I was using a marking gauge backwards for three years

I was working on a set of maple drawer fronts last week, trying to scribe a line for some inlay. My lines kept coming out wobbly, no matter how hard I pressed. I was about to toss the gauge when my apprentice, a kid fresh from trade school, just stared at me and said, 'You know the wheel goes against the wood, right?' I had the fence against the wood and was dragging the cutting wheel along the fence side. I'd been doing it that way since I started my own shop, convinced the tool was just cheap. Flipped it around and got a perfect, clean line on the first try. I felt like a total rookie. Has anyone else had a basic tool use click way later than it should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah99929d ago

The manual never gets read, right?

derek65629d ago

Who actually builds IKEA stuff without it?

adamgreen23d ago

Oh man, that's a classic. I spent a whole summer trying to use a hand plane upside down. The shavings just piled up on the floor and I thought it was broken.