Surface Gage

I built this gage to use as a primary height and square gage, not as a surface gage, I have dedicated surface gages but I wanted to have a dedicated gage just for checking square and height.
There is a radius machined on the front of the base just for checking square, some people machine a slot in an old surface gage, Install a piece of steel in that slot then hand grind a radius on the piece. I chose to incorporate that as part of the tool.
The spring under the pivoting arm was made from a piece of .055" music wire wound on the lathe at 12 coils per inch. The only thing I didn't make was a 1/4-20 set screw which secures the 7" stem to the pivoting arm.

The entire gage was made from O-1 tool steel, except for the 7" long stem which was made from 316 stainless steel. All parts that were flat was hardened and ground, all parts that were round was hardened and polished.

Below are some photos
Thanks for looking and happy machining

Doug

Attachment 1997

Photo before assembly

Attachment 1998

Another view before assembly

Attachment 2000
Assembled

Attachment 1999

Another view after assembly

Attachment 2005

Using it for checking square

Attachment 2006

Another view of checking square

Attachment 2007

Using it as a height comparator

Attachment 2008

Another view of height comparator

Thanks Doug! I've added your Height and Square Gauge to our Machining and Measuring and Marking categories, as well as to your builder page: rossbotics' Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="/height-and-square-gauge"><img src="/uploads/96960/height-and-square-gauge.jpeg" alt="Height and Square Gauge" /></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="/height-and-square-gauge">Height and Square Gauge</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/rossbotics">rossbotics</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>, <a href="/tag/height-gauge">height gauge</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>

Hi Doug,

Very nicely done! Your Height and Square Gauge is the 'Tool of the Week'!

You'll be receiving one of our official HomemadeTools.net T-shirts:

Attachment 2010

Let me know (via PM) your size, color choice, and mailing address. We'll get the shirt in the mail to you directly.

Congrats!

Ken

Very nicely made and with great photos. This type of surface gage has been on my "to do" list for sometime now but didn't want to tackle grinding a thin slot. Now I see your alternative and I like the design. Thank you.

Yes, congratulation Ross for your tool of the week selection, as Paul above, your gage is really nicely made, and I like the solution of the post than can tilt with micro-adjustment.
Very nice !
Looking forward to see more about you,
Christophe

Great job machining the gauge Doug.

Al

That's a beautiful piece of work!

This thread has been moved to the Must Read subforum. Congrats (and thanks) to Doug for making such a valuable contribution!

can you take a regular surface gage and put it on a rotary table and put a radius on on it, and what radius did you use?

I don't see why you can't, the radius I used was 1/2 the width of the surface gage

So many cool projects - I wish you were my next door neighbour! ha-ha.
You obviously have a surface grinder, but do you do your own quenching & tempering too? If so, what kind of heat treating equipment do you have?

Thanks for your comments petertha
yes I do own a surface grinder and yes I do my own heat treating and quenching as well.
All I use for heat treating is an oxy-acetylene torch with a 3/4" diameter rosebud tip and 7 gallons of burnt motor oil, transmission fluid works good too.
Soon as I get finished with this new tool I'm working on I'm going to build and post a 2 burner propane heat treating oven

Thanks Again
Doug