TERMINOLOGY

Assume the gouger is arranged on the bench so that the blade cuts from the right, towards the left.  The largest piece, on the bench, is the base.  At the back of the machine are two posts, on the left and right, which hold the steel rod.  The carriage is the large piece which slides on the rod.  This carriage has steel, or bronze bushings, which actually do the sliding on the rod.  If you turn the carriage over, you’ll see that the blade peeks out  between the cane guides.  These cane guides are what hold the cane in position, and also keep the blade from taking too deep of a cut.  Somewhere on the carriage, usually at the front, is a roller bearing which limits the thinness of the gouge as it rolls onto the parallel bar, or adjustable parallels.  This is usually in the very front of the machine, but occasionally just behind the bed, which is the piece that cradles the cane as it is gouged.  The cane is somewhat held in place by plastic or brass cane clips on either end, with spring tension.  There are various cane adjustment screws, and often bed adjustment screws as well, to help with the positioning of these parts.

EVERYTHING STRAIGHT?

In order for the cane to be gouged evenly from one end to the other, the carriage must run parallel to the bed, both vertically, as well as horizontally.  The three parts which have to align are the rod, the bed, and the parallel. 

First, the rod has to be in good condition, not worn or bent.  The carriage should move freely on the rod when the parts are clean and oiled.  Take the carriage in your right hand.  Hold the gouger down with your left hand, and try to tilt the carriage against the rod to see if there is any visible play in the bearings against the rod.  The rod, and/or bearings may need replacing to get rid of sloppy movement.

Next, I set the gouger on a surface plate, which is a plate of precision ground granite or iron, which is perfectly flat.  With a dial indicator I can determine if the rod, bed, and parallel are level to each other.  I measure the height of the rod in line with the end of the bed at each end.  It does not matter whether the rod is level to the surface plate.  Say for example the rod is tilted .05mm down to the left.  Then if the bed, and the parallel are also tilted exactly the same amount, down to the left, then we are happily parallel.  Small shims can be used under the bed or parallel to get them to where they should be.  When measuring the rod, since it is round, move the indicator stand around (it is ground perfectly flat on the bottom) to find the highest spot at each end.   Do the same thing with the bed, but find the lowest spot at each end. 

Now, once we know that things check out parallel in this direction, we need to be assured that the bed is not tilted horizontally, that is closer to the rod on one side than the other.  I use a dial caliper to check the distance from the rod to each end of the bed.  This will work pretty well, if the groove for the cane is really machined straight.  Unfortunately, a big if. 

Too often, I see gouger beds where the groove is either humped, or dipped in the middle.  Or otherwise not straight enough to hold the cane parallel with the rest of the setup.   The ultimate check for this is an indicator holder I made, which attaches to the carriage.  This allows the indicator tip to reach down between the cane guides (blade removed), to roll along with the carriage.  The level of the cane bed can be checked straight down the middle of the bed, or anywhere along the sides.  It’s the ultimate check for parallelism. 

If the bed does not check out straight, I’m afraid a rather difficult machining setup is required by an experienced shop.  Any big city has machine shops listed in the yellow pages, which are capable.  Most people doing a large number of gouger setups develop a rapport with a machinist. 

Now, we’ve covered what we need to in order to insure straight and parallel gouging.  But, there’s more fun to it than this!  Of course.   As I add to this site, we’ll take a look at blade shapes and installation, as well as the whole process of spitting, pregouging and finish gouging.