permanently set, as shown in Fig. 25, in which A represents a thumb screw employed to set one leg firmly against the radius piece, C, and B being an adjusting screw for finally adjusting the compass points after the thumb screw, A, is fastened, the spring, D, operating to keep the leg, E, firmly against the face of the screw, B; so that, when the adjustment of the compass points is once properly made, the compasses may be laid upon the bench and used from time

to time without danger of the adjustment being altered by handling or by a slight blow.

An excellent attachment for compass points has lately come into use; it is for the purpose of fastening to the marking leg a pencil, to avoid scratching the surface of the work with the compass point. This device and its mode of application are shown in Fig. 26, in which A represents a thin tube with the feet, G G, on it, and provided with the split, B. C is a clamp, provided with a thumbscrew, E.

D represents one of the compass legs. F is a piece of lead pencil which passes through the tube, A. The attachment is slipped on the compass leg, and the screw is tightened up, clamping that leg to the feet, G G, and clamping at the same time the pencil in the tube. Another of these attachments, in which the pencil point is adjustable in a direction

other than that in which the compass point stands, is shown in Fig. 27, the pencil tube being swiveled at A, and B representing the compass leg.

The points of compasses should be forged out when they get thick from wearing short, and they should be tempered to a blue color. For marking small holes, compasses are too cumbersome for fine work, and spring dividers are preferable. A recent improvement in these tools consists in making the spring helical, as shown in Fig. 20, instead of making it broad, flat, and thin, as formerly.

Of gages for drawing marking lines at any regulated distance from the finished edge or edges of the work, there are several

Fig.28.

kinds. First we have that shown in Fig. 29, which is the kind ordinarily sold; others have, instead of the

set screw, a wedge running lengthwise, as shown in Fig. 30. A better gage, however, than either of these is that shown in Fig. 31, in which A represents the tightening wedge, standing at a right angle to the rod of the gage. The advantage of this design is that it requires only one hand to work it, inasmuch as the wedge may be loosened or tightened by striking it, as if it were a hammer, against

anything that may happen to lie on the bench. Thus the gage may be set and adjusted with one hand, while the other is holding the work, as is often necessary when marking small work. The marking point should be a piece of steel Fig.30.

wire fitted tightly in the stem, the protruding part being ground or filed to a wedge, with the two facets slightly rounding, and whose broad faces stand at a right angle to the stem of the gage; the point or edge only projecting sufficiently to produce a line clear enough to work by; other

Fig.31.

wise it will not be suitable for accurate work.

The mortise

gage is similar to the above as regards the stem and sliding piece, but it is provided with two marking points, their distance apart being adjustable. Fig. 32 represents the gage referred to, the head screw working in brass nuts.

Fig 32.

On account of the narrowness of the base afforded by the sliding piece on the common gage, there is not sufficient

steadiness to gage to any great width, so that for widths above ten or eleven inches we must have recourse to the gage shown in Fig. 33. It is called the panel gage; its sliding piece may be seven inches long, and the stem two

Fig 33.

feet; the rabbeting at A forms a steadying base, the part of the rod about the marking point being raised to correspond with the distance from the rabbet to the stem nut. Next we have the cutting gage, shown in Fig. 34, in which a steel cutter takes the place of the marking point, being

wedged in position. It is employed to cut thin strips of wood; that is to say, of thicknesses up to about a quarter of an inch. The cutter point should be tempered to a dark straw color.

In Fig. G is shown a gage in which one side has a fixed