Shop Made Imperial Scale for Domino

glenn bradley

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SoCal
Nothing so fancy as a 3D printed step scale. I simply reversed the aluminum scale on the tool and scribed my own lines. After flipping the scale plate I set the fence so that I was dead center on a 3/4" board through a little trial and error. I then marked the plate with a fine point ink marker at the built in pointer location. I then removed the plate and taped ot to my work surface to secure it.

I aligned a small Incra rule with that mark and use the laser cut slots in the Incra to guide a hard tipped awl in order to scribe tick marks every 1/16"; each 1/16" represents 1/8" of center line change. I then made longer ticks at the halfway point for 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 1-14" material. I tested changing the dimension by eye several times and found the degree of accuracy to be tolerable; certainly better than what I was going through before. I just don't use the thing often enough to get good at it I guess ;-)

Imperial Scale for Domino (1).jpg . Imperial Scale for Domino (2).jpg

I didn't have a black lacquer stick that survived the move so the ticks are marked in white and that is my excuse for not cleaning them up very well. I will get a black stick on the way and redo it. The aftermarket stuff is great if you need positive stops at their version of what nominal 3/4" plywood is or only have 1/2" and 3/4" like the Domiplate (sp?). Great products but, I need more "steps" than they come with and wanted actual dimensions that I could fudge for myself.

Imperial Scale for Domino (3).jpg

Not for everyone I imagine but, this will make my occasional Domino use much quicker and more confident.
 
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