Using a Bar Stock to Set Up Tools
George VondriskaDescription
Anyone who knows George knows that he pretty much hates measuring. He cheats whenever possible, employing a variety of tips and tricks, including using a setup gauge. Setup gauges are simple little things: brass bar stock in a variety of sizes, but they take a lot of the hassle out of setting up tools.
What’s the advantage?
It can be pretty tough reading a ruler and measuring to the teeth on a dado head, or to the precise tip of a router bit or drill bit. It’s lots easier to use bar stock, and simply use your fingertip to determine when the cutter is even with the face of the setup gauge. Setting depth on a plunge router? Use bar stock between the stop rod and turret. Need a precise hole depth on a drill press? A setup gauge against the stop collar makes it easy. Need to set a precise distance between a router bit and router table fence? Yep, a piece of bar stock makes it super simple.
What makes up a set?
Most sets of set up gauges include a variety of sizes of brass bar stock. ⅛”, 3⁄16”, ¼”, ⅜”, and ½” are sizes commonly included in a good set of gauges. But don’t feel like you’re limited to those specific dimensions. You can stack the bars to hit other sizes. For example, using 3⁄16” in combination with ¼” gives you 7⁄16”. This is very handy.
More great ideas
If you think using bar stock for setting up tools is a great idea, you really need to explore WWGOA.com and have a look at more shop tips and ideas. They’re sure to save you time, prevent frustration, and help you get more enjoyment out of your shop time.
I hate using a ruler. Lots of you who know me know that. And anytime I can avoid it, I'm gonna. So when it comes to set up I am going to use brass bar stock whenever I can. There are a variety of places you can get this stuff. And here's the deal, dado head here, plunge router over here. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Table saw is unplugged. So let's say we want to do a three-eighths inch deep dado. I'm going to take my bar stock three-eights bar stock get it next to the dado head, find top dead center of the rotation and then raise the head until the top of the tooth is even with the top of the bar stock. Now I use this in classes that I teach all the time and my students use it. And one of the things everybody finds is that the repeatability of doing this as opposed to the repeatability of doing this is much, much, much better because we can do this tactically. We can feel across the top here. Yeah, those are even, good to go. Where when we read a ruler it always gets a little bit subjective. So that's one example. Let's look at a plunge router. Plunge router, first thing is disable the stop rod. So we can slide that up out of the way. Once I get it loose, there we go. Next step. Allow the router bed itself to touch the work that you're zero point, lock it down. Now we decide how deep we want that router. But to cut, let's say we want it to go in three-eighths of an inch. So the bar stock goes top of the turret, bottom of the stop rod lock that stop rod in place. We're perfectly set to do a three-eights deep cut every time without having to do any measuring. So once you get the bar stock in your hands it's one of these things. One, I think you're going to say why didn't I do this earlier. Two, you're going to find yourself using it at the router table, at the drill press, handout routers, table saw, lots and lots of applications. It really is such a handy way to set up your tools and makes it so much easier than trying to read a ruler.
I also use bar stock to set the depth stop on my mortising machine.
Using bar stock to set table saw blade height: For complete accuracy, two pieces of bar needed—well spaced either side of the blade with straight-edge bridging the blade.
Your not telling me anything I didn't know from working in a machine shop. Your blocks are called Joe Blocks. You can get them is almost any size. Or just buy a full set or make your own out of wood. However they can lie to you. Make your setup then fine tune it for closer mesurments. It all depends how accurate your trying to get. But its wood, and wood is a living material. It moves. Metal will too just not as much.
I understand about using a ruler for setting depth of cut on our tools. It doesn't work well. The bars are consistent. But, what about using digital measuring devices? I use a couple different ones and the consistency they provide is outstanding.
Can not find them anywhere, where can I buy this set