Lee Valley has come out with a new Veritas drill bit stop gauge, designed to make it easier to adjust depth stop collars and other such accessories.
They advertise that the new gauge should make setting drill bit stop collars a lot easier than can be done with a traditional ruler.
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Using a rule to set a depth stop or countersink on a drill bit typically requires juggling all three items in one hand while tightening the hex key with the other. This gauge has a V-shaped cross section that centers and aligns the bit on the gauge, making it less awkward and frustrating to hold them together.
The Veritas gauge has a 110° angle and can accommodate drill bits up to 1″ in diameter. It has measurement scales in both inch and metric markings, with graduations in 1/16″ and mm increments.
The gauge is made from anodized aluminum with laser-etched markings and measures 3-1/4″ in length.
If you think it might be useful, this made-in-Canada gauge is priced under $7.
Price: $6.95
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P.S. Look at the collar in Lee Valley’s product photo. Side-clamping shaft collars like that typically work a lot better than those that bite into drill bits with a set screw.
Discussion
Does one need a uni-tasker like this? Perhaps not, but it does look useful and is very attractively priced. Setting drill bit depth stop collars isn’t a terribly complicated process, but I always end up playing a game of trial and error. The new Veritas gauge won’t be on my immediate shopping list, but I’ll keep track of how many times I say “I sure could have used that” over the next few months.
Altan
Is this post going to Joe?! :))
JoeM
Sadly, even I would say “Only get this if you’re doing repetitive depth-setting on drill bits.” This is the kind of tool Lee Valley makes for machinists and woodworkers who aren’t looking to use it once in a blue moon. Model Makers? Drill Press and Lathe operators? People who are sitting at the same machine, even if it’s a common drill, and they have to make the same hole, or series of same holes, over and over again. That’s what this tool is for.
Also sadly… Veritas made their best tools a long time ago, and have needed very little change over the years. Same quality product, decades later, still works for the job. So, we’re left with the convenience tools like this one, that they’ve probably looked at, and said “We make the Bits, sell the Machines, and even Teach the courses on using these things all the time… What can we make for the people to use, just to make the repetition easier?” and we get this kind of tool out of that. It’s literally a Setting Assistant.
It’s not as revolutionary, efficient, or as outstanding as their more complex tools, or even their carvers and scalpels… but it is precision designed to work well. We’ll have to wait until they find a way to truly make strides in another kind of needed tool before we see anything truly spectacular out of Veritas. If it’s one thing they do right, here in Canada no less, it’s make the tool right for those who need it the first time.
DHCrocks
I don’t know about the gauge but that stop collar looks brilliant. I have the ones with the setscrew and those are such a pain to setup to get it to align on the outer flats. not to mention they often slip and mar up the drill bit. Those stop collars look like a must have. Thanks for the tip, going to buy some right now.
Stuart
A bunch of tool retailers carry them in limited sizes. If you need other sizes, industrial suppliers have them.
Climax is a good brand.
JoeM
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32244&cat=1,180,42311,42335
Funny enough, I think Lee Valley was double-advertising on this one! They carry the ones in the demo picture, by the looks of it!
But I shall look for Climax brand Drill Stops… Thanks Stuart! 😀
Charlie
Thanks for the link JoeM. Lee Valley also sells this plastic pair of twist lock drill stops. Does anyone have any experience using them vs
Split Depth Collar drills stops?
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32245&cat=1,180,42311,42335
JoeM
P.S. I once talked to the CEO of Lee Valley on the phone, Robin Lee at the time, when I had a suggestion. The Customer Service agent patched me straight through to him.
He actually was quite open about where some of these things come from. Since they started out with a small machine shop to produce everything, everybody worked together on projects. When they did expand to more of a mass-production style setting, that machine shop became their Prototype lab. With the all the machines in that lab being operated by someone who would then supervise all the many others doing that job on the production floor.
A lot of these gauges and gadgets came from a single phrase that came from the floor: “You know what would make this easier?” The production of carving knives, calipers, planes, and toys, fed the design and production of devices like this one.
Robin himself even said “We offer them for sale to everyone, but really it’s from the needs and ideas of our actual machinists, and production workers, that we come up with these. We know there’s only a few hundred potential repetitive workers out there that would recognise what it’s best for, but we like to think we got to have fun providing some sort of enjoyable item for the rest of the folks out there who might only use it once!”
REALLY nice company, and the Lee family members, who work there still, are EXTREMELY friendly to customers that get put through to their offices.
RKA
One guess who might offer this in red with and adjustable depth stop on the gauge in a few months?
Brian M
…and for $149.95
Whiskeyandwood
But at an introductory price of 144.95!
Allen
I just wrap electrical tape on the bit. This would still be useful for that.
Stuart
Masking tape or other such methods can work well for different sizes and a couple of holes, but for a lot of holes with the same bit, or with certain jigs, a stop works a lot better. It also depends on how repeatable you want your drilling depth to be.
Charlie
I find it’s way too easy to overdrill with tape and hard to see the exact depth due to dust and debris. A good drill stop is a must. I’ll try the Lee Valley ones, as the Harbor Freight one doesn’t hold tight adequate and is easy knocked loose.
Garrick
What some woodworkers do, is wrap a price of tape around the drill bit with a piece of the tape sticking out (at 90° angles to the bit). Once the drill bit reaches the right depth, the tape clears away the sawdust. Voila. No depth stop mark on the wood, and the saw dust is clear of the hole.
The tape will wear out depending on how careful one is, and how many holes need to be drilled, but the set up is quicker than any depth stops I ever had.
BTW, a work table with a measuring tape built in to the surface often saves a lot of bother, and keeps measuring tool clutter down.
Charlie
Genius!
fred
Cheap enough and probably useful. I’ve always used a small combi-square.
Jared
This is exactly what I was thinking. It’s not a tool I particularly need, but it’s cheap enough that if I were working on a project were it would be useful, I would probably consider picking one up.
Good to see made-in-Canada products with competitive pricing. If this were a made-in-China Irwin product for sale at Lowes I’d expect a similar price tag.
ktash
Could be used to cut dowel rods into smaller length pieces for someone who uses dowels a lot. That would be handy.
JoeM
Damn… NOW I want one… Sheesh… I’m SO weak…
Farid
Price is not bad. Can come in handy once in a while.
Like lot of people, I use a 6″ flexible machinist pocket rule (with the sliding T similar to the one below).
Hmm….this is something I can 3D print, perhaps with some enhancements (if I ever get the time!)
https://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-300-Precision-Stainless/dp/B00004T7SW/
Ben
This is just a 90 degree edge ruler right? So now I’ve just realised that I can use my (cheap) incra edge rule to do this very thing.
I think the woodpeckers 6-in-one shop gauge I recently got has a bit depth gauge in it, which was a nice surprise. Great tool, that one.
Stuart
110°.
DC
Like Joe mentioned, I wouldn’t have a use for this as I don’t drill on the same machine all day, only occasionally. I just wrap blue 3M painter’s tape on where I want to stop and drill slow when near the end.
JoeM
Sadly, ktash negated my statement when he mentioned Dowling. My statements about using it occasionally fall apart once you leave the drill bits, and enter material cuts outside the intended use… So I have to concede to defeat by ktash’s outside-the-box argument. He’s kinda forcing us to stop and think “Do I regularly measure small depths needed for materials like Dowling at all?” when considering the same repetitive actions.
Sorry DC. ktash made a fool of me. Now I actually want one of these gauges… (Nothing but respect, ktash. Well made point!)
The What?
The collars always seemed to get lost every time I bought them. Plus you would literally have to have a collar for every single size bit. There’s 29 sizes between standard 1/16″ and 1/2″. That’s a lot of collars to keep up with. And there’s no such thing as a general one size fits all stop collar in 1/8 increments that will work. But that’s if you’re a machinist where everything has to be absolutely precise. If I’m using my press, I’ll set the depth with the gauge for repetitive use. Most drill presses have a depth adjustment. If I’m in a situation out in the field, some blue tape & my tape measure. Or a marker if I don’t have blue tape.
JoeM
Even worse if you’re using Metric sizes. 1mm increments, infinite sizes for everything, in theory. Some machinist bits are in the 3″ diameter range (with a size change in the middle to enter the chuck’s jaws.) and that’s something close to 75/76 mm, depending on how close you measure.
Can you imagine having 76 entire depth-setting collars in a box set? Gives me the willies to think about. But, hey, if they can get a few that range in metric sizes with the hex key to alter that… I think it’d be possible to get a 1-5mm collar to work on a 1/8″ bit, or get collars that range through the 1/16th” or 1/32nd” size increments. So I don’t think it’s THAT hopeless.
Also… The tape idea seems pretty temporary to me… I’ve seen a few people mention it in the post by now, and… honestly that does seem pretty brilliant in some ways… but a depth stop collar of some sort does seem to be a more reusable item. Less waste that way, I guess. Plus… Tape is pretty soft, push just the right amount through a harder material, and you can easily cause an over-drill, leading to precision errors. The tape idea isn’t a bad one, but it’s no permanent replacement for the collars. Plus, if you are of the Tape Using group of repetitive actions people, you’re not really the target audience for this tool. So it all kinda cancels itself out, doesn’t it?
Interesting point on the collars that adjust to ranges of sizes, by specific increments though… I think I would genuinely like to see that done with the hex-key side collar type depth stops. It would be very easy with Metric, but it’s a very good point about the Imperial increments. Are they incremented in 1/64th”? 1/16th? 1/32nd? I guess that would depend on the product… but you’d have to standardise the Imperial measurements as precisely as the Metric sizing in order to achieve it… I think you may anger some people if you did that, I don’t know exactly. Metric users around the world would love it though.
Brett
Surely if you’re doing this much repetitive depth stop setup you’d just make a jig for the settings you need? Drill your depth into a block of whatever reasonably stable material, then when it’s time to set the stop you just drop your bit into the hole and put the stop at the surface?
JoeM
I’d agree with that, IF you made that jig a large block with all the hole depths labelled at each hole, so you can always get the right height. It would be more like a depth-stop BOARD than anything, and that would certainly do well for a workshop on an assembly line, used by lots of different people. Like, ten drill press operators sitting in arm’s reach of the same depth setter board, all using it at once on different drill bits.
But I believe the Lee Valley one is for that lone tradesman, sitting in a workshop where he or she does every step themselves. It’s designed to be kept in a top pocket or apron pocket, and used every step of the way. From Drill Press, to Lathe, to… I don’t know… Possibly the Installation phase Drill/Driver that is putting the screws in place at last? I don’t know… these are dream jobs I don’t have, but have been drooling over the past few years… Going from Inventor/DIYer/Maker to Tradesman is something I’ve yet to do.
But the thing with the dowling? I use dowling all the time. Mockups, pillars for things, braces, prototypes… This depth setter gauge would be really nice for that… and now I want one because of ktash up there, thinking this up and making me realise I wanted one when I didn’t know I needed one before.
But I still stand by the statement that the original intent for these tiny hand-held assistants that Lee Valley and Veritas make are usually born out of feedback from their production floor, and prototype department. And that it’s really meant for those doing the same task repeatedly over long periods of time…in this case, depth-setting. Use it for the Lathe, use it for the Drill Press, use it for whenever you need to change the size of Drill Bit, or Cutting Depth of any tool in the machine shop.
And.. Yeah… Woo Hoo for Metric! Sorry, it’s just easier to move decimals, and use whole numbers, knowing there’s an absolute increment for all the markings… I mean no offence to those who prefer Imperial. If you like your fractions and increments of 12’s, 16’s, or 32’s? You are a far more patient person than I am, and I don’t hold it against you. I am, in fact, very impressed you’ve held out so long with it. You got skills I do not, and I respect you deeply for that!
Flotsam
I like it and it’s reasonably priced. Next time i buy something from them I will definitely get one.
That being said I haved used tape and do have the HF stops which have worked fine for me. So its not a priority but I do respect when someone develops an “elegant” solution to a problem.
ktash
JoeM and others who use dowel rods, Lee Valley has them in different species of wood and are not undersized like the big box stores, which Joe probably already knew. Another place to check for different species and accurate sizing is Cincinnati Dowel. It’s a good company. I’ve gotten imperial sized loose tenons from them and they were good quality. Made in Ohio.