Drivel Starved Nation:
Haven’t posted lately, I have buried myself in work… oh how the time flies.
FYI, blogging is not work, it is just a hassle… unless of course I come up with some meaningful drivel to feed the DSN!
Last February I started work on a project that has occupied all my time up until two weeks ago when the prototype parts arrived. This is when I learned that I had a ways to go to prove out this concept so I dropped it temporarily and finished up a tool that I started a year ago and did not finish. I am thrilled with what this tool can do, particularly for those with small shops. I think you will see, at least I hope so, that this device can make your life a whole lot easier when in the shop. Here’s a peek…
So, what is it? All of the following;
1) An accurate Try Square (within 0.002″)
2) Marking Gage
3) Depth Gage
4) Height Gage
5) Bevel Square
6) Protractor
7) Centering Rule
The UG-1 Universal Gage features a magnetic base for setting table saw blades, band saw tables and jointer fences a breeze. The notched arm allows you to tilt your drill press table to a drill blank for precise angular hole drilling.
Setting split shaper and router table fences is easy with the depth gage functionality. As is determining hole and mortise depths. You flip the beam to convert to a height gage.
The height gage is perfect for setting router bit and saw blade heights. Those are just a few of the set-up capabilities.
This may be the best layout tool to come out of Bridge City… it provides uncluttered access to a lot of traditional layout tools.
And as you can see in the image, it comes in both a Right and Left hand version. Pick the one that reflects which way your table saw blade tilts as seen from the front of the saw. Better yet, just add them both to your shop!
The height gage features grads in both Imperial and metric units. This is cool for those weening themselves off the archaic imperial measuring system, it gives you a ready reference comparison–before you know it, 6mm is really close to a 1/4″ and 12mm is really close to 1/2″. After a little practice your brain will start thinking in millimeters which is a really efficient unit measurement embraced by almost the entire planet.
And yes, we will have a left and right version available in all metric.
We will open up pre-orders next week.
Next week I will get back to work on my gizmo that has a really big chance of making me the laughing stock of the woodworking community.
I can hardly wait!
-John
I’ll only laugh if the new gizmo has something to do with wine.
Of course you would!
This is a curious tool, indeed. I think I can figure out most of the functions, though the red pointer eludes me. Is that the marking gauge?
Do the base and the arm align with the arms of the AMP-v2? Perhaps you could use the AMP to set angles, and then use this to do complementary angles, etc.
John,
Very cool looking and lots of great functionality. Since I can’t ever leave well enough alone, is there anyway to capture the adjustable parts between two plates then one tool could function in both left and right handed needs?
Rutager
RE: laughingstock status, you used to get “beat up” real bad on some forums and publicly, but seems like the Internet has been real quiet about bashing your stuff. Question is: has everyone finally realized your genius; have they forgotten about you or did their moms go down in the basement and unplug their computers?
Speaking of genius, the method for adjusting square on the CT-19 is integrated stealthy and beautifully. Probably many buyers never even noticed it?
I will do a length post on the how’s and why’s behind this tool early this week.
-John
Rutager,
One could put double arms on an elongated body but the sacrifices in my opinion are not worth it. The main one is the length, it would be over a foot long. Second, we would lose the quick and fixed 90 degree square.
-John
I think most of our detractors, like A LOT of our customers, have kicked the bucket (we have had somewhere between 50 and 100K customers who have passed on since 1983… scary isn’t it)
-John
If they don’t know it is there, that is not necessarily a bad thing!
-John
“It slices! It dices! It makes julienne fries!”
A funny face emoticon was supposed to go with that last one: 😛