Woodpeckers Stair Gauges (STG-22)

Woodpeckers Stair Gauges (STG-22)

Stair Gauges are nothing new. Carpenters have been using them on framing squares for over a hundred years. What’s new is using them on tools other than framing squares. A few years ago, one of our team members put one on his DelVe square to do repetitive angle marking and since then we’ve been coming up with clever new uses for them. We’ve suggested them so many times in our videos we finally decided it was time to stop selling them for other people and start making them ourselves. Introducing Woodpeckers Stair Gauge Set

Why are there two sizes? If you’ve worked with construction lumber lately, you may have noticed the round-over on the edge seems to keep growing. Traditional depth stair gauges just barely reach the flat area. Combine the huge round-overs with missing knots and chipped edges and you don’t have much of a chance to get an accurate location. So, we made one pair of our Stair Gauges extra deep to make sure you get perfect results when working with framing lumber. On the other hand, when you’re using them in furniture and cabinet work, you’re working mostly with crisp corners and sometimes with very thin material. The thin Stair Gauges are unobtrusive and well-balanced, even with our small DelVe Squares.

How do you use them? First, let’s look at the most obvious choices in the Woodpeckers line-up…DelVe Squares and SkillSquares. Repetitive angle marking is as simple as clamping a stair gauge on at the desired angle. Now, no matter how many times you need to mark the angle, it will be exactly the same as the first. Whether you’re marking miter cuts, rafters, stair stringers, or any other angled layout, your speed, accuracy and consistency just took a giant leap forward. This nifty trick also works with any other brand of carpenter’s square that has angle graduations.

Another handy use of the stair gauges is with the Precision Triangles. Often you need an offset from a corner and sometimes that offset is different on one side than it is on the other. Just set the two dimensions you need on the Precision Triangle and index them to your stock.

Of course, there’s the standard use for them with a framing square…laying out the rise and run on stair stringers. But you can also make your framing square easier and faster to use by clamping a pair of Stair Gauges to one leg and butting them to the edge of your material.

We machine the Stair Gauges on high-precision CNC Swiss lathes, cutting each surface to strict tolerance. The Stair Gauges are anodized in our familiar “Woodpeckers Red” finish to protect them from oxidation and completely eliminate dark marks on your wood from aluminum contact. The set of 4 Stair Gauges also includes a wall-mountable Rack-It to keep your Stair Gauges right in plain sight and ready to go to work.

Like all Woodpeckers products, the Stair Gauges are precisely machined and carefully inspected in our Strongsville, Ohio, facility (just south of Cleveland). Whether you’ve had your DelVe square or SkillSquare for years or are ordering one today, you’ll get faster, more accurate results when you add a set of Stair Gauges to your order.