I have two Bridge City tools. The first is a Kerf Maker and the other is a Tenon Maker. These are little gauges you use to set up on a tablesaw to compensate for kerfs and tenon thickness.
Bridge City was recently acquired by Harvey Industries and are having some pretty good sales if you need what they produce.
Here is the case I made to hold both gauges. You will notice on the bottom there are some shallow cutouts. When I laid out the project I had the wide part going accross in the X direction. When I put the wood on the Shapeoko I put the long part in the Y direction. As soon as the job started I stopped and check my X Y and Z settings and they were ok, then with a Homer Simpson Doooh moment I had to go into CC and turn the project 90 degrees. Since this is only a utility box I did not bother remaking it with another piece of wood.
This is a picture of the top of the box with the lower portion holding the gauges. When I got the Bridge City Logo in put it through Inkscape to make an svg I brought the image into CC and removed the “Tool Works” from the logo. When I selected the tool works I accidentally grabbed the “I” in City and did not notice it until it was carved. Again Homer Doooh. So I just added my initials and an I and carved them in. This is not a project I wanted to waste more wood on so I just fixed my mistake.
I was making this project in the new V7 CC version 709 and they have incorporated the gcode into the c2d file. On V6 I would make multiple gcode files and give them version numbers or otherwise differentiate them so I could add or subtract things. With the V7 I will have to get used to saving multiple iterations of the file to make minor changes or reverse the changes if required.
HP-8X plane (an indulgence, but it is really nice to use)
PB-2 palm brace
Wish I could find one of the drills for an affordable price (and I’d love to upgrade the PB-2 for the Millenium Brace). Currently planning on getting a DJ-3 and eventually a Jointmaker v2. Still debating on getting the full set of planes — doubt I’ll be able to justify them (since I also want a Stanley 51/52 shooting plane/board pair — one just went up on Jim Bode Tools, but we just replaced our oil furnace w/ a heat pump…)
I was not going to remake the case but I forgot that the Kerf Maker has to be set and if you use the same blade it does not have to be re calibrated. So since I had made a few mistakes on the original one I decided to make a version 2. I was able to fix the things I screwed up on version 1. I increased the size of the pocket for the Kerf Maker. Fixed the missing I in City. Got my initials to stand up like the Bridge City Text. All minor and cosmetic but setting the Kerf Maker and leaving it set saves a lot of time. I have many table saw blades but I keep a Forrester Woodworker II blade on my table saw 99% of the time.
The version 1 is proof that you should not rush through a design just to get it done. Since it was just a utility piece I did not pay full attention and the results were acceptable for a utility piece but the remake fixed all the mistakes I made on the rush job.
I was using the new V7 710 Carbide Create and in the above picture of CC I learned to save each part of the project as a new file. So I have 3 c2d files, the top Adv Vcarve, the top of the box pocket under the v carve to fit over the lower half of the box, the lower half of the box.
