Lathe tool height gauge - video

[tonyfoale]

I think that one of the worst commercial designs of tool height setting gauge is the type that uses a spirit level. Why is this bad? Because it requires that the lathe bed is set dead level. So this is completely useless for machines mounted in trucks, ships or other mobile situations. For fixed installations I doubt that a high percentage of potential buyers have checked whether their machines are mounted level.

Toolmaker51's suggestion of the 6" ruler or any of the fixed height steel stops are much quicker to use and longer lasting. Plastic stuff gets scratched too easily and when you have some cutting fluid spilt on it then it becomes tiresome to read. Setting tool height is such a simple operation which hardly needs gimic gadgets.

The device in the video is best suited to lathes with flat ways.