FILENAMES: Height_gage1.jpg Height_gage2.jpg Height_gage3.jpg Height_gage4.jpg Height_gage5.jpg DESCRIPTION: These are of a Starrett height gage with a shop-made scriber. Posted by Ted Edwards . The following description was provided: ================================================================= Scriber and Holder for a Starrett Height Gage E.M. (Ted) Edwards Ted_E@telus.net Files: Height_gage.txt This one Height_gage1.jpg The scriber and clamp mounted for use Height_gage2.jpg The pieces Height_gage3.jpg Setup for welding Height_gage4.jpg Scribing a line 1" from the bottom Height_gage5.jpg Using it with a dial gage One day I went into Boeing Surplus and saw an 18" Starrett height gage marked $70. But it was half price day! It was in its original box but the clamp and scriber(s) were missing. Seemed like something I could make. :-) The arrangement is shown in Height_gage1.jpg The mounting projection on the Starrett is 1/4" thick and I had several 1/4" square high quality cobalt HSS lathe bits. I went through them and selected the one with the flatest, straightest bottom surface. A little work on the diamond hones followed by a hard and black-hard Arkansas stone and I had a scriber. Now a clamp is needed to attach it to the height gage. The finished clamp, scriber and pressure piece are shown in Height_gage2.jpg. The clamp started life as a rectangular 1/2"x1" aluminum bar about 2" long. This was set this up in the mill and a 1/4" wide by 5/8" deep square bottomed slot was milled in it. The piece was now cut in half and the edges cleaned up leaving two U-shaped pieces. These were slipped over a piece of 1/4"x1" stainless bar and welded together. See Height_gage3.jpg. A little clean up, drill and tap a hole in the top for the clamp screw, weld a cross bar on the 10-32 bolt and we're done. Obviously this arrangement can't get down to zero height but this is so easily circumvented (as shown in Height_gage4.jpg) that I may never get around to making an offset scribe. The little pressure block is just a piece of 1/4" square keystock and is particularly handy for holding a round object such as the dial gage adapter shown in Height_gage5.jpg. Note the try square being used to set the gage stem vertical. A one degree departure from square to the surface plate will introduce about one and a half tenths per inch of travel cosine error. Thus the angle is not all that critical for a 0.1" travel gage but should be close. This is a great arrangement for precision measurements. I get a caliper-quality mesurement, set up an appropriate stack of gage blocks, zero the dial gage on them and replace them with the work piece. I seem to be able to consistently get within better than a tenth this way.