Craftsmanship in Wood

I'm in the process of putting my little INCA jointer/planer back together and I need a dial indicator to measure everything. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I was this one today while browsing:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/202057 ... e-kit.aspx

It looks like it'd fit the bill but I know so little about all of this that I wanted to appeal to those who've been around this block.

Along that same line, anyone have other suggestions or links for getting everything set-up true? I've never done this before but I want to keep the momentum building as I've been getting things set-up for a tiny shop in our sunporch.

I've used the A-Line it kit many years ago. It's fine, though the indicator itself is a cheapie. With a good indicator (Starrett or Mitutoyo) it would be better. A standard indicator base with magnetic switch does most of the tasks tho, and that's what I've been using for the past few years. I bought a Mitutoyo indicator with base in a fitted case off of EBay.

Another worthwhile investment is an accurate straightedge - 48" long or more. Starrett makes a good one and I think Zoro tools sells them at a good discount.

Would something like this work:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/STARRETT-MAG-BA ... 233d72b9d8

I just purchased a Starrett 36" straight edge and that was pricey for a straight piece of metal but if a 48" is needed as well, I'll be on the lookout.

That Starrett set on Ebay looks good to me.

A 48" straightedge isn't 'necessary' per se, it's more the case that, generally speaking at least, the longer the better, with a recognition that the price goes up near-exponentially with the linear increase in length. So, it is as much about what you can afford as anything else.

For checking alignments on machine tables, a 48" or 60" straightedge is nice to have. But for checking the sole of your plane, a 12" is obviously the best choice. There are specialty plane sole straightedges that you can get from Japan which are better yet.

In Toshio Odate's book on Japanese Tools he describes what seems to a simple method of making a straight edge for checking the sole of a plane. It is done by joining two straight grained pieces face to face with dowels and then planning the adjacent edge straight. When opened, any error is doubled and supposedly easy to see/correct. One side has the dowels glued in place the other is not.

He did a much better job explaining this; but without access to his book, I thought it would be something that can be looked up.

The wooden jōgi are fine, but I prefer the metal tool. The metal tool has a thinner edge and you can see little bumps much more easily on the sole, and it never goes out of adjustment unlike the wooden ones.

The idea of two edges doubling error is false actually. You need three edges to prove two are straight. With two edges to work with, imagine you make one edge convex and fit the other to it perfectly - it would be concave of course. You could flip one edge around 180˚ and the fit would still be good, but it wouldn't be flat. Neither would be flat.

I have Ōdate's book but I enjoy(ed) it more for his anecdotes about apprenticing than for the technical info about tools.

Chris I have to agree about Odate's book. I love his stories. I can't imagine someone thinking they could smack me with a piece of scrap wood because I did something wrong. Although I have had employees that could have used a good beating.

The swordsmith I quasi-apprenticed with in Hokkaido told me that when his master would get pissed off he would occasionally throw knives and the like at him. After cutting charcoal with a hatchet for months for the smith I was starting to find it a little on the uninteresting side, and then he told me that during his apprenticeship he had spent 3 years cutting charcoal, six days a week...

The stories are interesting, but at the end of the day it has to be acknowledged that very few of the traditional arts are attracting young people in Japan, and as a result these arts are dying off. Part of the reason for that lies in the realities of modern society, where people have more choices in their life and career paths, but part of it also lays in the nature of apprenticeships which can feature a certain amount of harshness, cruelty, and sadism. Young people really aren't interesting in being demeaned - - is anyone really?

I suppose the japanese apprenticeship model was one way of achieving excellence, as depicted in the story of the son who leaves the family home to persue the carpentry trade and only after five years do the family hear from their son and it is in the form of a very fine plane shaving. Not sure where i read that , however i wonder if there are better ways to achieve excellence? Maybe true excellence in some trade or craft can only come from such a model, i wonder.