Crenellated height gage

**mklotz** · Sep 4, 2015, 08:55 AM

I needed a "height gage" to set the protrusion of bits on my (woodworking) router and for some other applications. I got somewhat carried away and made the pieces pictured below. The crenelated tower on the right has slots of varying length cut into it. When the middle piece is dropped into this tower, the rectangular arm can drop into any of these slots which places the bottom of the arm a fixed height above the surface in increments of 1/8" from 2" to 1-1/8". The cylindrical rod attached to the arm is 1" long so the measurement range is extended to 1/8" to 2". A 1/16" shoulder at the end of the arm allows one to get measurements in increments of 1/16". The threaded rod is for non-aliquot measurements that one wants to remember and/or duplicate.

Here's how the thing looks with the two parts assembled in working configuration.

A separate base with an accurate 1" step in it extends the range of measurement to 3".

The whole project went way beyond what I needed but it was fun and perhaps someone can use the basic idea in his own application.

**kbalch** · Sep 4, 2015, 03:33 PM

Thanks Marv! I've added your Crenellated Height Gauge to our Height and Depth Gauges category, as well as to your builder page: mklotz's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Crenellated Height Gauge by mklotz

tags: height gauge

**DIYer** · Sep 4, 2015, 08:26 PM

Very nice! I wish I had a use for a gage like this just so I could copy it.

**PJs** · Sep 5, 2015, 11:31 AM

Really quite ingenious Marv. Pretty tricky milling on that castle!

Does get my mind reeling with variations of it. The key to me is the center cylinder being an anchor for the arm, well into the tube. If one were to take an angular slice (~15º~22.5º) of the support tube then V notch that face and embed a matching V pointer in the arm it could be used as a clock/indexer as well, likely with >8 positions. Adding that to your other 2 stops would give innumerable possibilities in fixed let alone the "non-aliquot" adjustments. How many positions would be determined by the width of the V and diameter of the tube.

As I don't have a mill (yet) either would be a bit out of reach for me but the indexing/height idea would work for some apps/projects I have in mind as I am sure other do to. Your recent posts have been quite a prolific with terrific ideas and builds!!! Thanks for sharing!!

~PJ