04 April 2013

A Stick in Time....


















A strange assemblage of bits, to be sure.  And for what purpose?  To cut a long story sideways, I was meandering through the 'Blogs various' on t'Interweb and by the merest chance stumbled across this entry from 'The Wood Whiperer' which I thought particularly cunning, in a very Baldrick sort of way...

























However, I didn't like the use of blue tape...messy, sticky and a bit impractical, so I've taken the concept a stage further.  Delving into the oddments box, I came across some lengths of ash and machined them to about 6mm thick and 20mm wide.  I then used a 6.4mm router cutter (1/4" to the enlightened readership across the 'Big Wet') and made a slot up the middle of each... then lop off one end at 45deg.

They're used for transferring, or measuring internal dimensions.  Simply slide the two bits together till the square ends touch, tighten the butterfly nuts and remove the sticks by turning anti-clockwise...the sticks won't work if the ends are left square as they can't be removed.

















In fact, so clever is the idea that I decided to make a second, smaller pair...

















... shown above.

















With all the various bits laid out, there's a large combination of sticks that can be assembled to measure just about any dimension.

If that's not a cunning plan, I'd like to know what is...

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