Ball attachment for surface gage for checking squareness

One way to check an item for square is to use a surface gage. You use the ball end of the vertical rod as your lower reference and an indicator as the upper reference and a known square surface as the datum. My problem with this method is that it makes the fine adjust on the surface gage difficult to use. So I took a hard drive magnet, a chunk of aluminum and a small tooling ball and came up with this.

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps9f74fd59.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psd9d0e6d1.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psaf66b8cb.jpg

http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...psb589f050.jpg

Very interesting! I'm going to have Ken take a closer look at this tomorrow; we should have it added to the database by then.

how did you get the finish on the base? That looks cool!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LORDDiESEL

how did you get the finish on the base? That looks cool!

---

The base came finished that way. The finish is from case hardening. I have a lot of older tools that have this finish, but I never see it on newer tools.

Thanks Harvey Melvin Richards! This one has been added to our Measuring and Marking category, and of course to your homemade tools page: Harvey Melvin Richards's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"><div class="bimg"><div><a href="/ball-attachment-for-surface-gage"><img src="/images/thumb/80/804f504169997b46ef236c2142f94555-20121218093556.jpg" alt="Ball Attachment for Surface Gage"/></a></div></div> <div class="head pngfix"></div><div class="left pngfix"></div><div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"><div class="title"><a href="/ball-attachment-for-surface-gage">Ball Attachment for Surface Gage</a><span> by <a href="/builder/Harvey+Melvin+Richards">Harvey Melvin Richards</a></span></div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="/tag/gauge">gauge</a>, <a href="/tag/square">square</a>, <a href="/tag/dial-indicator">dial indicator</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

I just love the finish on the base. Glad I found this two year old thread!

Very creative, sir!