Height Gauges- What for, What to buy, digital, etc?

[HMF]

Hi,

So I'm reading again- (danger, danger)- and see there are many kinds of heights gauges that are used by machinists. This leads to the following questions:

1- What do you use them for in the hobby machine shop, if anything?

2- What brand would be good to buy?

3- Should I get digital or not?

4. Should I just make some, like this guy did? http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/digital-height-gauge.html


Thanks for the answers....


Nelson

 

[Old Iron]

I have 3 hight gauges that I use for layout and a surface gauge, All mine are Brown & Sharpe.

I've picked them up at yard sales and other places. I've got 2 extra that I don't need they are also brown and sharpe. There the ones in the second picture that one need cleaning up and the box fit.
The other one is in better shape.

Anybody know a good way to get rid of them! 8)

Paul

 

[Tony Wells]

These are the height gages I use for scribing, layout, comparison with gage blocks or measuring TIR or straightness etc., and ID and height, etc.

 

[Tony Wells]

Thanks Dave, but that is only a trick of the camera.

 

[Old Iron]

author=dalee link=topic=2465.msg17321#msg17321 date=1308931499
Hi,

Hey Old Iron. Where did you get that Kearney Trecker mill and vice. And what model? You gave me a seriously nasty flash-back with that photo. Got more of them? ;Dalee

Dalee
The Vertical is a 2H built in Feb 42 and I have a 2H Horizontal built in March of 42. As for the vise's I have 2 one I got for $.99 on ebay the other I paided 100.00 for it. I got them both from the same guy. I kind of felt bad about the .99 cent one thats why I gave him a 100 for the other one.

Paul

 

[Tony Wells]

Two common reasons for using an indicator on a height gage are to make comparative measurements between a standard, such as a gage block or stack of them and a part, or from feature to feature, and to check for roundness or concentricity of round parts in vee blocks.

In comparative measurements, you can use a fairly coarse, crude height gage merely as a holder for a high precision test indicator. When moving from the standard to the part, you don't move the height gage, so all the accuracy falls on the indicator, assuming that the standard and the PUT are close to the same, or at least within the travel of the indicator.

Also, you can check flatness and parallelism easily with am indicator in a height gage. Just slide it over the surface and see the variations.

All this assumes of course that you have a surface plate of some sort.

I'll add that at times the actual reading if the height gage is ignored, but if the difference you are seeing exceeds the indicator travel, certainly the height gage comes into play, and the indicator only serves as a "fine tuner" to let you know the precise relationship between the workpiece and the height gage, rather than just a contact point, which you really can't feel touch the work. Somewhere around here I have an accessory for a height gage that looks similar to a DTI, but just has a small switch that stops the height gage digital readout at a consistant point as it is moved into contact with the work. It's for a Mitutoyo digital....which I don't have, so it is a surplus item at the moment.