The Wife recently gifted me with a Tite-Mark marking gauge from Glen-Drake Tools. Mainly, I was looking for such a tool to help me with laying out dovetails on drawers. After getting a chance to look over the Tite-Mark documentation, I realized that the uses for a marking gauge were much greater than I had previously thought. With that in mind, I knew that the armoire project would proved a good testing ground for it’s all-round usefulness. Is it a uni-tasker, or is it truly as universally useful as claimed?
The tool itself is well crafted. The fence has little slop in it’s movement on the rod. Glen-Drake also saw fit to add a nylon set screw to dampen movement. This means you can easily move the fence into position and not have to worry about slippage while you’re tightening the actual set screw. What’s more, the fence has micro-adjustment capability. Move the fence close to position and tighten the set screw farthest from the head of the fence. Then use the knurled nut to dial the position in. Now tighten the second set screw closest to the head of the fence and it’s done. The knurled nut is sufficiently sized so that it is easy to grip and turn and once again, there is little slop in the threading. The rod had a flattened portion that the 2 set screws turn down against. When you tighten the screws, the fence is locked in position- the fence didn’t slip once during my usage. I found myself appreciating all these little details as I progressed in the shop.
The standard blade is tapered. As you slide the gauge over the wood, the taper works to keep the fence against the edge of the wood. I used it to mark the widths for some boards I had ripped and had little trouble in drawing a clean mark along the grainline. My marking was done on maple in this case. It would be interesting to see how it works on an open grained wood like oak.
As for feel, I had a little trouble finding a comfortable position to hold it. I have large hands, so gripping the fence without affecting the set screws took a little doing. That said, once I got a feel I had little trouble making it work. I will say that the micro-adjustment is a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because of the accuracy of position that can be attained. It’s a curse because, well, you can waste a lot of time fiddling to get the “perfect” position. Perhaps this was just due to my inexperience with such a tool. Time will tell. Also, I’ll note that finding a way to hold the wood while marking it is not as straight forward as I thought. Especially for marking widths of narrow stock, like 2-3″ widths. In this case, I’m confident that experience will make a difference.
The Tite-Mark has a number of optional blades that streamline layout of mortises. They have stock double-edged blades of 1/4″, 3/8″, and 1/2″ for the more common mortise sizes. It also comes with 2 blades that slide onto the rod and mirror one another so that layout of any width mortise is possible. From my playing around, these are a little more difficult to work with for setup purposes. Getting an accurate setting takes a little doing. There are a couple of extension rods that screw into the main rod. This way it’s possible to mark lines upwards of a foot from the edge of the wood.
All in all, a very nice, versatile tool. It marked a good line with the grain, or across the grain. I mentioned using it to mark board widths. I also used it to mark lines for tenons and it was very easy to use. I marked 6 boards on all four sides on both ends in a couple of minutes and all the markings registered perfectly with one another when the boards were set side-by-each. Perhaps most tellingly, after a few minutes, I found myself just using the tool, as opposed to manufacturing ways to use it.
The Tite-Mark will definitely be a staple for use on my projects. It can’t replace a pencil entirely- I still needed something tucked up in my ear and the Tite-Mark was a little awkward for that. Props to the Wife, she chose well.