Considering making my own pin gage set

Inferno said:
It was an impulse buy and the price was right.
I used one pin, one time, in the last 5 or so years.
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Everybody wants to know: how much did you pay?!

Where were they manufactured?
 
One way to economically obtain “gage pins” is by using the shanks on the drills and end mills that we already own.

For example, I recently bought an import 120 or so piece drill index on eBay. I spent about $40. So there’s 120 or so “gauge pins” available to me. I wonder what the tolerance would be on these drills.
 
erikmannie said:
Please tell us how much you paid. We are broke and desperately in need of stories about people getting great deals.
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The problem with telling someone how much you paid for something is the person usually thinks that's a point for setting the sale price.
If you want a tale of a great deal, I will tell you that last night I found out one of the Pokemon cards I bought in 1999 is valued in the neighborhood of $50,000
And a couple more are worth @ $15,000 each.
And if you want a tale of woe, I paid $86 each for 3 Pokemon cases of base sets in 1999 and there were some sold in the last 2 months for well over $50,000 each. They were the ultra rare shadowless cards and there's even single packs selling for over $1,500 each. I was selling those for $17.

And, just because you asked, I paid less than $50 for the pin gauge set.
 
erikmannie said:
One way to economically obtain “gage pins” is by using the shanks on the drills and end mills that we already own.

For example, I recently bought an import 120 or so piece drill index on eBay. I spent about $40. So there’s 120 or so “gauge pins” available to me. I wonder what the tolerance would be on these drills.
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Drill rods are good for making fixtures and cutting tools. I use them for all kids of setups in the shop. But they are not gauge pins, not by a stretch!
 
I am a bit surprised at comments about how infrequent gauge pin use is. I have 0.060 to 0.500" and use them maybe weekly, and when I do it's always the quickest and most accurate solution. Obviously a big use is in measuring hole diameters. An extension of that, I use them for example to check the performance of drill bits, are they drilling oversize or how much. I make a prototype test hole and check the fit with the nearest pin. This is pretty hard to do otherwise. It's also convenient to use for checking fit for pressing in components.
 
Inferno said:
The problem with telling someone how much you paid for something is the person usually thinks that's a point for setting the sale price.
If you want a tale of a great deal, I will tell you that last night I found out one of the Pokemon cards I bought in 1999 is valued in the neighborhood of $50,000
And a couple more are worth @ $15,000 each.
And if you want a tale of woe, I paid $86 each for 3 Pokemon cases of base sets in 1999 and there were some sold in the last 2 months for well over $50,000 each. They were the ultra rare shadowless cards and there's even single packs selling for over $1,500 each. I was selling those for $17.

And, just because you asked, I paid less than $50 for the pin gauge set.
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You got an epic deal on that gage pin set.
 
You measured what you made, right? With a .0001" reading mic?
That's ok for hobby uses. But if you get to splitting hairs (I love splitting hairs) a regular calibration house uses a surface plate, and a .0001" test indicator set off the plate with a gauge block. You roll the pin on the plate in at least three places (both ends and the middle of a pin)and see if:
A. The pin is bent. I've seen a .5000" +0"/-.0002" pin bent almost .002". Don't know how they did that but someone did.
B. Is it worn out of spec on one end or middle?
C. Someone fubar'd one of a set and made one in the tool room. A minus pin .00025" over nominal size.
D. Is it rusted, stained or scarred?
Please understand, I'm not knocking your efforts. It's commendable you're doing this and learning.
 
Bone Head said:
You measured what you made, right? With a .0001" reading mic?
That's ok for hobby uses. But if you get to splitting hairs (I love splitting hairs) a regular calibration house uses a surface plate, and a .0001" test indicator set off the plate with a gauge block. You roll the pin on the plate in at least three places (both ends and the middle of a pin)and see if:
A. The pin is bent. I've seen a .5000" +0"/-.0002" pin bent almost .002". Don't know how they did that but someone did.
B. Is it worn out of spec on one end or middle?
C. Someone fubar'd one of a set and made one in the tool room. A minus pin .00025" over nominal size.
D. Is it rusted, stained or scarred?
Please understand, I'm not knocking your efforts. It's commendable you're doing this and learning.
Click to expand...

I don’t know if this comment was meant for me, but I only made 4 pin gauges: .250”, .500”, .750” and 1.000”. I just measured them with .0001” grad micrometers. I ended up being about .0002” to .0004” out at the most. Note that I didn’t claim .2500”, .5000”, etc.

I would not choose the word “precision” to describe the pin gauges that I made.

Regarding the Shar gage blocks that I was complaining about, I am not at all set up to judge precision, either. There is a lot of operator error going on in my shop!
 
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