Hi Bob, just wanted to say you inspired me to get into woodworking and using more hand tools about 8 years ago just watching your videos. Still enjoying the hobby a lot and I'm really glad to see a new video from you. Its weird to see you using metal planes and a drill press instead of your old school tools ;)
Stan Brackhage Thanks! I’ve still got the wooden planes. Just haven’t been using them as much since moving out of my old climate controlled shop. They’ll be back in the videos in time though.
Same with me, I was kind of out of woodworking and started watching his videos, got me back in and inspired. I built his workbench, actually I have ended up building two of his workbenches.
Nice. That is going towards the top of my to do list. Also loved the way you mounted the marking knife and will use that for a mortice gauge that I am currently making.
Very nice. Why the brass screw and not the wedge I'm wondering? I made a few of the " French style marking guages" from your previous video and they work great with the wedges.
greg choma Thanks! No good reason to use the screw over the wedge really. Just a different way to go about things. My old panel gauge used a wedge. It worked fine, until the wedge and beam mortises got too loose. But I don’t think this was a result of the wedge system. The fence was a piece of walnut that wasn’t ideal for the task. But I still use my French style marking gauge all the time. It still works great. The panel gauge doesn’t need to be capable of one handed adjustments. Also, the long beam makes for a good bit of leverage and torque and can wear a square fence mortise out. I wanted a system that would lock the long beam more securely. The pentagon shaped beam accomplishes this better than the square beam of my old panel gauge. I could have used a captured wedge in place of the thumbscrew and brass pressure bar. I suspect it would have worked just as well as the thumbscrew with the five sided beam. But since I was adding the brass wear strips anyway, I figured I’d bling it up a bit. I already had the brass laying around. A friend made me a pair of brass thumbscrews in exchange for some saw work, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to put one to good use. Other than that, no reason to use the thumbscrew over a wedge. Both mechanisms work well.
Nice video. I’m keen to make this and got the Aug 18 edition of PWW for the details as suggested. Can you please clarify- the article specifies a 3/8” diameter clearance hole for the brass nut, but it also specifies using a 1/2” rod for the nut- is this right? Is the idea to force the rod through the clearance hole?
Steve Vlahos Yeah, it looks like the illustrator put the wrong dimension in the drawing. The hole for the brass nut should be ½” if you’re using ½” round bar for the nut. The hole in the top for the thumbscrew should first be drilled through the wood and brass rod at the same time in a size to match the tap for the thumbscrew threads. Then the brass rod should be removed and the hole in the wood should be drilled out so that the thumbscrew can pass through the wood freely without threading its way through. It should only thread into the brass rod. Watch how I do it in the video. It’s correct there.
Wow, beautiful hand work. I get stressed when my store bought gauges aren't square, amazing at how the eye can see what the gauge shows to be true, actually isn't. Maybe you or someone else could point me into the direction of perfect 90° angles. I just cant seem to make them perfect. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Wyatt Sprague Ha, if it’s perfect you’re looking for, I’m not the one to ask. I check my squares and correct them if necessary every so often. But I don’t stress about perfection in most cases. Hand work simply isn’t perfect, and I’m just fine with that. It doesn’t have to be in 99% of cases. But I can get very close to perfect 90s in the rare times that I need to. You need to have a good square reference first. I’ll test my square to make sure it is so. Then I can use it and a shooting board to sneak up on a perfect 90. I did a video many years ago on making a wooden try square. Check back through my older videos. In that video I talked about how to test a square for truth. Correcting wooden squares is easy with a plane or scraper. Correcting try squares with metal blades requires a file and a little patience. Correcting combination squares requires a really thin safe edge file and a lot of patience, and some aren’t worth correcting.
Here I am, the first to comment (the second to press "I like"). Nice to see a new video of yours. The panel marking gauge is really elegant. I really appreciated the detailed istructions and the inspiring concepts in the construction details. And yes, the pleasure is all mine. :)
Andy Johnson They were all made from readily available flat stock or round bar. I got mine from McMaster Carr, but there are a bunch of places online that you can purchase machinable brass from.
Two years behind on seeing this but just wanted to say this is the most beautiful panel gauge I have ever seen.
Thank you!
First-class. Beautifully made gauge. Thanks for sharing
mark goode Thank you!
Nicely done Bob.
wortheffort Thanks Shawn!
Hi Bob, just wanted to say you inspired me to get into woodworking and using more hand tools about 8 years ago just watching your videos. Still enjoying the hobby a lot and I'm really glad to see a new video from you. Its weird to see you using metal planes and a drill press instead of your old school tools ;)
Stan Brackhage Thanks! I’ve still got the wooden planes. Just haven’t been using them as much since moving out of my old climate controlled shop. They’ll be back in the videos in time though.
Same with me, I was kind of out of woodworking and started watching his videos, got me back in and inspired. I built his workbench, actually I have ended up building two of his workbenches.
Very happy to see you publishing videos again!
Matt Radtke Thanks Matt!
I may have watched your cabriole leg video several dozen times to prep for my own...
Really love your panel marking gauge.
Quality heirloom with character.
Intend to build one in the near future.
Ger & Polly van der Beek Thank you!
Nice. That is going towards the top of my to do list. Also loved the way you mounted the marking knife and will use that for a mortice gauge that I am currently making.
Beautiful gauge
nice to see you back
Good to see you, new content with a familiar presentation.
PK Property Solutions LTD Thanks!
Great to see you back!
Twentyone twos Thank you!
Very nice job.
Excellent working in making and videography
annarboriter Thank you!
Awesome! I am going to make one for myself I have needed it more than a few times! Thank you.
Davvero molto bello e funzionale, complimenti vivissimi!
Dang that was a lot of work for a panel gauge. Turned out amazing though!
Seth's Project Woodworking Thank you!
Cool the beard ! Looks very ... Fine Woodworking Wise man!
ikust007 🤣 It’s shorter now. It was getting a bit out of control.
Welcome back on TH-cam!
Thank you for the great video. I will be making one of these now.
Very nice. Why the brass screw and not the wedge I'm wondering? I made a few of the " French style marking guages" from your previous video and they work great with the wedges.
greg choma Thanks! No good reason to use the screw over the wedge really. Just a different way to go about things.
My old panel gauge used a wedge. It worked fine, until the wedge and beam mortises got too loose. But I don’t think this was a result of the wedge system. The fence was a piece of walnut that wasn’t ideal for the task. But I still use my French style marking gauge all the time. It still works great.
The panel gauge doesn’t need to be capable of one handed adjustments. Also, the long beam makes for a good bit of leverage and torque and can wear a square fence mortise out. I wanted a system that would lock the long beam more securely. The pentagon shaped beam accomplishes this better than the square beam of my old panel gauge. I could have used a captured wedge in place of the thumbscrew and brass pressure bar. I suspect it would have worked just as well as the thumbscrew with the five sided beam. But since I was adding the brass wear strips anyway, I figured I’d bling it up a bit. I already had the brass laying around. A friend made me a pair of brass thumbscrews in exchange for some saw work, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to put one to good use. Other than that, no reason to use the thumbscrew over a wedge. Both mechanisms work well.
Nice video. I’m keen to make this and got the Aug 18 edition of PWW for the details as suggested. Can you please clarify- the article specifies a 3/8” diameter clearance hole for the brass nut, but it also specifies using a 1/2” rod for the nut- is this right? Is the idea to force the rod through the clearance hole?
Steve Vlahos The ⅜” clearance hole is for the ¼” thumbscrew to pass through the wooden fence into the brass nut, which is a piece of ½” brass rod.
The ‘front view’ of the plan in PWW looks like it specifies a 3/8” hole for the 1/2” rod, or am I reading it incorrectly?
Steve Vlahos Yeah, it looks like the illustrator put the wrong dimension in the drawing. The hole for the brass nut should be ½” if you’re using ½” round bar for the nut. The hole in the top for the thumbscrew should first be drilled through the wood and brass rod at the same time in a size to match the tap for the thumbscrew threads. Then the brass rod should be removed and the hole in the wood should be drilled out so that the thumbscrew can pass through the wood freely without threading its way through. It should only thread into the brass rod. Watch how I do it in the video. It’s correct there.
Thank you. That clears it up. Thought I was going mad!
Good to see you again - I've re-subbed!
Steve SteveS Thanks Steve!
Wow, beautiful hand work. I get stressed when my store bought gauges aren't square, amazing at how the eye can see what the gauge shows to be true, actually isn't. Maybe you or someone else could point me into the direction of perfect 90° angles. I just cant seem to make them perfect. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Wyatt Sprague Ha, if it’s perfect you’re looking for, I’m not the one to ask. I check my squares and correct them if necessary every so often. But I don’t stress about perfection in most cases. Hand work simply isn’t perfect, and I’m just fine with that. It doesn’t have to be in 99% of cases.
But I can get very close to perfect 90s in the rare times that I need to. You need to have a good square reference first. I’ll test my square to make sure it is so. Then I can use it and a shooting board to sneak up on a perfect 90.
I did a video many years ago on making a wooden try square. Check back through my older videos. In that video I talked about how to test a square for truth. Correcting wooden squares is easy with a plane or scraper. Correcting try squares with metal blades requires a file and a little patience. Correcting combination squares requires a really thin safe edge file and a lot of patience, and some aren’t worth correcting.
Thanks for watching!
Steve M 😂😂😂 They’re too old and embarrassed for that now. Hard to believe that was 8-9 years ago already.
Where can I get a thumbscrew like that or how can I make one out of wood?
Martin Garcia You can buy thumbscrews from suppliers like McMaster Carr and MSC Industrial.
Here I am, the first to comment (the second to press "I like"). Nice to see a new video of yours. The panel marking gauge is really elegant. I really appreciated the detailed istructions and the inspiring concepts in the construction details. And yes, the pleasure is all mine. :)
th34lch3m1st Thanks!
Ouff. Lovely!
ikust007 Thanks!
Where did you get the brass parts from?
Andy Johnson They were all made from readily available flat stock or round bar. I got mine from McMaster Carr, but there are a bunch of places online that you can purchase machinable brass from.