Or more accurately, making part of a marking gauge.
After my false start on making a marking gauge I cleaned up, cleared my head and started again.
First I made the beam out of a piece of figured maple. And I gave it a few coats of oil. I’m not planning on bleeding on this piece, but it can’t hurt to take some precautions.
I also planed up a piece of Walnut scrap I had for the sliding stop. That went really well, what a great confidence builder. Then I laid out the mortise for the Maple beam to fit. While I was planing the Walnut my new Glen-Drake Tite-Mark arrived, so I put it right to use. The cutter on it is great, it makes nice, crisp lines. I’ll have to post a review once I get some more seat time with it, but I can tell I’m going to love it.
I bored a hole using a 5/8″ auger bit in my brace (the beam is 3/4″ thick) and carefully chopped out the waste. I don’t have a mortice chisel (yet) so I took little bites and snuck up on the scribe lines. Success! It’s not perfect, but it’s snug and doesn’t wiggle.
I’m still thinking about how I want to make the cutter, I’ll finish this off when I get some more shop time.
(note that not only are there no unsightly gaps, there aren’t any embarrassing drops of blood either)
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