Shopsmith Forums

Earlier this summer I spotted a sale and my weakness for shiny new tools got the best of me. One of the 6" t-rules came home with me.

Here is a link to a great professional picture of what I'm talking about:

http://www.incra.com/images/measur_trule_pic1_zoom.jpg

The bad news right off, these things are not cheap. The list price is $21.95 plus postage. Sale price was a bit more to my liking $14.99 and free shipping but I did have to add tax. If this might be something you might want to buy I found the sale price at Rockler.

It doesn't come with the required .5mm pencil but those are easy to come by. A normal wood pencil will not work, nor will .7mm one, you got to get the .5mm size.

If you haven't done so yet make sure you look at the INCRA web site as they show the scales and give several ideas of how to use one of these and they do a better job then I could so:
http://www.incra.com/product_t-rules.htm

You can also see other models they have that might fit your needs.

The stainless steel is thin, .010", this combined with the precision location of the tiny holes the the .5mm pencil fits in give you exceptional results. There is no contest in comparing using a scale and wood pencil to using this rule. If you are looking to up your wood skills and do are still looking for an easy way to do it, this is it. It can't cut the wood for you but at least you can be sure it is measured right.

For me it was very easy to see the markings, a solution to a problem I like to attribute to getting old, if you are "there" you know what I'm talking about. The holes are easy to see as well and I think I'm going to like using this just for that reason alone.

The t-track is designed to keep the scale square to the track, that seems to work very well. This gives you the side of scale to use as a t-square, that seems useful as well.

My only downside is that I'm not sure what will happen when it falls or I drop it, yea another getting older feature. I don't feel up to a drop test either.

For those that do not need or want the precision then you will want to skip this one. Now promise me we are not going to see a whole batch of reply posts discussing the pro and con of using tools like these... if you still want to use your axe/hammer/guitar string/finger nail/teeth for marking fine just do it, I do that sometime too but other times I love my shiny new tool and use that.

Overall I'm very positive on this item.

Check later for me making use of this tool over in beginning woodworking.

Ed

Ed
One question I find 5 mm pencil lead is very very easy to break. Does this pose any problem to using this guage? I have often considered it but backed away because of the thin lead.

Ed- you're correct- I have one of those gauges, and I like it a lot, but the pencil lead does tend to break easily, especially if the wood surface is rough. A scratch awl works well in those situations instead of a pencil.

Gary

I have not had any problems yet but I can see that happening with certain rougher materials.

I've been using these type pencils since around 1971, just after the army I was using the GI Bill for school but need to work so I spent one summer break + working as a draftsman (had high school drafting plus tech school drafting already so this added some real world experience). Some purest at the time didn't like them but I got a set of .3, .5 and .7mm and have used them since. When I came back for more design/drafting classes in the fall, using them in class caught on and within weeks everyone was using them. Some broken lead at first but everyone caught on.

I'd say give it a try and if you are going through tubes of lead every week this might not be for you.

Ed

reible wrote: My only downside is that I'm not sure what will happen when it falls or I drop it

I have the 6" rule and have dropped it more times than I care to admit. Despite my butterfingers, it has held up quite well. The steel is "springy", so it absorbs the shock of hitting the shop floor.

I also have the 12" rule which has markings in metric (0.5mm) and in hundredths of an inch. Yes - I have used it to layout in decimal inches!

Buying high quality lead helps with the breakage.

I to have been using these pencils for many years. I got the first one from a friend who was taking a drafting course. I liked it so much that when it was stolen I paid about $10 for a new one.

I also have one of the incra rules that I like a lot.

rlkeeney wrote:Buying high quality lead helps with the breakage.

I to have been using these pencils for many years. I got the first one from a friend who was taking a drafting course. I liked it so much that when it was stolen I paid about $10 for a new one.

I also have one of the incra rules that I like a lot.

Okay I'll bite how do I know high quality lead?
I usually buy Pentel lead since that is the manufacture of my 5 mm pencils. It is either 2H or HB which they claim is stronger than 2H.
What lead should I be using????

Berol if they are still around... hording has it's up-sides and it's down sides, like I still have 20 or so tubes left and I haven't purchased any in 20 years....

Ed

Ed in Tampa wrote:Okay I'll bite how do I know high quality lead?
I usually buy Pentel lead since that is the manufacture of my 5 mm pencils. It is either 2H or HB which they claim is stronger than 2H.
What lead should I be using????

Ed in Tampa wrote:Okay I'll bite how do I know high quality lead?
I usually buy Pentel lead since that is the manufacture of my 5 mm pencils. It is either 2H or HB which they claim is stronger than 2H.
What lead should I be using????

2H is harder than HB, but leaves a lighter line, so you may need to press harder making it more likely to break: a catch-22.

I use B which is softer than HB, so I don't need to press as hard to get a good strong line. But it is softer, so it is more likely to break.

Bottom line, is that it is not necessarily the strength of the lead, but the nature of the wood that causes the lead to break. A smooth wood like maple almost never breaks the lead, but an open grain wood will almost always catch and snap the lead. that is why I use B lead with a light touch.

michaeltoc wrote:2H is harder than HB, but leaves a lighter line, so you may need to press harder making it more likely to break: a catch-22.

I use B which is softer than HB, so I don't need to press as hard to get a good strong line. But it is softer, so it is more likely to break.

Bottom line, is that it is not necessarily the strength of the lead, but the nature of the wood that causes the lead to break. A smooth wood like maple almost never breaks the lead, but an open grain wood will almost always catch and snap the lead. that is why I use B lead with a light touch.

Exactly, in 0.5mm I like to use 2B or B and in 0.3mm B or HB. Anything harder than HB has proved frustrating. At work we have a bunch of tubes of 5H, excellent for cutting paper but not much use otherwise. The softer lead is a little more fragile than the harder stuff but in my experience the ease of getting a dark line more than offsets this. Also be careful not to have too much lead exposed as this will certainly lead to breakage. One or two clicks on most pencils is all you need.

Troy