Help me find a modern use for this tool

[mklotz]

Not all planer gauges have the same slop angle, nor do they all have the same top slide fixture There is a guy on the PM site who gives a fairly good account of some of the other uses that he uses his for
Planer/Shaper Gage - Useage
Look for post #4

Thanks for the pointer. Actually, most of the uses he mentions are already covered in my list of uses with which I am already familiar.

I'll take your word on the differing slope angles since I've never handled, much less measured, any other gauges. Nevertheless, I think it's not by accident that a respected maker like B&S would pick such an unusual, non-integerial angle. Knowing the angles of other gauges might provide some good clues to this puzzle.

Maybe it's like the Morse tapers. The original makers of the gauges were shooting for 30 degrees, missed it by a little, and the error has been dutifully reproduced by makers ever since.

Nevertheless, it's highly suspicious that the angle has a tangent so close to 0.5. As soon as I can, I'm going to attempt to measure it more accurately than I have so far. It may well be that the small deviation from 0.5 that I've seen so far is due to crudity or carelessness on the point of the inspector.

Everything on this tool is set up to be used for measuring. The little "chair" on the sliding element has a back that is precisely (3 digit) one inch and the seat is precisely 5/8" from front to back. And, as I mentioned, the length of the cylindrical extension rod is precisely 2.5". My gut feel is that, with all those built-in precision measurement features, the angle of the gauge can't be some random, accidental value.