A new purchase

[phileakins]

This arrived, courtesy of Parcelforce, this morning.

Checking on the name on the inside of the lid of the box this gauge must have been manufactured before 1951 when the company changed its name and its business model.

It's been well used, the column has been polished so often the graduations are now very faint. I would like to restore it but have a couple of questions. There is space for a couple of rods, about 1/4" and 1/8" and perhaps a foot or so long. A search has found this advertisement (from the 1940s by the look of it) which shows one of the rods with a knurled end and something hanging off it.

Can any of you knowledgeable Westerners tell me what I am looking at, please? Any further information would also be gratefully received.

Ta ever so.

Phil

 

[adrian]

As per the advertisement you link to it is a height gauge. The base would sit on a surface plate and then the top jaw can be brought down onto the work piece and the venier scales would give you the height of the article.
The extra bits with the knurled clamp and rod I suspect clamp to the top jaw in some way and allow it to measure hole depths in an article.

 

[simond]

Fully agree with Adrian

Nice purchase.

Assuming you don’t have a surface plate, an off cut of granite worktop or a decent thickness of plate glass (a shelf for example) will approximate pretty well. Might be a case of trawling local industrial estates for likely suppliers. I wish I’d asked for the off cuts they cut out when they made my kitchen.

Atb
Simon

 

[polybear]

A granite kitchen cutting/chopping board should do the job, cheap and not too heavy

 

[phileakins]

Thank's chaps - I do have a piece of safety glass sitting on the bench (courtesy of Andy York), and I thought that might do.

As to the price - the transport cost me more than the gauge! Very pleased with it, which is why I would like to restore it to its former glory.

Phil

 

[Brian McKenzie]

I'm puzzled as to how the two loose pieces shown (scriber arm and clamp) attach to the height gauge so that the scribing edge extends out horizontally. Perhaps these two pieces have come from a different instrument?
No matter, should that be the case. A lathe tool could be ground as a substitute and clamped to the underside of the sliding arm, although this might require having to work with an offset when using the vernier scale.
-Brian M.

 

[GrahamMc]

I'm puzzled as to how the two loose pieces shown (scriber arm and clamp) attach to the height gauge so......
-Brian M.

See the link in the first post for an illustration. I can remember using these as an engineering inspector in a machine shop, lots of blue and lots of marking out to check dimensions. Only rough measurements though, verniers aka 'very near'.... Micrometers used for proper jobs.

 

[Brian McKenzie]

I did thanks Graham, but Phil's components don't match, and can't be assembled in the manner shown - so far as I can make out. There needs to be more length in the section directly behind the scriber edge.

 

[simond]

It should assemble like this

(Pic heisted from Amazon for illustrative purposes - other suppliers exist)

Atb
Simon

 

[Brian McKenzie]

Ah, what wasn't clear to me is that the two 'loose' pieces in Phil's photo actually show the scriber piece already inserted into the clamp - whereas they appeared to me on first viewing as being two separate items not fitted together. Apologies for causing confusion and any consternation. Brian M.

 

[phileakins]

The clamp is loose on the scriber - until all clamped with the screw up that is.

The advert shows one of the measuring rods (on the left) with a plate hanging down attached to the rod spindle between the rod and the adjusting screw. What I think is that the plate (when at right angles to the rod) is fixed by the clamp to the measuring arm instead of the scriber. It's the only way that I can see that the rod can be attached. Sorry, that sounds complicated but have a look at the illustration to see what I mean.

On a totally different, but related, subject - see what Mr Postman brought me this morning!

Genuine Moore and Wright model 405.

 

[Brian McKenzie]

We must be two of a kind, Phil


The Moore and Wright tool gets used regularly with a finger pointed d.t.i. (dial test indicator) in conjunction with the height micrometer (upper left), but use of the height gauge is less often.
Acquisition of an angle plate or a similarly right-angled surface, is highly recommended for when marking out sheet metal etc with the height gauge.

Brian McK. (who makes the occasional mould or press tool for the hobby as a side interest.)