Layout Tools
Last updated on Sunday, May 19, 2013 08:34:43 AM Eastern US Time Zone

Layout Tools, Scribes & Automatic Center Punches, Precision Gage Blocks, Surface Plates,
Surface Gages, Height Gages, Transfer Punches, Protractor, Optical Protractor, Machinist Calculator

Also refer to, how to drill a hole where you want it & how to drill the center of a rod.
Decimal Equivalents of Fractions   Decimal Equivalents of # Drills   Decimal Equivalents of Letter Drills
Inch to mm Conversion   mm to Inch Conversion   Metric & Inch Equivalents
Rules Relative to the Circle   Tapers & Angles   Triangle Chart   

  Layout Tools

Various types of squares, small rules, & protractors. Starrett (USA) & Mitutoyo (Japan) are high quality.

Satin chrome finish, machine-divided blade, hardened steel, Starrett rules.

Starrett Model No. 289A combination square blade attachment.
This accessory allows attaching a steel rule at right angles to another rule or the blade of a square.


Accepts 1" (25.4mm) wide blades. Attachment seat lengths: blade 1-9/16" (40mm) x rule 1-11/16" (43mm).

LS Starrett invented the combination square. All three of these models are hardened & ground.
Starrett 434-12-16R 12" Combination Square Set

Starrett No. 98 Machinists' Level with ground &  graduated vial.

Base with V-groove for leveling round parts. Protective metal cover rotated closed.

Top row are two Machinists' solid squares: hardened (RC55), ground, & lapped to high accuracy.
Bottom center is a Starrett toolmakers double steel square & its extra blades.

Outside calipers, spring divider, hermaphrodite, & inside calipers.

Scribes & Automatic Center Punches

Scribes & automatic center punches. Top to bottom: Starrett surface gage steel scribe, a diamond-tipped
 scribe, a carbide-tipped scribe, two large-body punches that make deep marks, two high-precision punches
 that have very fine sharply pointed replaceable tips, & the last punch has small replaceable tips.

Automatic center punch exploded detail. Assembly order is left to right, top to bottom. If the middle row far
right cylindrical part is turned around, the punch will not work properly. The flat side faces the point & the
curved side faces the hammer/ball bearing.
Center punch assemblies: General No. 87  thin body, No. 70079  large aluminum body, & No. 78 steel body.

Automatic center-punch replacement tips. Lower-left: General No. 79P.

Precision Gage Blocks

81 piece, Grade B, hardened, precision gage block set, from 0.050 to 4.0",  ±0.000050" at 20°C (68°F).
Excellent for use with height gages, depth gages, sine bars, sine plates & sine vises, setups, etc. (import)
Example of a calibration reference table. See Starrett for information on wringing gage blocks.

Left to right: 1", 0.5", & 0.2". Note the middle, micro-lapped working surface.

Spacer gage set. Used for setting stops, setups, & sine bars/plates/vises.

The ends are threaded so they can be screwed together/stacked.


Accurate, 1-2-3, 2-3-4 & 2-4-6 (inches) precision-ground, hardened, steel blocks.
⅜-16 threaded & clearance holes allow clamping. Handy for surface-plate measurements & mill setups.

Surface Plates

Granite surface plates (± 0.0001") in 18"x12"x3" (85 lbs.) & 12"x9"x2" (30 lbs.) sizes.
The relatively heavy plates have Teflon pads on the bottom to ease movement on the bench.

 
A simple, all wood (glued only, no metal) cover to protect the surface from damage.

Surface Gages

Universal Starrett surface gage holding its hardened steel scribe.
Base is 2-13/16" (L) x 2⅜" (W) & is supplied with 9" & 12" spindle lengths.
Starrett Model 257 exploded diagram.

The base has a V-groove for centering on round parts. The pins extend to act as guides along an edge.


 Starrett Model No. 56 toolmaker's surface gage. The small size helps when working in tight locations.
The base is 2⅛" (L) x 1⅜" (W) x ⅞" (H) & the spindle length is 4 inches.
Starrett No. 56 surface gage parts diagram.

Found this old gage at a tool sale for $10. Purchased a new scribe from Starrett to complete the restoration.

The universal & toolmaker's surface gages compared for size.

Height Gages
  
A Mitutoyo, 8", 543-244 digital height gage with fine adjustment mechanism. The height gage & a granite surface plate make an accurate
combination for measuring parts or laying out precisely scribed lines. Resolution: 0.0005". Absolute electrostatic capacitance type linear encoder.
A fine adjustment carriage is a requirement for fast, accurate settings. See Mitutoyo 543-244 digital height gage manual & dimensional drawing.
For accurate, repeatable measurements, insure the surface plate, height gage, & scribe working surfaces are free of debris/grit.
Check to see if the scribe bracket is tight. Periodically inspect the adjustable ways of the transducer for excessive play.

  
A carbide-tipped (Mitutoyo) 10", dial height gage on a granite surface plate (± 0.0001"). High accuracy can be achieved using gage blocks to set specified heights.
Use layout die to make the scribe marks easier to see. Mitutoyo height gage manual. Surface plates are useful for precision alignment when assembling parts, too.
See Height Gages in Mensuration for additional descriptions of various accessories.

Starrett No. 3751 digital height gage.

Starrett No. 995E (USA) Universal Precision Gage set.
A toe clamp holds its hardened HSS scribe which is shown being set at 3.0000" height using a gage block.

Transfer Punches

Transfer punch sets: Fractional - 3/32" through 1" by 1/64th", 0.0025" undersized.
Numbered - 1 through 60.  Lettered - A through Z.  Metric - 1mm through 13mm by 0.5mm.
 Black anodized & heat treated. Some of the original stands were replaced with Huot brand.
Note: import punches sometimes have off-center tips that need to be corrected using a lathe tool-post grinder.

The supplied stand for the metric transfer punches was of very poor quality so an aluminum stand
was fabricated. The plates' dimensions are 5¾" x 2⅝" x 1/3" thick & the bottom plate is 1/16" thick.
A thick top plate keeps the punches vertical plus easier to take them in & out than the multi-plate designs.
The holes were made using each bit of the entire set of metric drills; the transfer punches are undersized.
After the plate was drilled, the top surface was fly cut & then the holes chamfered to make a nice finish.
1⅛" long, 4-40 steel standoff posts were used as spacers. The bottom plate corner holes were first threaded,
the posts were then screwed in followed by a nylon-insert lock nut that secures the post & acts as the feet.


Integer sizes were stamped onto the top & filled-in with black China marker.


Transfer screw sets for mating parts especially blind holes. Hardened screws stored inside handle.
Storing all the screws in the handle oriented one-way (e.g., tip in first) seems to help insertion & removal.
Handle end has a hex driver that serves as wrench. Top to bottom examples: ¾-10, 4-40 & M10-1.5 (metric).

Top-center is a 10-32 transfer screw in the end of a ⅜" dowel pin for the Taig DRO x-axis modification.
This was part of the pre-CNC Taig Micro Mill DRO design.


A metal holder for the transfer screw sets. The hardware: ¼-20 cap-head bolts, brass tubes, & lock nuts.

The lower plate has corresponding holes that capture the tips. The lock nuts also function as feet.

Modified all of the holders where ¼-28 bolt heads now act as feet.
 

Holders for metric (L) & imperial (R) transfer screw sets. Similar design to the Silver & Deming drill bit stand.
The metric are Chinese imports & the imperial are USA manufactured.

Protractor

Accurate, all-metal protractor set.

There is an etched degrees scale with a 5 minutes precision vernier (nonius) scale.
 If the magnifier is needed, the two screws are used for attachment.


Scale as seen while under the magnifier accessory. This scale is reading at 0°5' angle.

Optical Protractor

An optical protractor that is excellent for ergonomic analyses of workstation display & control layout geometries.

OPTO-METRIX Optical Protractor OP-1a. US Patent No. 4,257,164.

Machinist Calculator

Machinist Calc Pro capabilities: cutting speed, spindle speed (rpm), feed rate, cutting feed, feed per tooth
(chip load), built-in drill & thread size reference tables, drill point cut depth solutions, wire sizes & 3-wire
measurements, bolt pattern hole layouts with center x, y coordinates, right-triangle math, trigonometric
solutions, work in & convert between US & metric units including decimal inches/mils, feet-inch-fractions, m,
mm, cm, area, volume & weight. Many of these parameters can also be calculated using DRO functions.
It defaults to 75% threads but I like being able to quickly calculate any other needed % e.g., 50% or 65%.
After selecting a hole size, one can scroll up & down the table to see the closest inch & metric bit sizes.
Their app is lower in cost but I did not want my delicate iPhone 5 to be exposed to a shop environment.
Machinist Calc Pro 4087 Manual   Machinist Calc Pro 4087 Specs




Shop-hardened case with a sturdy double hinge & two effective locks (front & back).     

Layout Tools, Scribes & Automatic Center Punches, Precision Gage Blocks, Surface Plates,
Surface Gages, Height Gages, Transfer Punches, Protractor, Optical Protractor, Machinist Calculator

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