chase]

Now that I actually have the new wheel gauge, I really like having the coarse and fine adjusts completely separate such that I can treat it like a simple gauge when I want to transfer a quick-and-dirty measurement. Both the older gauge and the Tite-Mark are compromised in that respect.

The new fine-adjust mechanism seems to have about the same amount of axial slop/backlash as the old one, which is to say not much at all and much less than the Tite-Mark. All 3 gauges lock up tight of course, so this is more of a subjective thing than any sort of real limitation.