What is this tool?

[danski26]

Ok, this Starrett tool was in with a bunch of other tooling when I bought my lathe about six months ago. I cleaned it up and the base has great color case hardening. What is it? What is it used for?

[danski26]

Hmmmm I do have a surface plate.

[garra]

Instead of using a scribe to scratch a line a dial indicator can be mounted to the unit to measure the difference in the height of items.

[Artful]

check with countertop makers - surface plate is just a very flat smooth surface - nice scrap of granite counter top can be just the ticket.

[JIMinPHX]

We always called them skates. As was already said, you usually mount a test indicator on the end & slide them around on a surface plate to inspect parts. Sometimes you use them with V-blocks too. I usually used them to check that things were flat & straight. Creative people can figure out other ways to make them useful.

[GeneT]

There are dozens of uses for them.

Face the end of a piece of stock off in your lathe. Adjust your tool until it's exactly dead center (no tit left on your facing cut) Now set your gage to point to the center of the cut. Now transfer that height somewhere. If your lathe has a splashguard you can scribe a line back there (the cross-slide is your surface plate for this transfer). Now anytime you put a new cutter in, you can set it directly to the correct height.

The description makes this sound kinda tedious, but in use it's very quick and accurate.

GsT