What is this?

A flatness gauge?

'Don't know. Does it have anything written on it? Ames used to make all kinds of specialized gages and fixtures for specific industries.

It does look quite right for a flatness gauge. The indicator is too close to nearest part of the base, and the indicator only reads to .001" I would say this is more likely a step height gauge for some particular piece of equipment.

It looks something like a router table height gauge but without as much travel .

correction: meant to say "It does NOT look quite right for a flatness gauge."

Heh, work firewall doesn't like the word 'proxy' in the link.

Dave

The nice box looks just like some of the instrument boxes we used to get at Boeing Surplus.

However, I would guess it is used to set the knives/blades on a wood planer or a wood shaper.

Paul

I use a shop made version to set the height of the knives on my woodworking jointer after sharpening them. Art

Jointer! That's the name I was trying to think of. Thanks.

Paul

Looks like it -- for checking for worn spots in a surface plate perhaps? Nope -- not nearly sensitive enough for that. The dial is calibrated in steps of 0.001" and I think that you would want something in steps of 10 u" (micro-inch) or perhaps 1 u".

Yes, it will measure flatness, but not to the degree needed for a surface plate.

Enjoy, DoN.

Looks like it -- for checking for worn spots in a surface plate perhaps? Nope -- not nearly sensitive enough for that. The dial is calibrated in steps of 0.001" and I think that you would want something in steps of 10 u" (micro-inch) or perhaps 1 u".

Yes, it will measure flatness, but not to the degree needed for a surface plate.

Enjoy, DoN.

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I think that the person or persons who suggested that it's a gage for setting the blades on a wood shaper got it right. I've seen illustrations of commercial units that look a lot like that.

It's not the way *I* set the blades on my shaper, but you frequently see references to that kind of setup for setting shaper blades.