Modifying Feeler Gauges for Accuracy

Here is a simple method for making your feeler gauges more accurate.  Feeler gauges are already incredibly accurate, if you use them as they were intended.  Unfortunately, when facing a woodwind mouthpiece we not using them in the traditional way.  If you have ever adjusted valve lifters or gapped a spark plug, you know the traditional use.  Feeler gauges are used to measure something based on the thickness of the gauge.  They measure gaps and clearances.  But that isn't exactly what we are doing.  

I should note that a feeler gauge is a feeler gauge.  By that I mean there are not special feeler gauges for refacing mouthpieces.  You can buy a 32 blade set for about $5 (including shipping) on Ebay.  You will only need a few of those.  Probably most important is to ensure that it has a .0015 blade, which will be used to determine the length of the lay.  Most larger sets have this blade.  The thicker blades (like .035 and .040) can be helpful if you intend to create larger tip openings.  My point is that it is completely unnecessary to have a set of special "mouthpiece" feeler gauges.  You are simply paying more for less.  

The strips in a feeler gauge are made of steel or stainless steel.  Most of us will be using just steel and will need to keep them from getting wet. They can rust and throw off the thickness of the gauge.  But the more important issue is that we are using just the edge of the strip.  The strip thicknesses are very exact.  If you put your digital calipers on a strip and it is off by .0002, it is just as likely that it is your caliper that is off.  

But there is somewhere on the strip that is likely to be inaccurate.  Unfortunately, it is right where we need it to be accurate.  The little strips are "punched" out of a larger sheet that is accurate as to thickness.  The punching process tends to deform the very edge of the strip.  Think of the process like a cookie cutter.  Let's say that we have a sheet of cookie dough that is exactly 1/4 inch thick.  As the cookie cutter passes through the cookie dough and cuts out the shape, it deforms the edge of the dough by rounding it off.  The perfect thickness is retained across the entire surface except at the edge where it is no longer 1/4 inch thick.  And that edge is exactly what we are using when we measure with our feeler gauge blades.

The amount of deformation on the feeler gauge edges varies with the brand of gauges and the thickness of the gauge blade.  I haven't found any that are perfect right out of the box.  Fortunately, it is something that is easy to fix.  And it is one of those things that is so easy to fix that there isn't much point in trying to determine which or how much a feeler gauge edge is deformed.  It will drive you crazy trying to look at the edges under high magnification, which would be required (at least for my eyes).  Some of these pictures are through my lighted bench magnifying glass, and even still it is easier to describe than it is to see. 

In the above picture, I ran a black Sharpie down the edge of a .016 inch feeler strip.  I was then going to run then run the edge over sandpaper to show that there was a little strip of Sharpie not removed.  That would indicate the "rounded off" edge of the feeler gauge that we are going to fix.  Unfortunately, getting a good photograph was impossible and I was spending way more time trying to get a picture than it would take me to just finish the edge to 90 degrees and make it accurate for mouthpiece refacing.  Think of this process as "sharpening" your feeler gauges, although the "sharp" edge that we are looking for is 90 degrees.

This is basically all you have to do (to both sides on the various gauge thicknesses).  I'm using 320 grit, which is aggressive enough to cut through the steel without leaving any burrs.  I'm only sliding the gauge along its length (left to right), not crosswise.  That ensures that there will be no burrs.  This paper is on top of a piece of glass, just like I was putting a facing on a mouthpiece.

The above picture, believe it or not, is showing the "rounded edge" of a gauge that I am going to remove.  I am holding the gauge under my lighted bench magnifier and rotating it so that first the flat surface reflects the light and then the thin edge reflects the light.  If the edge were a sharp 90 degrees, the reflection would change abruptly from flat to edge.  But in the picture, the flat surface is beginning to not reflect (except for some scratches), and the thin edge is not yet showing.  What I have is a bright reflection line at the top running right along the transition from flat to edge.  That shows me that I have a rounded surface there.  On the bottom is a dark line.  That is the shadow caused by that edge being rounded off.

The above picture is what I'm going for.  After "sharpening," I have a sharp, crisp transition from shadow to shine because of a 90 degree edge.  It isn't really necessary to get carried away with magnification.  You can feel the difference on the gauges, especially on the thicker ones. 

Run your thumb over the edges.  Before you start the sharpening process you will notice that on one side of the feeler gauge both edges don't feel as sharp as the other side.  (The rounded edge has always been on the etched side on the ones that I have.)  That is because of the punching.  You want both edges to feel sharp.  On a gauge like the .010 inch, that takes about 10 swipes back and forth on 320 grit.  If you have some of the larger thicknesses, like .050, it will take longer.  Also, if you have the longer gauges (I have some 1 foot long feeler blades), it can take considerable time.  

If you can remove the individual feeler strips from a bundled set, that makes it easier, but this can be done on the mechanic's sets that are permanently bound.  Be careful on the really thin ones, as you can put a kink in the steel.  Also use something like 600 grit and a light touch.  And you don't have to do the entire set, of course.  Do the ones that you use individually and in a stack.  Even in the stacked blades, you don't have to do the one(s) that are always in the middle.  For instance, your .021 blade is only used as the center blade when stacking .020, .021, and .023 in order to measure .063.  I don't worry about the .0015 blade.  The rounded edge would be insignificant and it is likely that I would put a kink in it by using this process.  Better to just not worry about it.

If you are concerned that you might have put a burr on the edge, run your fingernail down it.  Or pinch a piece of bronze wool over the edge and draw the strip through.  Be careful not to go over the chemical etching on the blade, as it is easily removed.

So how much does this increase the accuracy?  By less than a whole Brand number (.5 mm) at the most on the thicker feelers that I have sharpened.  But it makes enough difference that you will notice.  I have measured, set that feeler blade down and measured with another gauge, gone back to the first one and, wait a minute, it measures different now!!  That's because I inadvertently flipped the feeler gauge over.  When the rounded edge is on top it measures different than when the flat edge is on top.  Sharpening both of the edges on the feeler strips gets rid of that.

Building a Custom Thumb Rest

This project came after a full rebuild of a Beaugnier/Vito tenor.  As I was playing it daily to see if it would become my true love, I kept thinking that I wasn't completely happy with the thumb rest.  It looked like Beaugnier had modified and "updated" the standard vintage type of thumb button.  Here is my alto from the 1930's that has a pearl button for the thumb rest.  

30's era Conn upside down.  Click to enlarge.

This was a standard feature on horns of the era.  In practice, it places quite a bit of pressure on a limited area of the thumb, depending on how you hold your horn.  And how you hold your horn is probably the determinative factor in whether or not you are bothered by this style of thumb rest.  If you play seated with the horn between your legs, then the horn is in an upright position and the full sectional area of the button might be used.  In this position, a player could find this button style of thumb rest perfectly acceptable.  

But if you play seated with the horn to the outside of your leg, or standing with the horn off center, you may find that the thumb pressure is on the edge of the button.  That can become irritating after a while.  I always play standing, if possible, with the bow of the horn either on one leg or to my right side.  And I tend to not keep the horn at a constant angle.  As such, the later Beaugnier flat style wasn't particularly comfortable.  Here it is.

  Beaugnier/Vito tenor, again upside down.  Plenty of surface area, but it felt like it was at the wrong angle and provided less surface area than one would think based on the shape.  

White plastic piece held in place with a tiny set screw.

Thumb rest removed, showing what looks like the traditional thumb rest minus the pearl.

You can see that the white plastic "slab" is probably a modification of the older pearl button.  The same brass cylinder is soldered to the body tube, but instead of a pearl button, the cylinder is tapped to accept a set screw that hold a plastic thumb rest.  The plastic rest is completely flat and, if the horn is held at much of an angle, doesn't feel right (to me).

Below is a picture of my other vintage alto with the thumb button modified.  I also found the original thumb rest uncomfortable, although the prior owner(s) had the same issue and didn't modify the rest.  This is a 1957 Kohlert with a brass thumb button.  You can see on the left side of the brass (where the shiny spot is) that the lacquer is worn off, showing that the "edge" of the button was the major point of contact over the decades.  I added Sugru to that edge so that my thumb contact area was larger and wasn't concentrated on the uncomfortable edge.  

Sugru works great for this purpose, and even for building key risers, but I was not sure that it would work well on the Beaugnier.  I would have to stick it down inside the button cylinder, and I know from experience, if I didn't get it right or wanted to remove it should I sell the horn, it would be difficult to get out.  

What I wanted was an ergonomic thumb button more like that on my old Martin tenor.  

I looked around at the hardware store for something that I might modify, but ultimately came up with the idea of fashioning one out of moldable plastic.  You can find videos and information about this stuff on the internet, so I won't go into much detail here.  Basically, you melt the white beads under fairly low temperature (140F), which causes the beads to bind together into a single pliable gob of clear plastic that you can mold by hand.  

There were only a couple of things to note on this project.  The first is that as the plastic cools, it hardens.  Since I was pushing the warm plastic up against brass, and the brass, even though at room temperature, would cause the plastic to become stiff faster than I could mold the shape that I wanted.  The second issue was that, unlike Sugru, moldable plastic would not "stick" in place.  It cools into a plastic that feels much like Delrin.  I would need to mold a piece that used the original set screw to hold it in place.  Neither of these issues proved to be a problem.  

I used a hair dryer to get the surrounding area warm (not hot).  

The picture above shows the moldable plastic starting to cool.  It is still translucent and you can see the thumb cylinder over which I am putting the thumb rest.  

I used a pencil to poke a hole in through the soft plastic for the set screw.  The plastic has now cooled and turned white.  It is now hard enough to accept the set screw.

Here is the final thumb rest.  It is contoured to my thumb.  It even includes my thumb print.  Although not easy to see in the picture, it is raised on the right side and lowered on the left compared to the original flat plate.  More comfortable and it gives me greater control of the sax if I move it around.

I overestimated the amount of beads that I needed for this project.  It turned out that I melted down about 3 times too much.  That's not a problem because the excess can be put back in the pouch and used for another project.  Like with Sugru, once you use it, you will start looking around for other possible uses.