Bar Gauge From A Rifle Cleaning Rod

I was making some small boxes and had the dado routed for the bottom. Using a tape measure I did the usual add and subtract, cut the bottom, routed a groove and it was too small.

I looked on line for some bar gauges and they were a little pricey and I needed to finish the project so I looked around the shop to make one of my own. I found an old .22 cal gun cleaning rod that had three screw on sections. I also had a spare knob and nut and a full workshop of tools so I decided to make one.

If you do not have a rod, you can pick up an inexpensive one at any sporting goods store. The fact that it breaks down is a big plus because it will work on small boxes and large drawers, just screw in an extension. I keep them all together as shown in the picture above.

This is a picture of it being used to capture the exact dimension of the length of board needed for the bottom in order to fit into the dado cut in the box when it is fully assembled. Do the same for the width on the second cut.

Once the knob is tightened down, this can transfer to the table saw for an exact cut.

Here is a shot cutting on the SCMS, I used a small board butted up against the edge then transferred the other edge to the board and scribed a line to cut.

To make the block, I clamped two small blocks of wood together and taped them together, marked the center and two equidistant holes on each side of center just smaller than the diameter of the rod. Drill straight down right between the blocks making a groove in both to sandwich the rods. Then drill a horizontal hole for the knob and a counter sink for the nut.

Round the edges off with a sander to a little round point, not too sharp tho.

Plan your cuts of the rod carefully, you want some long sections and short ones. I ended up with four sections that can handle large drawers and boxes (screwed together) or short for smaller work.

-- Mike.... West Virginia. "Man is a tool using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.". T Carlyle