Dividers ?

[James Pallas]

There is a recent thread about a particular brand of divider that has some good info in it that is being clouded by positive and negative criticism of the brand. I use dividers a lot. I'm interested to know how others use their dividers. I will start it out by saying I use mine to transport measurements I want to repeat with pinpoint accuracy (pun intended).
Jim

[David Eisenhauer]

From recently going through the "By Hand and Eye" book, it seems dividers were very much in use back when for design work by using ratios of an overall dimension for the dimension of a specific part of an overall design. I have started to look at using mine some for this application, but am a long, long way from fully utilizing the concept.

[John K Jordan]

There is a recent thread about a particular brand of divider that has some good info in it that is being clouded by positive and negative criticism of the brand. I use dividers a lot. I'm interested to know how others use their dividers. I will start it out by saying I use mine to transport measurements I want to repeat with pinpoint accuracy (pun intended).
Jim

I have numerous dividers, mostly use them when working on a lathe. Good for the machine shop too. That may not be legal in this forum. I believe I have some like discussed in the other thread. Maybe I should lock them in the safe, I had no idea they cost so much.

I use dividers for sizing a diameters and distances, measurements usually taken from a scale. In wood I scratch with one or both points. With metal the point scratches through Dykem blue layout fluid.

I use them to transfer distances from one part to another when making parts that must fit together. I used them today to mark the length of a tenon for cutting screw threads in an ebony lid.

I use dividers to transfer distances from a full sized sketch I make of new work. I also have proportional dividers to transfer distances from a drawing or part at any scale - don't see many of those.

JKJ

[Hasin Haroon]

Like David, I too read by Hand & Eye and started looking at dividers differently. But I only really use them for marking out dovetails. Makes the process a lot easier.

I was introduced to sector rulers by the book, and it blew my mind. I plan on trying to use them soon.

[Mike Henderson]

I use them often to divide a distance by equal units. I had an application when I needed to divide a circle into 8 sections - I used a set of dividers and by trial and error got an exact division.

Also use them to lay out dovetails, not just in equal sizes but sometimes more complex arrangements.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

I also have proportional dividers to transfer distances from a drawing or part at any scale - don't see many of those.

Mine makes two, proportional dividers make easy work of many layout tasks.

Are we considering inside calipers as dividers? They come in handy at the lathe or for checking tenons.

Comparison measurement produces less error for me.

Regular dividers are quick for trial and error equal sizing work.

Sometimes when cutting dovetails, tails first, my dividers will be set to the width of a chisel. The dividers are then opened to get an even number of divisions along the base line of the tails. The width of the area removed for half pins at either end can be judged by eye to step off the other points. This makes the tails and pins about equal in size and the smallest opening between the pins or tails should be bigger than the chisel.

Of course, if one wanted to mix up the sizing all that is needed is a second pair of dividers. There is likely at least a half dozen in my shop and a few in the house.

jtk